NEW ORLEANS -- The day after Marvin Gorman confronted Jimmy Swaggart with evidence of sexual misconduct, Swaggart offered to help the defrocked fellow television preacher return to their church, a report said Saturday.
The Times-Picayune said Swaggart also offered in October to have Gorman appear on Swaggart's television show, but Gorman was not interested in either offer although he agreed to think about it.
Gorman then gave Swaggart four months to deal with his moral problem, although he failed to set any specific conditions, the newspaper said, quoting sources close to Gorman.
Swaggart failed to meet the deadline to Gorman's satisfaction, which reportedly led Gorman to disclose Swaggart's encounter with a New Orleans prostitute.
Swaggart allegedly was photographed Oct. 17 entering and leaving a cut-rate motel on the edge of New Orleans with a woman wanted in several states on charges of prostitution. The existence of the photographs was reported Feb. 19 and on the following Sunday Swaggart tearfully confessed to a 'moral failure' before his Assembly of God congregation of 7,000 faithful.
Swaggart then stepped aside from his $150-million-a-year worldwide ministry.
Gorman quit the church of God and his multimillion television ministry collapsed in 1986 after Swaggart confronted him with reports of Gorman's own sexual misconduct. Gorman has continued preaching in a storefront church in Metairie.
Gorman reportedly corralled Swaggart outside the motel and talked with him in the back seat of Swaggart's luxury car in the motel's driveway.
Frances Swaggart, wife of the evangelist, allegedly called Gorman a few hours later and arranged a meeting for the next day at a suburban hotel with the Swaggarts, their son, Donnie, and a lawyer for the Gorman family.
Swaggart told Gorman that he had confessed the indiscretion to his wife and to his son, but much of the meeting centered on Gorman's contention that he had not been dealt with fairly in 1986, the report said.
Gorman in a 1987 lawsuit, which was dismissed, admitted committing one immoral act in 1979, but said Swaggart destroyed his ministry by spreading false rumors of numerous adulterous affairs.
Gorman left the meeting satisfied that Swaggart was repentant and ready to admit he had a serious problem and would seek counsel of church elders and their advice to avoid a potentially costly sex scandal, the report said.
Gorman wrote to Swaggart earlier this month, but when he received no response, people close to Gorman presented the pictures to national church leaders in Missouri, the report said.
