On February 21st, 1988, in perhaps the most public (and specifically-addressed) sex confession of all time, wealthy and renowned televangelist Jimmy Swaggart informed, respectively, (1) his wife, (2) his children, (3) pastors and missionaries everywhere, (4) his ministry, (5) his millions of followers, and most of all, (6) Jesus H. Christ…. that “I have sinned against you!”
- Read: Jimmy Swaggart. (1988). Apology Sermon. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Family Worship Center.
- Watch: Jimmy Swaggart. (1988). I Have Sinned. CBS Sunday Night News, February 21, 1988.
- Watch: The Rise and Fall of the Jimmy Swaggart Ministry. Kingdom Life Productions, October 24, 2018.
In perhaps his most sardonic work, Sacred Machines’ poet Dave Carruthers cuts deep to the heart of the multi-layered hypocrisy around this issue: it is not only about the explicit hypocrisy of Swaggart, a man who preached of his own morality but who secretly practiced what he believed to be immorality… but also, the fact that this “preacher” was a classical example of Freudian reaction-formation: one who told us what we ought to do (in demanding that we hold ourselves to a superior moral criterion) and scolding us when we didn’t do it… while, himself, behaving like a “normal” person, with lust, flaws, foibles, and yes, sins. “It’s nice to see you’re just like me, Vision Man.”
In the second stanza, Carruthers performs a fascinating inter-dimensional leap, jumping from using the pronoun “he” to symbolize Swaggart and evangelists of his ilk, to now symbolizing Christianity’s original “vision man,” the prophet/Messiah known as Jesus. In sadness, the Nazarene looks upon the modern world, and despairs that his initial intentions, to inspire us and to offer a compassionate ear, have been twisted into Swaggart’s dualistic, schizoid rhetoric and behaviour.
VISION MAN
(Carruthers/RE-VO) (1988)
© 1988, 2020, Sacred Machines Music
The man on Channel Five has tears in his eyes
On his hands and knees again to keep his words alive
But all he wanted was just a little fun
He tried to hide the fallen urge to come undone
It’s nice to see you’re just like me
Vision Man, Vision Man
He sails through the sky to a world out of time
“How could this have come to pass?” He shudders in reply.
“All I wanted was just to let you know
there’s someone here to talk to you when you’re alone”
It’s nice to see you’re just like me
Vision Man, Vision Man
But now I see the entrance fee
for this Vision Man… salesman
The chosen one becomes the fallen angel
The word becomes the lie, becomes the man,
a God of none.
But all he wanted was just a little fun
He tried to hide the fallen urge to come undone
It’s nice to see you’re just like me
Vision Man, Vision Man
It’s nice to see you’re just like me
Out of hand, you Vision Man
