Fridae

Television station Omni 1 is being investigated by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) after airing a programme in which American evangelist Jimmy Swaggart threatened to kill gays when the subject turned to George Bush and the Federal Marriage Amendment.

According to a transcript of the program, Swaggart said: "I'm trying to find the correct name for it... this utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men marrying men... I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died."

His comments were met with applause from his congregation.

The program was taped at Swaggart's ministry in New Orleans where voters Saturday approved the constitutional amendment to prevent same-sex couples from marrying or uniting in any legally recognised form of civil union. It was however reported that more than half of the voters who turned out for the opening of the polls in New Orleans, where the state's strongest gay and lesbian presence is felt, were unable to find voting machines there to register their votes.

The multicultural Toronto station which aired the programme last week has since apologised publicly to viewers for the telecast.

The investigation was prompted after a complaint was made. A CRTC spokesperson called the remarks "a serious breach" of Canadian broadcast regulations.

According to a 365gay.com report, it quoted broadcast lawyers saying that both the station and Swaggart could face a penalty imposed by the CRTC in addition to being charged under Canadian law as hate speech is a criminal offence.

The programme has also been broadcast in all 50 states in the US although it is not known if any complaints had been made.

According to a BBC report, The Jimmy Swaggart Hour is watched by up to two million families and donations raised amount to about US$150m a year.

In 1987, Swaggart resigned from his ministry, and sobbed and confessed to "moral failure" in front of a congregation of 7,000 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for soliciting a prostitute.

Officials from the Assemblies of God church were given photographs showing him taking a prostitute to a Louisiana motel. The BBC reported that rival TV evangelist Martin Gorman, who was defrocked after Swaggart took some potshots at him for committing adultery with his secretary in 1986, handed in the photographs.

On Monday, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) criticised the evangelist and some of his colleagues.

"The Task Force calls upon the leaders of [the] simulcast - Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family), Tony Perkins (Family Research Council), Ted Haggard (National Association of Evangelicals), Richard Land (Director of the Religious Liberties and Ethics Division of the Southern Baptist Convention) - to immediately denounce anti-gay violence and specifically repudiate evangelist Jimmy Swaggart's statement," the NGLTF said in a press release.

Meanwhile Swaggart is not the only televangelist making the headlines, Paul Crouch, founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the world's largest Christian broadcasting network, has waged a fierce legal battle to prevent a former employee from publicising allegations that he and Crouch had a sexual encounter eight years ago, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

The Times revealed that Enoch Lonnie Ford, who met Crouch at a TBN-affiliated drug treatment centre in 1991 and later went to work for the ministry reached a US$425,000 settlement after he threatened to sue TBN in 1998, claiming that he had been unjustly fired. In return, Ford agreed, among other things, not to discuss his claim about a sexual encounter with the TV preacher. However, when Ford wrote a manuscript last year that contained details of his allegations, Crouch went to court to enforce the 1998 agreement.

But in the last year, Ford has threatened to go public with his story, prompting a flurry of legal maneuvers - conducted in closed court hearings, sealed pleadings and private arbitration. In court papers, Crouch has denied the allegations, and ministry officials have described Ford - who has a history of drug problems and has served time for a sex offence - as a liar and an extortionist.