Swaggart Tells of Deposition by Hahn

Falwell Calls for Cease-Fire in Preachers' Battle

FORT MILL, S.C., MARCH 26 -- The Rev. Jerry Falwell called for a cease-fire today in the public battle between rival evangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart, saying he has told both men and their lawyers to "cease and desist" in order to restore credibility to the embarrassed tele-evangelical movement.

But Swaggart, while saying "I'm hoping it will all die down," added, "There are a lot of things taking place, and probably will take place in the future, that Falwell has no control over."

Swaggart said that in Palm Springs, Calif., last Friday, the lawyer for Jessica Hahn, the church secretary with whom Bakker has admitted having a sexual encounter six years ago, played him part of a two-hour tape-recorded deposition of Hahn describing the encounter.

"When I heard it, if the girl was telling the truth -- and I suspect she was at least partly telling the truth -- well, it would make you very angry," said Swaggart, reached in Los Angeles, where he is preparing for a weekend crusade.

Asked what was on the tape, Swaggart said, "I would rather not go into that."

According to Jamie Buckingham, a columnist for the Pentecostal magazine Charisma, who on Tuesday concluded a three-day visit with the Bakkers in Palm Springs, Bakker said he "was very surprised that this gal was able to perform the way that she did ... He described her as very professional for 21 years of age, {that} she knew all the tricks of the trade.

"She just got hold of a Pentecostal preacher who didn't know how to handle it and it just devastated him. He felt terrible guilt. Afterwards he was confused and frightened and ran back to Charlotte and confessed the whole thing ... "

In Springfield, Mo., meanwhile, the head of Bakker's church cited him for "moral failure" in the incident, which involved payments to Hahn for her silence and led to Bakker's resignation from PTL.

"We do not believe there is any evidence of blackmail," the Rev. G. Raymond Carlson, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, said. "To the contrary, the evidence seems to indicate that effort and money have been expended to cover moral failure." Tennessee talk-show evangelist John Ankerberg, a Swaggart ally, said, "It wasn't blackmail, it was hush money." PTL spokesman Neil Eskelin responded, "There's nothing in that."

"It is very damaging when ministers of the gospel are volleying charges at each other," said Falwell at a news conference here in the Heritage Grand Hotel, the centerpiece of Bakker's 2,300-acre Christian resort.

Last week Falwell assumed leadership of PTL, which stands for "Praise the Lord" and "People That Love," after Bakker resigned.

Falwell said he saw no conflict in having Richard Dortch, PTL's new president, who helped arrange a trust fund for Hahn, spearhead the inquiry into the matter, nor in having Bakker's lawyer, Norman Roy Grutman, retained as counsel to the board.