Jimmy Swaggart's Secular Confession

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The published version is available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02773940902766748 .Following the exposure of televangelist Jimmy Swaggart’s illicit rendezvous with a New Orleans prostitute, the Assemblies of God simultaneously orchestrated a massive attempt to silence those who would discuss the tryst and arranged the most widely publicized confession in American history theretofore. The coincidence of a “silence campaign” with the vast distribution of a public confession invites us to reconsider the nature of the public confession. For what place has a public confession, the discourse of disclosure par excellence, in a silence campaign? This question is best answered, I argue, if we understand public confession not as a stable a-historical form, but as a practice that is informed by multiple, competing traditions. I argue that by situating Swaggart’s performance in a philosophically modern and secular tradition of public confession we can understand both its complicity in a silence campaign and, more generally, the political logic of the modern public confession

California city puts ozone-eaters on diet

IRVINE, Calif.-This southern California suburb on Tuesday became the first city in the country to approve a sweeping ordinance aimed at sharply reducing the release of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting compounds into the atmosphere. The measure, stoutly opposed by a number of the city's high-technology and aerospace-related firms, on businesses to meet a series of stringent environmental requirements by next July 1 or face misdemeanor charges

California city puts ozone-eaters on diet

IRVINE, Calif.-This southern California suburb on Tuesday became the first city in the country to approve a sweeping ordinance aimed at sharply reducing the release of chlorofluorocarbons and other ozone-depleting compounds into the atmosphere. The measure, stoutly opposed by a number of the city's high-technology and aerospace-related firms, on businesses to meet a series of stringent environmental requirements by next July 1 or face misdemeanor charges