Television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart's public speech of apology following revelations of his sexual relationship with a prostitute provides the basis for a study of the rhetorical genres of apologia and compliance-gaining discourse. Apologia is public speech used by prominent persons to repair damage done to their reputations by allegations of negative behavior. Apologia involves denial, bolstering, differentiation, and transcendence. Common tactics are absolution, vindication, explanation, or justification. Compliance-gaining is a self-serving form of verbal persuasion in which the speaker attempts to effect a preconceived response from the audience. Strategies common to compliance-gaining discourse are sanction (a focus on reward and punishment) and need (a focus on altruism or explanation). Evaluation of Jimmy Swaggart's discourse indicated that (1) its purpose went beyond that of religious confession to that of gaining compliance from the audience so that his multimillion dollar ministry could continue; (2) there was evidence of intent to persuade, manage conflict, reduce dissonance, and implement damage control; (3) strategies of compliance-gaining and apologia as manipulative rhetorical tools were applied; and (4) the interrelating elements of apologia and compliance-gaining used by Swaggart constitute a particular sub-genre of rhetoric, namely, compliance-gaining apologia. (MHC)