Living Word Christian Center, CAIR issue statements on Bradlee Dean
Thursday, June 03, 2010 at 2:56 pm
- 9 Comments
Pastor Mac Hammond of LWCC
Living Word Christian Center (LWCC), a Brooklyn Park megachurch, released a statement following the controversy over statements made by Bradlee Dean, front man of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, Intl., Inc. In recent weeks, Dean has spoken in support of countries that imprison and execute gays and lesbians. LWCC acknowledged hosting the group at its church, but said it does not believe in “condemnation or judgment.”
LWCC sent the statement to ex-gay ministry Exodus International, of which LWCC is an affiliate.
Living Word Christian Center (LWCC) did host You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Ministries on March 25, 2009 in our Senior High School Youth department. The speaker was Jacob MacAulay the chief operations manager of their ministry, his topic was on the influences of pop culture in our society. LWCC does not support financially or in any other manner, nor is an affiliate ministry of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide Ministries. Our faith community at LWCC believes it is the love of God who draws all men (people) to Him, not condemnation or judgment.
On his May 15 radio show, Dean said, “Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America. This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination.” On his May 22 radio show he downplayed the rhetoric slightly, stating that sending gays and lesbians to prison is the right and moral thing to do.
These opinions — and GOP-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer’s close ties with the group — sparked a response from the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Lori Saroya, head of the group’s Minnesota chapter, told the Minnesota Independent that CAIR-MN “strongly opposes any kind of violence or discrimination against any group,” and called on Minnesota Republicans to speak out against Dean’s statement.
“The YCR representative makes at least three outrageous and incorrect claims in the radio interview,” she stated in an email. “That ‘Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,’ that executing homosexuals is ‘moral,’ and that Muslims are a ‘foreign enemy.’ Statements like this show the level of ignorance and bigotry that exists in our country.”
“We urge the GOP to repudiate and distance themselves from such rhetoric and hate speech,” she added.
Living Word Christian Center is not without it’s share of political controversy. In 2006, Pastor Mac Hammond endorsed Rep. Michele Bachmann from the pulpit, which triggered a series of investigations including the church’s purchase of a stunt plane for the pastor.
Paul Schmelzer contributed to this report.
Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter9 Comments
Comment posted June 3, 2010 @ 3:13 pm
Id fear for my life if I was living near this church. Probably want to carry a gun and defend myself if they attacked me…
Comment posted June 3, 2010 @ 7:00 pm
Bradlee Dean is insane.
Any christian who agrees with him isn’t a christian.
Comment posted June 4, 2010 @ 12:24 am
sociopath:
someone with a sociopathic personality; a person with an antisocial personality disorder (`psychopath’ was once widely used but has now been superseded by `sociopath’)
– “WordNet (r) 2.0″
Considering that GLBT is part of our society, and YCR promotes the religious persecution of gays – even to endorsing murder, the term applies.
Comment posted June 4, 2010 @ 11:50 am
Re “You can run but you can’t hide”
I’m neither running or hiding. So far no one has showed up for me nor can we empirically validate this claim for any human being.
The fact that fear is failing these yahoos appears to have a few of them becoming even more strident in promoting the politics of fear.
Pingback posted June 5, 2010 @ 12:33 am
[...] more godly than most Christians for agreeing with them. On their May 15th radio show, Bradlee Dean said: “Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America. This just shows you they [...]
Comment posted July 27, 2010 @ 8:17 pm
This is precisely why we need to choose our words CAREFULLY. And its sad that any idiot can start a church or ministry. I spent many hours going over the interviews and the accusations and the rebuttals and I finally heard the broadcast for myself. This man is a judgmental and legalistic idiot. I grew up in the church, and have a LOT of fond memories of youth group, bible camp., I was a member of a Christian rock band back in the 80′s and was “on fire” for God.
People like this are the reason I left the church. If Jesus heard this rot, I believe he would weep. This is a man with some knowledge of scripture, but just enough to be dangerous to those who listen to him and ESPECIALLY to the naive younger people. I have been to your church 3 times, and i thought that there were some VERY good messages. I know that its hard to always know with whom you ally, but after hearing the bile spewed out by this judgmental and obviously hateful individual, I wouldn’t stand 10 feet near him.
His wholesale condemnation of Gays as “predators” and “molesters” lacks merit and resembles truth not at all. To quote from Abnormal Psychology: The distinction between a victim’s gender and a perpetrator’s sexual orientation is important because many child molesters don’t really have an adult sexual orientation. They have never developed the capacity for mature sexual relationships with other adults, either men or women. Instead, their sexual attractions focus on children – boys, girls, or children of both sexes.
When Arrogance and Ignorance have a child, it would talk very similarly to how Mr Dean speaks of subjects he has LITTLE or INCOMPLETE information on.
Check out the broadcasts for yourselves. Don’t take MY word for it. You have no clue who I am. I am no one. ALWAYS verify. ANYONE in positions of church leadership have a FRIGHTENING responsibility to know with whom they ally. I have made my own mistakes in my life, and i understand we are fallible human beings. This wasn’t a mistake. He thoroughly believes this tripe. This is worse than the gaff that Pat Robertson pulled about the Haitians deserving the recent hurricane damage due to their ancestors voodoo practices.
This isn’t my definition of “what Jesus would do”.
God bless you!
Comment posted July 27, 2010 @ 8:22 pm
The above is a copy of the letter I sent to Living Word Christian Center and NOT to “You can run but you cant hide” just so I was clear!
Comment posted August 2, 2010 @ 12:46 am
So where’s CAIR’s statement? As usual, the Gay Agenda is only telling part of the story, which of course constitues a lie.
Comment posted August 2, 2010 @ 8:30 am
Huh? Read the story:
CAIR-MN “strongly opposes any kind of violence or discrimination against any group,” and called on Minnesota Republicans to speak out against Dean’s statement.
“The YCR representative makes at least three outrageous and incorrect claims in the radio interview,” she stated in an email. “That ‘Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America,’ that executing homosexuals is ‘moral,’ and that Muslims are a ‘foreign enemy.’ Statements like this show the level of ignorance and bigotry that exists in our country.”
“We urge the GOP to repudiate and distance themselves from such rhetoric and hate speech,” she added.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
