Living Word Christian Center

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is urging the Internal Revenue Service to fix problems with its enforcement of laws against churches endorsing political candidates. In January, a Minnesota District Court judge ruled that the IRS did not have the proper procedures in place to investigate Living Word Christian Center, an investigation [...]

The Internal Revenue Service’s investigations into alleged tax violations by two Minnesota-based churches have been thwarted by procedural problems. Those cases highlight the special tax-exempt status churches receive under federal law, but also problems at the IRS. While reforms are underway, the religious right is planning to take advantage of a neutered IRS by encouraging a mass law-breaking day when churches endorse candidates from the pulpit.

Rep. Michele Bachmann told hard-right news service World Net Daily that she would run for president if “the Lord” called her to run. Bachmann, one of the most high-profile and controversial members of Congress, made a similar statement about her first run for Congress in 2006 in a speech at Living Word Christian Center.

Here, presented for the first time, is a complete version of Michele Bachmann’s controversial 2006 speech from Living Word Christian Center. Captured by Ken Avidor of Dump Bachmann, it offers a remarkable portrait of the Minnesota congressional representative who has been thrust into the spotlight in the past week by her assertion that Barack Obama and numerous unnamed members of Congress were “anti-American.”

In a church setting, Bachmann is extremely candid about the right-religious basis of her politics and her political career, telling listeners God instructed her to get into politics and that it’s the job of Christians to “suit up… sign up [and] do what He is calling us to do” in the battle against radical Islam.

Pastor Mac Hammond and Living Word Christian Center–under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for alleged favorable loans and compensation provided to Hammond by the church’s board–had their day in court Thursday as the mega-church fights to keep certain documents related to church finances out of the hands of the IRS.

Specifically, the IRS is looking for detailed information regarding favorable loans the church made to Hammond of almost $2 million and payments the church made to Hammond to rent a hangar for the church’s jet.

In a letter sent to supporters on Saturday, Pastor Mac Hammond of Living Word Christian Center wrote that “enemies of the gospel, often politically motivated,” are behind an ongoing Internal Revenue Service probe of the church. Hammond and Living Word are the target of an IRS audit investigating allegations of excessive compensation as well as [...]

Pastor Mac Hammond of the Living Word Christian Center, a Brooklyn Park mega-church, gave Rep. Michele Bachmann a campaign donation of $2,100 this campaign cycle. The controversy generated by his support for Bachmann’s first run for Congress doesn’t seem to have scared off the prosperity pastor.

Minnesota Monitor has learned that Michele Bachmann, seeing her campaign slipping in the polls and fraught with controversy over the recent revelation that her candidacy has been endorsed not only by God but by Pastor Mac, has gone to Indie the Buffalo (or is he a Bison?) for advice.

Through some stealthy internet sleuthing learned from [...]