Although the practice has been illegal for decades, the IRS rarely takes any action to reprimand high-profile scofflaws.
Hammond’s church was the subject of a complaint to the IRS after his 2006 endorsement of Bachmann from the pulpit.
Rep. Michele Bachmann made Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s 2010 Most Embarrassing Re-elects list, along with 10 other members of Congress. The rankings, released Monday, include an even split between Democrats and Republicans who, according to CREW, have violated the public trust.
Two Minnesota pastors say they will endorse political candidates from the pulpit this Sunday, in direct defiance of federal law that prohibits such politicking at tax-exempt churches: Brad Brandon of Berean Bible Baptist Church in Hastings announced his intentions on his KKMS radio show earlier this week, while Greg Stone of Jesus Assembly of God in St. Peter outlined his plans on Facebook. Stone writes that, unlike most of his sermons, this Sunday’s won’t be available as a podcast. Brandon taunts the “liberal media” to file an IRS complaint against his church. “Do it out of hatred for me,” he urged.
Despite being named by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, Living Word Christian Center, though public relations firm Rotenberg Associates LLC, says that the church did not own property listed as being sold in a sheriff’s foreclosure…
Updated: Property owned by Living Word Christian Center has gone into foreclosure, according to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office. On July 28, four parcels of land owned by the Brooklyn Park mega-church was bought at a sheriff’s sale for $5.1 million. Pastor Mac Hammond, who preaches a “prosperity gospel,” has been plagued by financial problems over the last few years. The church took millions from a man who was later convicted of fraud, and the IRS opened an investigation into the church’s finances stemming from favorable financial dealings between the church and Hammond.
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…
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…
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.
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.
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