!?!?!?!?MN megachurch endorses opponent of dem candidate Wetterling [View All]

[bobbieinok]

http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=524

Michele Bachmann Speech at Church Could Cause Tax Troubles
Oct 15, 2006 -- 12:28 AM CDT
Andy Birkey

An event last night at Living Word Christian Center, a large suburban chuch in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, featuring Republican Congressional Candidate Michele Bachmann could cost the church its nonprofit tax status as the event appeared to endorse Bachmann for office. A personal endorsement from the pastor of the church, as well as Bachmann's own statements in her speech, appear to have violated regulations pertaining to partisan politicking by churches. Bachmann is in a tight race with Patty Wetterling, a race that's at the top of most election analysts lists in terms of importance and competitiveness.

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"Pastor Mac Hammond: Amen. Now be seated again for a moment please. I have somebody special I want to introduce you to tonight. State Senator Michele Bachmann is with us and I’m going to ask her to come in in just a moment, and of course many of you know Michele, know of her pursuit of the United States Senate seat vacated by Mark Kennedy or Congressional seat vacated by Mark Kennedy’s run for a United States Senate seat. Keeping all this straight gets to be challenging. But ya know we can’t publicly endorse as a church and would not for any candidate but I can tell you personally that I’m going to vote for Michele Bachmann, because I’ve come to know her, what she stands for, and I want her to share her testimony with you tonight. Would you give her a warm welcome as she comes to share? Thank you Michele."
Michele Bachmann breaks that rule in her speech as well, when she discusses her campaign in some detail:


"God then called me to run for the United States Congress, and I thought “What in the world will that be for?” and my husband said “You need to do this,” and I wasn’t so sure, and we took 3 days and we fasted and we prayed and we said, “Lord. Is this what you want? Is this your will?” and after long about the afternoon of day two, he made that calling sure. And its been now 22 months that I’ve been running for United States Congress. Who in their right mind would spend 2 years to run for a job that lasts 2 years? You’d have to be absolutely a fool to do that. You are now looking at a fool for Christ. This is a fool for Christ. And in the midst of him making this calling sure, what has occurred now in this particular race is that this Congressional seat out of 435 in the country has become… it has been one of the top five races in the country, and in the last week this has become one of the top three races in the country, and you may have seen how God has in his own will, and his own plan, has focused like a laser beam after this scandal that came up about a week or so ago. He has focused like a laser beam in his reasoning on this race. The reason why this is one of the top three races is because this race will probably decide which way Congress goes this fall. We could talk more about what that means for this nation, what this means for defeating radical Islam, what this means for what the future of the family is going to be, what this is going to mean for the future of the freedom of religious expression."

Hammond's statement while he is preaching to his congregation, in his role as pastor, would seem to be an explicit endorsement by the church. Despite his statement asserting that the church cannot endorse, the IRS views use of church equipment to endorse a candidate as church endorsement. In fact, the IRS explicitly forbids partisan comments at a church function:

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Still, Pastor Mac Hammond attempts to defend the event:


"I said important that we put men and women of God in office in our government. I don’t want any more letters about church and politics don’t mix. If that’s your opinion then you need to get saved, because the bible makes clear that we are to have an effect on the world in which we live."
Crossposted at Eleventh Avenue South.


(In the comments section there is a link to the video of this event.)


Video of Event
Ken Avidor of Dump Bachmann has video of the event.
Part 1 (9:51)

Part 2 (5:18)