Immediate Fallout from the Bachmann Endorsement

Mac Hammond’s actions on 10/14/06--using the sanctuary to politick, as well as offering it as a platform for one candidate's campaign--set in motion legal challenges to the church’s tax-exempt status, and brought negative publicity for Hammond and LWCC. (The event itself was described here in an earlier post.) What's told below isn't new, but many people still don't know all the facts.

Three days after the Bachmann endorsement, a watchdog group in Washington, D.C. [CREW] filed a complaint with the IRS against LWCC. The complaint quoted Hammond’s words as well as Bachmann’s, highlighting the partisan politicking in each of their talks.

The complaint, addressed to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, says in part:

[CREW] respectfully requests an immediate [IRS] investigation into the activities of Living Word Christian Center, based in Brooklyn Park, MN….Because you pledged earlier this year to investigate violations of tax law during, and not after, the election cycle, we ask that you look into this matter immediately…

The complete initial complaint can be found here.

The complaint against LWCC made our local news, just as the original politicking had done. In response to media inquiries, LWCC said that Mac Hammond thought he was within the rules by saying he spoke “personally”--that he simply misunderstood the rules.

Unfortunately, that was NOT TRUE. The Minnesota Independent reported:

When asked about the statement [from the pulpit], a LWCC official said that the endorsement was the result of Hammond’s misunderstanding of IRS guidelines. Associate pastor Tim Burt... [said] that Hammond thought he was within the rules by saying he was speaking personally.…“He didn’t knowingly or willingly violate IRS guidelines. He misunderstood the IRS guidelines…’”

But a recording from a…LWCC staff meeting on Election Day in 2004 [two years earlier] indicates that Hammond clearly understood IRS regulations governing his church’s tax status and was aware of the risk in which he placed the church when he personally endorsed Bachmann.

“There have been two or three churches who have gotten a little too vocal about supporting President Bush that did get sued,” Hammond said…. “….But we did what we felt led to do. I preached a Sunday on it [the upcoming presidential elections], talked a lot about it, nobody should have any doubts about what’s the right thing to do…. The law does clearly state that a non-profit tax-exempt organization cannot use their property, premises or influence to support one candidate over another. I could, but I would have had to offer it formally to his opponent.”

Full story here.

Thus, LWCC was not being truthful when it claimed Hammond didn’t understand the rules for tax-exempt organizations. Hammond himself had explained those very rules to his staff. As Hammond himself has said, LWCC has plenty of lawyers to advise it on these matters. In addition, the IRS provides free resources to help churches and other organizations understand the rules. CREW’s complaint referred to IRS Publication 1828. That is a Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations, available to anyone online here at the IRS website.

For those who want to hear for themselves what Hammond said about tax-exempt requirements, the audio recording is linked here. It can also be found through the Minnesota Independent story, linked above.

It’s important to recognize that proof of Hammond’s prior knowledge of the rules came to light only because some concerned person on the inside put the tape in the hands of local media.

The IRS did not impose any sanctions against LWCC for the abuse of its tax-exempt status. That event did occur during the George W. Bush administration, which was known to be very friendly (some would say overly-friendly) to conservative Christian groups.