Ethics

Mac Hammond: Religious Con Man

By Ed Brayton

Mac Hammond of Living Word Christian Center in Minnesota is one of the prosperity gospel preachers under investigation by Sen. Charles Grassley for financial shenanigans. Like all prosperity gospel ministers, he is a first class huckster who specializes in separating the ignorant and the credulous from their money, then spending that money quite lavishly. He lives like a king - homes, boats, cars, even a private jet.

He's fighting Grassley's subpoena of financial records from his ministry and a magistrate judge has sided with him, recommending that the district court refuse to enforce the subpoena because it came from the wrong government official. It's a highly technical case involving questions of which official at the IRS replaced a previous official who was required to sign off on such investigations. But below the fold, I've got video of Hammond saying that he would welcome an IRS audit because, gosh darn it, he's just so honest that he wants to make sure he's complying with the law.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on November 23, 2008 (boomark / email).