False Sense of Maturity

One of the highest profiles religious figures in Minnesota is the Rev. Mac Hammond. Besides his large congregation, he also has a TV show, and now a problem with the IRS. So far, his defense has been to imply that his attackers are Satanic:

The Rev. Mac Hammond, founder of Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, told his congregation in a letter that an IRS investigation is “politically motivated,” and part of “a very clear effort, on a national scale, to discredit, defame and intimidate ministries and preachers of what has been called the ‘prosperity gospel.’”

In his first public comments about the IRS inquiry, Hammond, who heads one of the state’s larger churches with nearly 10,000 members and reaches a greater audience through Sunday TV broadcasts, said that those “behind these attacks [are] enemies of the gospel.”

“They are fearful not only of the moral imperative communicated by these ministries, but the growing wealth and influence of those constituencies,” he wrote.

I don’t think this defense for go over very well if he keeps it for his October 2nd court date.