My inquiry involves the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and their type of religious activity’s effects on the political scene today.
The ownership of churches and property in SD are the following:
From the www.foursquare.org locator website:
1. Mitchell Foursquare Church • Family Christian Center
2. Rapid City Foursquare Church • Destiny
3. Watertown Foursquare Church • Family Worship Center
4. Watertown Foursquare • Little Blessings Daycare and Preschool
From other
1. Sioux Falls – Mount of Olives Ministries  preaches foursquare
2. Beresford – Living Word Fellowship
I want to know the differences and connections between these churches. If anyone has any insight I would appreciate it. I am working on a post about the influence of organized religion on politics in South Dakota.
Go to work foot soldiers!
Ah, the Foursquare church. For background, see this account of Foursquare founder Aimee Semple McPherson’s staged disappearance in 1926. She said she was kidnapped; she was more likely off having an affair with a church employee.
For kicks, check out this scathing review of Kathie Lee Gifford’s musical about McPherson.
What I am specifically looking for is if these churches are registered with the state as private non-profits, and private ownership.
Milton Berle? This is getting interesting.
I looked up all of them up last night and decided they are awfully skimpy on what they publish about their religion, compared to some other churches that I have looked up at various times. I know my two ultra consevative sisters really liked the one in Watertown when they were young. One of my sisters ended up marrying a guy that belonged to an Evangelical Free Church and that is where they go. The other one attended an Assembly of God Church until it closed in the town where she lives and since then she watches A pastor by the name of Salem out of Aberdeen, on Sunday mornings. My sisters kind of consider me the black sheep of the family politically and as a christian, but that’s OK because I consider them to be kind of weird. lol My guess is that they are tax exempt like most churches are, and I think a lot of them should be taken off the Tax Exempt list. I don’t trust a lot of those real conservative churches. I attended an E Free church for a little while in one town that I lived in and shortly before former President Clinton was elected the first time, a couple different women from the church called me, urging me not to vote for him, because he was pro-choice, and I told them there were more important things to worry about like health care and the economy. That was the end of going to that church. If I find out anything else I will let you know.
13, have you heard something that makes you think they are up some kind of hanky-panky?
Have you noticed the Evangelical churches privately owned but SOS listed as “Domestic Nonprofit” versus “Domestic Church”? What’s this all about?
What are privately owned churches doing masquerading as Nonprofits? Joan your reference to Aberdeen SOS shows he runs a “Domestic Church” but it include the TV broadcast? What do they do with the money they collect?
The Watertown Four Square church is Kristi Noem’s.
Funny we don’t ever hear her talk about it because her last job was working in the children’s ministries.
She’d rather tell us she was a small business owner, rancher, farmer, hunting lodge owner. She was so successful at those jobs that she was working for the children’s ministries at Four Square Watertown. Her sister Cindy now has her old job.
Does this look like the resume of a successfull small business owner?
■Noem reports a combined total of $15,833 in “salary†from 3 different sources – $6,000 from her SD legislative gig, $8,833 from something called Family Worship Center and $1,000 from Noem Family Insurance in Bryant.
â– She reports between $5,000 and $15,000 income each from renting pasture land and from an investment in an ethanol plant in Minnesota.
http://mitchell.areavoices.com/2011/08/29/rep-noems-asset-disclosure-form-shows-some-debt/
WOW – Do you have a link to a state document that lists her as a owner? I believe you, but I have been having trouble finding her listed anywhere.
http://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ri/000154260 This link says they are a foreign non-profit.
Noem also owns 16.9% of Rocota Valley Ranch in Clark County. That is why people go on and on about her farm subsidy money. Must be a fair sized operation. They got over $68,000 in total farm subsidies in 2011. I am not aware if that corporation also includes their pheasant hunting outfitter operation.
@l3wis – If you know the name of a corporation someone is part owner of, you can look up any corporation on the state website and see who filed as the corporation owners/officers. Interesting Noem doesn’t show the farm income on her disclosure. I guess if you take no personal income from the corporation, you must not have to report it.
OSF- That is exactly what we have been looking for.
There is obviously a deeper story here besides her ownership in the church, but it is important that I establish those ties before I give the rest of the story.
http://vimeo.com/41687227
It is interesting to see the guy in the corporate forms on the SOS website, Brent Parker, sitting here with a tattooed faith healer/ prophecizer.