This older story from the Mitchell Daily Republic has been bugging us and it reminds us of a little South Dakota country church.

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.

There once was a little country church near Hub City called the Garfield Gospel Tabernacle.  Ever hear of it?  Probably not, the holy rovers were an interesting bunch where the locals said “If the coyotes didn’t yell they did.” Why does this little rural Vermillion church matter and what does it have to do with Noem?  Recently it began to appear Kristi is an “owner” of it present incarnation.

During the 1920’s a of Los Angeles charismatic preacher, Aimee Semple McPherson started a church called the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel broadcasting over the new-fangled radio bringing the Gospel to the isolated Dakota farmers.  This was a lively group.  It was said when they had a funeral, they had to hold on to the casket so it wouldn’t roll out of the church.  Well by the 1970’s the attending families had dwindled in number and the church was closed.  Shortly thereafter the building was moved to Beresford and reopened to serve the worship needs of the locals eventually with a preacher, Raymond Peterson.

The little country church was for many years associated with the First Assembly organization out of Mitchell.  In the late 1980’s the preacher, Raymond Peterson tried to take over the leadership of the state organization as many back to God preachers began doing at the time.  When he lost the election he convinced the member / owners of the church to sign over the property to him so he could ‘grow’ their mission.  Upon the turnover of the property to Peterson, the Gospel Tabernacle / First Assembly church members were ‘kicked out’ for not agreeing to the new ownership.  You see Raymond decided to make it a privately owned for personal gain church

“Living Word Fellowship” under South Dakota’s corporate laws.  With this building “given to him” for free (he won the lawsuits), Raymond moved to Sioux Falls using the Beresford building as collateral for a ‘church’ building in Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls FWC 1).


Raymond has tried for years to build his version of a media empire with radio broadcasting and other outreaches.  His current privately owned church in Sioux Falls is now called Family Worship Center Mount of Olives Ministries.


This has created a bit of confusion with several who have confused the two churches with Raymond encouraging publicly with his adherence to Foursquare principles.  She is not a part of the Sioux Falls story but the Watertown version.  Noem’s part-time job was teaching young people how to roll around in the aisles like the old Garfield Gospel Tabernacle or as the attached link will demonstrate.

A few years ago we had a TeaBagger Alaskan Vice Presidential candidate who was a tongue ‘wagger’ who like to roll around in the aisles.  So we South Dakotans are proud to have our own, Kristi Noem is apparently a part-time employee / owner of the Watertown Foursquare Church also known as Family Worship Center. The Watertown ‘church’ is officially a Foursquare church. Our understanding is Noem has given up her seat on the board to her sister Cindy.

We non-Foursquares find their adherence to Sister Aimee’s Southern Pentecostal beliefs humorous, yet disturbing.  Sister Aimee started a church to expand her beliefs based in the post reconstruction American south where the frustrations of the poor whites needed to keep the people of other colors down.  Her fear based teachings of the church meeting broadcasts out of Los Angeles met the emotional need to blame the strife of Midwestern farm life of the 1920’s on someone.  Those who lived near the Garfield Gospel Tabernacle always found it interesting after some of the local revivals you would see the KKK cross burnings, being held in the middle of the night, atop nearby Spirit Mound. Nobody ever claimed the activity but it was interesting.

Is this what we are heading back to?  The type of ministries we are highlighting here are not limited to them.  As we learned with the half termed governor of Alaska, the churches encourage government involvement to spread their “word”.  Kristi is doing her only job.  Her only job is to operate in the official capacity she is elected to in order to push the “mission’ of her church.  Be as likeable and charismatic as necessary to get and retain power.  Their belief system requires them to force the rest of us to do as they say, but you know the rest (“not as they do”).  Privately owned officially nonprofit organizations actually being used to spread their Gospel mission of far right agenda beliefs.  These for-profit nonprofits are destroying the Constitution the rest of us rely on to survive,  Each time we vote for these aisle rollers, we are setting the bar of sanity further from our reach.

(YouTube this or this)

(here is a selection of Noem / Foursquare Ministries youth outreach for you to choose from if you wish to have a chuckle)

Megachurch pastor uses sermon to ‘endorse Jesus’ but encourages voting for Romney

 

13 Thoughts on “Sister Aimee is that Kristi Noem waggin’ her tongues? (Guest Poster)

  1. I have seen other churches where the young people occasionally do a dance performance, but they aren’t so noisy. I prefer when somebody is singing to be able to understand the words to the hymn. The other youth groups that I have seen also aren’t wearing military themed costumes. My sisters went to the Foursquare Church in Watertown off an on, when they were young, and single(many years ago). They liked the fact that there was a lot of music in the worship, but they didn’t say anything about dancing. I don’t discuss religion with them, because I am a whole wide world away from them when it comes to religion. I really think churches should be taken of the tax exempt rolls, because any more most of them are for profit.

  2. Testor15 on October 31, 2012 at 7:20 pm said:

    A story my dad used to tell went something like this. As a group of bored kids, they would pull up to the Foursquare church and sit on the cars. Eventually the church attendees would start rolling around on the floor, shaking every part of their bodies to the preacher’s message.

  3. Pathloss on October 31, 2012 at 9:17 pm said:

    A long story. Looks like Noem is a religious groupie. Doesn’t surprise me. Vote for her. South Dakota votes theIr mind and theyll vote Sarah Palin look alike.

  4. She is the SD version of Palin.

  5. I want to clarify something to my readers, just in case they think this is an ‘anti-god’ post. It is not. I believe in God. Period. And while I don’t pray as much as Noem does, when I do, I only ask our creator for instruction. I know many good, good, good people who embrace the teachings of Jesus. And whether you believe in him or not, his message of peace and understanding and loving your neighbor are only GOOD moral practices.

    Manipulation is not a good practice, it is unethical, corrupt, and quite honestly the works of evil.

    This post is about how a certain political official has USED these teachings to further themselves. It’s kinda sick and frankly wrong. And while we can make judgements about Noem’s intentions, the true judge is the voter.

  6. Ol' Timer on November 1, 2012 at 8:57 am said:

    I like the fact that the wealthy Christian community are the same people who do not think that our Indian population in SD needs any help, but will take plane loads to Africa or Haiti to take those children away from their home land but yet refuse to help the Indian children or inner city children and their parents in this country.

    The thing that always concern me about Foursquare is they are always inviting other religious groups children to come to their “youth night”. It seems that they use the kids as recruiters.

    I am sure a lot of people in the Foursquare community in Watertown had no idea Noem was not a non-paid volunteer.

    What I find amusing about the Hamlin community, where Noem is from and has numerous members at Foursquare, look down their noses at the Apostolics who also reside in the Hamlin school district. For years they were consider a cult!

  7. Guest Poster on November 1, 2012 at 9:08 am said:

    Ol’ Timer, the effort is based on Sister Aimee’s church being associated with Hollywood. Everything was built on the grand facades of the stage and screen to capture the imaginations of the poorly educated. The church continues to function by the means of facades.

    The children are just actors in their production.

  8. Let us know if you find out more about the Foursquare Church—–I’ve always been interested in different religions.

  9. GP – That AD is fantastic. I wonder if she never looked at Burt because she was busy rolling around on the floor.

  10. Ol’Timer, I have wondered the same thing. Dailykos shows more concern then others in SD. Saw a story today. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/01/1152901/-It-s-Native-American-Heritage-Month-Time-to-Save-Lives-2012-Reservation-Propane-Drive

  11. Analog Kid on November 2, 2012 at 8:34 pm said:

    Reading all of this kinda reminds me of a Zig Ziglar or sales seminar.. These cheezy sleezy churches are just that – Cheezy!
    Now if you want to attend a real church go to a Russian or Greek Orthodox where they are a bit more serious about the message and cut out the fanfare.
    And sorry, no chairs.. You stand and if you don’t like it then go to one of the silly wimpy churches.

  12. Testor15 on November 2, 2012 at 10:20 pm said:

    Watch the videos, they are hilarious.

Post Navigation