Watching Mancow's In-Studio Struggle To Out Mega-Church Pastor

When Mancow Muller invited me to pitch in on his new morning show on WLS AM 890, I had no idea that I’d have a front row seat to the demise of mega-church pastor James MacDonald.

I watched as the self-proclaimed radio “wild man” struggled to come to terms with an unpleasant revelation: He got conned by MacDonald — his pal, pastor and spiritual guide. And he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

Maybe you’ve heard the story already. The Sun-Times version of the tale carried the tabloid headline “Mancow Bites Minister.” From my seat in the sixth-floor NBC Tower studio, Mancow’s on-air takedown of MacDonald didn’t look vicious.

In early January, Mancow seemed distracted before the show. He’d turn toward the wall and whisper into his cell phone. Something was up. Everybody knew it. Nobody dared to ask. There’s an unspoken rule in the studio: Don’t poke the Mancow. Especially when he looks ticked off.

One morning, he whispered to me: “I just want you to know that a friend is in serious trouble.”

“He’s a really good friend,” Mancow said. “I’m trying to be there for him.”

For a few days, Mancow kept a laser-like focus on his cell phone during commercial breaks, furiously sending text messages until his listeners demanded his attention. And one morning, Mancow’s pre-show cell phone whispers suddenly turned to shouting.

“Get off that beach in Florida and come back to preaching,” he said. “Stand up. Be a man.” Mancow stormed out of the studio with the phone pressed to his ear.

I’d later learn that the man on the other line was Mancow’s “really good friend,” MacDonald, Harvest Bible Chapel's senior pastor.

A few days later, on Jan. 16, Christianity Today and the local press reported that in the wake of mounting criticism, MacDonald had taken an“indefinite sabbatical from all preaching and leadership.”

MacDonald had issued a vague statement to the press: "I have carried great shame about this pattern in certain relationships that can only be called sin.”

On Jan. 18 — as Chicago buzzed with talk about the police “code of silence” and the three found innocent on charges that they conspired to cover up the Laquan MacDonald case — Mancow put on dark sunglasses, leaned into the microphone and broke his self-imposed silence.

“I’m a church-going man. Well, I used to be a church-going man, but I go to Harvest Church. I don’t know if you’ve seen the headlines,” he said, his voice thick with uncharacteristic reluctance. “The preacher there, James MacDonald, who’s a friend of mine ... The news media has it wrong.”

WLS News Director John Dempsey asked about MacDonald’s vague reason for his sabbatical: “What’s the sin?”

Mancow suddenly gained focus. He launched into a mocking impression of his friend, Pastor James, that seemed to quote the conversations they had in whispers just days before: “I’m so upset.” “I’m really going to think about things.”

“It’s a scam. Look, I’m Christian. … He’s playing his audience,” Mancow said.

He didn’t hold back. Mancow growled with disgust:

“If something’s wrong stand up and say it. That’s what a man does, and that’s what [MacDonald] taught us. And if you look at the titles of his sermons, he’s not listening to any of it.”

“Man up! Come back! Stand in front of the church! Talk about what is going on — what is your sin?”

After that show, Mancow had a pained look on his face. “Was I too harsh?” he asked.

“Of course not,” I said.

Watching from across the studio, it was clear to me that Mancow didn’t just feel betrayed by his friend and spiritual mentor. He repeatedly expressed deep concern for other people attending Harvest who may have been hurt under MacDonald’s leadership. He spoke up and demanded truth for them, too.

Mancow never asked me if he was being too tough on MacDonald and the mega-church elders again. His mind seemed made up. He was committed to take on his mega-church.

On Jan. 25, Mancow penned a 2,000-word testimony that detailed his relationship with MacDonald and aired his concerns that there’s something rotten at Harvest Church that ran on the front page of the Daily Herald.

After that story ran, Mancow’s pre-show routine was regularly interrupted by conversations with friends at Harvest who urged him to use his radio megaphone to keep pressure on the mega-church’s elders to oust MacDonald. And Mancow obliged.

He regularly launched into spontaneous rants about the trouble at Harvest. People in the studio never knew when it was coming. He’d suddenly transition from a double entendre joke into angry demand that elders at the Harvest make its finances open for review by members. Mancow even asked Chicago mayoral candidate Willie Wilson, a famous gospel singer appearing on the show, to weigh in on the controversy.

And after the show, Mancow took his crusade to Twitter.

This week, when it seemed like Harvest leaders were waiting for the controversy to subside, Mancow turned up the heat.

On Wednesday, Chicago "fathers’ rights attorney" Jeffery Levin showed up at the studio unannounced. Mancow told listeners that Harvest elders had a week to oust MacDonald as senior pastor or he would file a class-action lawsuit against the mega-church.

Levin urged Mancow and Harvest members to contact him with evidence of malfeasance that could be turned over to the Cook County state’s attorney or the FBI.

Mancow played “hot-mic audio” of someone who sounded like MacDonald calling a Christianity Today editor a “certifiable p--ck" and hinting that the magazine’s former CEO be brought down by putting child porn to his computer.

In no time, Harvest Church ousted MacDonald as its senior pastor.

On Thursday, Mancow bristled when I congratulated him for what he did.

He looked me right in the eye and said, “I take no joy in it.”

I know that’s true. I saw it for myself.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the Chicagoland series on CNN.

Photo provided.