Religion · Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Metro · August 25, 2026
Minneapolis Pastors Sued by MN AG Over $2M in Alleged Church Fund Misuse
What Alinsky tactic is being used
2 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 4
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
The Attorney General's case is built entirely out of the nonprofits' own book of rules: their charitable purpose, their board's fiduciary duties under Minnesota nonprofit law, and their own bank records showing transactions with, in the complaint's words, no identified nonprofit purpose. Nothing exotic was needed — the gap between what the organizations said they existed to do and what the ledgers show is the whole case. Where that gap is real, no outside pressure is required to open it.
Counter-Rule 4 · Radical Integrity
Close the gap between stated values and actual practice before anyone else finds it. This tactic only works where the gap is real.
Close the gap in your own house before anyone audits it. This month: get your church's most recent financial statement and the written policies on travel, church credit cards, and reimbursement, and read them; if the senior pastor's card statements are reviewed by nobody but the senior pastor, say so in writing to the board and ask for a second signature. Read the Minnesota Attorney General's Guide for Charity Board Members (ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/Publications/FiduciaryDuties.asp) — it is short — and ask whether your board follows the conflict-of-interest procedures it describes.
Rule 11
“If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside.”
Both sides in this story are pushing a negative hard enough to risk flipping it. Larry Cook calls the suit "a 1,000% fabrication of the facts" and alleges political targeting; if a single line item in the complaint holds up, that absolute claim is what will be replayed. The mirror risk runs the other way for readers: treating a civil complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court, with no verdict, as a proven conviction of two pastors.
Counter-Rule 11 · Proportional Truth
Refuse to overclaim, even where it would help. One exaggeration hands the other side the only weapon that works permanently.
Refuse to overclaim in either direction, out loud, the first time this comes up in your small group or foyer. Say the accurate sentence: the Attorney General's office announced a civil suit on May 5, 2026 alleging over $2 million in misused charitable assets, the Cooks deny it, and no court has ruled. Read the AG's own press release (ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/05/05_LesJolies.asp) rather than a headline aggregator, and decline to forward posts that state guilt as settled.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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