James MacDonald says final defamation case settled

MacDonald, who was fired in 2019 from Harvest Bible Chapel, the Chicago-area megachurch he founded, announced last week that he had settled the last in a series of defamation lawsuits surrounding his ouster. Radio host Erich Muller, also known as Mancow Muller, agreed to pay MacDonald an undisclosed sum, according to a statement from MacDonald’s current organization, Act Like Men Ministries.

MacDonald’s organization said the money he received from all of his defamation suits totaled nearly $10 million. WORLD reached out to Muller to seek comment, but did not receive an immediate response.

How was the radio host involved in the situation? Harvest Bible Chapel elders fired MacDonald in 2019, citing problems with financial management and leadership. They said they accelerated the decision to remove MacDonald after a recorded audio clip of him making what they called inappropriate comments was leaked to the media. Muller, a Chicago radio host who was a member of the church, played portions of the recording on the air.

MacDonald later said in a statement on his website that the recording had been falsely edited and the elders had not reviewed it before firing him.

Dig deeper: Read Lynde Langdon’s report on MacDonald’s firing.