We clergy love our minister's housing allowance and want to keep it. It's our very own Sacred Clergy Tax Break and the most important item in the tax code that recognizes clergy and gives us favorable treatment under the tax law. Unsurprisingly, some want to clean up the tax code and eliminate the tax break that is given to ministers but not to others. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has challenged this twice. Both times the federal district court ruled in their favor but the federal appeals court overturned the decision. The FFRF, whose co-presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker … [Read more...] about Our housing allowance: safe for now with appeals court ruling
Good Ides of March news: Housing Allowance upheld
Our Sacred Clergy Tax Break safe for now. Ruling of the federal appeals court is in. Scintillating commentary to follow when I feel sufficiently scintillated. https://www.becketlaw.org/media/court-protects-ministers-1b-tax-lawsuit/ Here is another report, from a source not many among us read: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2019/03/15/appeals-court-tax-free-housing-for-faith-leaders-but-not-atheists-is-legal/ … [Read more...] about Good Ides of March news: Housing Allowance upheld
Inquiries, investigations, and registries: It’s complicated
"The subject of a database is complicated and will take time to evaluate" That was J. D. Greear's statement to the Executive Committee not quite three weeks ago. Seems like ages have past since he named churches and spoke to the group about sex abuse in the SBC. That all Southern Baptists at every level want kids to be safe in our churches, institutions, and entities is not complicated. What can be done becomes complicated in many ways, not just in regard to a database of SBC offenders. J. D. Greear's address to the Executive Committee included this: I urge the bylaws workgroup of the … [Read more...] about Inquiries, investigations, and registries: It’s complicated
Lost in the noise: positive things about the SBC and abuse
Good intentions may go awry and it's tough to label the past week as much other than a debacle in spite of good men doing what they thought was prudent and appropriate. (Yes, part of the problem is likely the heavily male-dominated makeup of the Executive Committee but more on that later). But it may be helpful to review some of the things that are positive, particularly in comparison with a year ago: The question of sex abuse in churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention is receiving serious attention and that not just from abuse victims and their advocates. Our current … [Read more...] about Lost in the noise: positive things about the SBC and abuse
Autonomy is still the reality and rule in Southern Baptist life
Nothing in the past two weeks has changed these facts of SBC life and polity: The SBC (and I use "SBC" in the broad sense of the entire universe of churches, entities, committees, boards, organizations, and institutions) ordains no clergy. Only churches who voluntarily cooperate with Southern Baptist organizations ordain ministers. Neither does "the SBC" hire, supervise, and fire local church clergy. No body in the broader SBC - not associations, state conventions, the national convention or Executive Committee - puts clergy in churches or transfers them from church … [Read more...] about Autonomy is still the reality and rule in Southern Baptist life
J. D. Greear calls out specific churches on sexual abuse handling
The Executive Committee meeting of last evening was remarkable and unprecedented in a number of ways. For the SBC President to call on an official SBC committee to review the standing of a list of churches for their handling of sex abuse is quite astonishing. The Biblical Recorder put it this way: He called the bylaws workgroup of the administrative committee to do due diligence in reviewing the standing of the following churches mentioned in recent media reports on sexual abuse to determine whether they have a “faith and practice which closely identifies” with the Baptist Faith & … [Read more...] about J. D. Greear calls out specific churches on sexual abuse handling
Can autonomy be “leveraged” in the SBC to guard against abuse?
The proposal by professors Whitfield and Yarnell, of Southeastern and Southwestern seminaries respectively, is serious, comprehensive, and deserves due consideration. In my reading of their 2500 word article, Addressing Abuse in the SBC: A Proposal, it seems to me that the key sentence is this: We must leverage our autonomy to call our churches into a covenant of protecting the vulnerable. I do not know if their article previews the conclusions and recommendations of the work currently being done by SBC President J. D. Greear's Sexual Abuse Presidential Study Group a partnership with … [Read more...] about Can autonomy be “leveraged” in the SBC to guard against abuse?
A century after prohibition
One hundred years ago last month the necessary number of states ratified the 18th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. The Amendment went into effect the following year. Thus, next January, my fellow dry Southern Baptists may raise a toast to the time when our great republic gave a black eye to demon rum and the evil alcoholic beverage industry. Or, maybe not. I recall Prohibition being taught in history classes as a failed experiment. That it failed is manifestly true since the country, after a dozen years of … [Read more...] about A century after prohibition
Protecting children in your church
In regard to child protection in SBC churches and entities, whatever solutions are proposed or adopted in the various levels of Southern Baptist life if they prove ineffective in local churches the effort will have minimal value. Our convention has 50,000 or so individual churches that voluntarily cooperate on associational, state, and national levels. The country crossroads church needs to protect children just like the multi-campus megachurch franchise operation. In my church we have used MinistrySafe child protection system for about a year now. It is not a perfect system but works well … [Read more...] about Protecting children in your church
The ordination scandal in the SBC
Some Southern Baptist churches would ordain a ham sandwich. One pastor told me that his ordination was a joke. One ordination council in which I participated would have been a joke if I had not been present. No one seemed to know why they were there. Ordinations are quickly given but rarely revoked. Ordinations are not registered with any SBC body that I know of. Ordinations have no recognized requirements in the SBC. We Southern Baptists are not sacerdotalists but what are we? Ordinations require no particular education even though many laypeople think that a seminary … [Read more...] about The ordination scandal in the SBC