The Freedom From Religion Foundation lost their earlier challenge but is taking another shot.
FFRF renews ‘David and Goliath’ IRS challenge
Same song…just another verse.
Interestingly, the FFRF press release includes a quote from your humble and plodding blogger:
“The manner in which our housing allowance has been used borders on clergy malpractice,” William Thornton, a Georgia pastor and blogger, told Forbes magazine in 2013. “A growing subset of ministers who are very highly paid and who live in multimillion dollar mansions are able to exclude hundreds of thousands of dollars from income taxation.”
The quote is accurate and is one that Peter Reilly, a Forbes blogger who has an interest in the Housing Allowance, carried several years ago. I stand by the quote. The idea of clergy excluding hundreds of thousands of dollars from income taxes on this basis is absurd and objectionable. I favor a cap on the amount just like the one that military personnel has. I don’t buy the arguments that a cap causes any church/state problem.
Joel Osteen and his wife were used for the photo in the FFRF news release and if they want to live in the Texas equivalent of The Biltmore House, they are free to do so. They shouldn’t get poor taxpaying, unordained saps to essentially pay for some of it, though. The law should be adjusted.
We will see where this one goes. Probably nowhere. FFRF’s position that no clergy should get this tax benefit. They would make no distinction between Joel Osteen’s mansion and my humble abode. As long as the law allows an amount effectively limited only by how expensive a house the ordained minister can secure, we will be in for criticism on this.
The FFRF will be a pain in the neck on this and/or other church/state issues until Jesus comes. After that, I’m not sure what their standing will be. We can pray for the best, though.
With the current court, if it works its way through, we are ALL taking a pay cut.
Yeah…if. The appeals court deep-sixed the last one. This is a bridge too far for the FFRF but they only have to win once. We have to win every time.
That was alert of you. Seems like old times again
Peter, CPA, is the expert on HA. I merely provide provocative quotes.
I’m looking for the same result.
You remember when a lot of Southern Baptists and other Evangelicals were laughing and mocking the value of boycotts? Haven’t you heard the mocking laughter of some SB’s about the old boycott of Disney? And now, big companies like Pay Pal, Coke, and others, along with the Hollywood crowd, Bruce Springsteen, and other celebrities are all boycotting entire STATES!!! All because North Carolina doesn’t want men going into women’s public bathrooms, and MS wants religious freedom.
Where are the SB’s and other Evangelicals laughing about these boycotts? Where are the SB’s and other Evangelicals condemning these boycotts?
David
Vol, I opposed the Disney boycott because it was in diametric opposition to what I believe the Great Commission teaches us to do toward those who are bound up in a sinful lifestyle. It is my opinion that these present boycotts are the results of hard-heartedness of those individuals who are involved and those who advocate them toward Holy God. We are in a period of “perilous times” as are described in 2 Timothy 3. However, and nonetheless, I believe the Great Commission mandates me to make the gospel known to those who boycott or would advocate such action. At… Read more »
CB,
I am not a big boycott person, myself. I am more of a Great Commission person, as well.
My comment was directed more towards the SB’s, who laughed at our boycotts of the past, and ridiculed them, but now say nothing about these boycotts. They said that boycotts didn’t work, but look at Georgia.
David
Vol,
I truly understand. I too have concerns about the silence of Southern Baptists about sinful conduct, especially among our own ranks and frankly sickened by a multitude who share my own soteriology and ecclesiology, yet cover up gross misconduct of various kinds.
I also share your disgust with what is happening with these boycotts due to the perversion those involved are promoting, advocating, or protecting.
David, I tagged it HERE, though particularly from the angle of their hypocrisy rather than boycotting per se.
Excellent article. Does reveal the hypocrisy of the radical left rather well.
Thanks for sharing.
Robert,
Very good article. I think Franklin Graham has come out with something similar.
The hypocrisy of Pay Pal is huge.
David
Thanks, CB and David.
Yes, Franklin Graham pointed this out, I believe shortly after PayPal’s announcement (and several others have noted it as well, so it’s not original with me). I became most aware of such business hypocrisy during the debates on the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts in Indiana and Arkansas. Apple and Wal-Mart were doing a lot of squawking about the acts, and folks started pointing out where they did business. Some of these companies are like chameleons — their colors (aka “deepest values”) change according to where they are located!
If anyone is into boycotting boycotters (or just being informed)….
Here is Esquire’s “list of all the people and companies boycotting” North Carolina as of April 13, 2016:
Ringo Starr
Bryan Adams
Deutsche Bank
PayPal
Bruce Springsteen
Michael Moore
xHamster
Joel McHale
General Electric
Dow Chemical Company
Pepsi
Hyatt
Hewlett Packard
Choice Hotels International
Whole Foods
Levis Strauss & Co.
Lionsgate
So there’s your list of bullies! (Though Esquire’s point is for people to support the boycotters.)
(I’m sure NC is devastated at losing Ringo Starr.)
PayPal will happily continue to take transaction fees for NC residents, however.
I can live without Ringo Starr and have no idea who Joel McHale is. Whole Foods is a scam on idiot yuppies and millenials. Pepsi isn’t fit to drink in any state.
🙂
In addition to these, according to Esquire, one boycotting entity is a porn website.
So Pepsi will not sale in NC?
Dow will not sell household supplies in NC stores?
Hyatt and choice hotels will be moving out to of of NC especially the regions of Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro and Wilmington??
As they say on ESPN
C’mon man!
Me thinks thier “boycott” roar is louder than thier action.
David, I’m not sure what opposing a boycott would or should do. Counter boycott? If you want to go public and declare you will never fly Delta, buy at Home Depot, drink any Coca-Cola product, use PayPal…and a hundred other businesses, the go ahead. This isn’t a contest that we have any chance of winning or even having an impact. We have a better chance of positive outcomes by preaching and sharing the Gospel.
I will say that I’m not much of a boycott person. I’m more of a Great Commission type; win people; baptize; and disciple people. But, I just find it interesting that a lot of SB’s laughed and ridiculed our boycotting , and here we’ve got the lost, worldly crowd using what? Boycotts! I guess the big companies, celebrities, and the gay crowd think that boycotts do work.