{"id":32201,"date":"2022-09-10T16:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/court-rules-in-favor-of-pastors-housing-allowance\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:00:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:00:24","slug":"court-rules-in-favor-of-pastors-housing-allowance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/court-rules-in-favor-of-pastors-housing-allowance\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Rules in Favor of Pastors\u2019 Housing Allowance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chris Butler, pastor of Chicago Embassy Church, leads a prayer walk through his community.<\/div>\n

By Aaron Earls<\/em><\/p>\n

The tax exemption for ministers\u2019 housing allowances gained more legal backing last week.<\/p>\n

On Friday, March 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the pastors\u2019 housing allowance, unanimously reversing a lower court ruling that found the provision unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

The decision rejected claims made by the Freedom From Religion Foundation that the tax law \u201crenders unto God that which is Caesar\u2019s\u201d by granting a government benefit to a religious group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tax code treats ministers the same as hundreds of thousands of nonreligious workers who receive tax-exempt housing for their jobs\u2014that\u2019s not special treatment, it\u2019s equal treatment,\u201d said Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court rightly recognized that striking down the parsonage allowance would devastate small, low-income houses of worship in our neediest neighborhoods and would cause needless conflict between church and state.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Becket appealed the lower court ruling against the housing allowance on behalf of several pastors, including Chris Butler of Chicago Embassy Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling is a victory not just for my church but for the needy South Side Chicago community we serve\u2014our youth, our single mothers, our homeless, our addicted, and our victims of gang violence,\u201d said Butler.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful that I can continue serving them and living side by side with them to make our neighborhood a safer, more peaceful place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago Embassy Church is not able to pay Butler a full salary but offers him a housing allowance so he can live near the church and the community they serve.<\/p>\n

Russell Moore, president of the Ethic and Religious Liberty Council, also praised the decision as good for \u201call Americans who care about the cause of religious liberty and desire to see communities flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n

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See also  What Do Churchgoers Want to Change About Their Churches?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He maintained \u201cit\u2019s in no one\u2019s interest for the government to penalize clergy in small congregations faithfully serving their communities. The court was right to say providing a tax exemption does not \u2018connote sponsorship.\u2019 This allowance has never been about an establishment of religion but instead applied indiscriminately across religions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case on behalf of almost 9,000 ministers and churches who sought to protect the housing allowance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the 7th Circuit correctly found, declining to tax the housing support money that congregations provide to their ministers is not in any way a government establishment of a particular religion or any religion,\u201d said ADF Senior Counsel Erik Stanley, director of the ADF Center for Christian Ministries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe power to tax is the power to destroy, and so refusing to tax a minister\u2019s housing expenses is simply the best way to ensure the free exercise of religion and prevent the excessive entanglement of government with religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

After losing the appeal, the FFRF told AP they are reviewing their options.<\/p>\n

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Aaron Earls<\/h2>\n

@WardrobeDoor<\/p>\n

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Aaron is a writer for LifewayResearch.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n