Southern Baptists Against Clergy Tax Abuse

Southern Baptists Against Clergy Tax Abuse (SBACTA)  is not a real organization.  I just made it up.  There is no question, though, that if it did exist who its spokesman would be.  The Reverend William Thornton who blogs on Southern Baptist Convention issues under the title SBC Plodder is the man.  I have been following his blog for sometime now.  He has gotten me hooked on the conflict in the SBC between Calvinists and anti-Calvinists.  I just love fights that I don’t have a dog in.  I started following him because of his writing on the parsonage exclusion, which should be back in the news, but somehow the rest of the media is missing it.  The parsonage exclusion allows ministers to receive some of their compensation in the form of a housing allowance that is exempt from income tax.  There is a lot of doubt about the constitutionality of the provision, but until last week’s ruling in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, nobody has ever been able to get standing to challenge the provision in federal court.  (It is hard to get standing to challenge somebody else’s tax break.)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2012/09/02/southern-baptists-against-clergy-tax-abuse/