Written by Don Byrd
Last year, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled unconstitutional the tax exemption for clergy’s housing costs. The parsonage allowance, Judge Barbara Crabb held, favors religion over non-religion in violation of the First Amendment. Her surprising decision is being appealed to the 7th Circuit. Religious organizations and advocates are making their views known to the court.
A brief filed by the Church Alliance makes the central case this way, according to Associated Baptist Press:
“The United States Supreme Court has long distinguished between affirmative assistance to religious organizations and merely lifting government‐imposed burdens so as to allow those organizations to exercise their religious mission more freely,” claimed groups including the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., Board of Retirement and Insurance of the National Association of Free Will Baptists and Converge Worldwide, formerly the Baptist General Conference.
“When Congress chooses not to impose a burden on religious organizations — whether by means of tax exemption or regulatory exception — it honors, rather than transgresses, this nation’s long tradition of separation between church and state.”
The BJC’s Brent Walker also criticized the decision in a statement following the ruling, arguing the exemption is constitutional.
