Nearly 8,900 ministers, churches: Govt should leave pastor housing money alone
Monday, Apr 30, 2018
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erik Stanley regarding a friend-of-the-court brief that ADF attorneys and allied attorneys filed Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Gaylor v. Mnuchin on behalf of 8,899 ministers and churches defending the minister’s housing allowance in the IRS code:
“The power to tax is the power to destroy, and so refusing to tax a minister’s housing expenses is the best way to ensure the free exercise of religion and prevent the excessive entanglement of government with religion. The suggestion that the minister’s housing allowance somehow establishes a religion is simply untrue. Our brief demonstrates just how many ministers would be directly and negatively affected if that falsehood is accepted. The housing allowance is constitutional and should continue to be respected and protected.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
“The power to tax is the power to destroy, and so refusing to tax a minister’s housing expenses is the best way to ensure the free exercise of religion and prevent the excessive entanglement of government with religion. The suggestion that the minister’s housing allowance somehow establishes a religion is simply untrue. Our brief demonstrates just how many ministers would be directly and negatively affected if that falsehood is accepted. The housing allowance is constitutional and should continue to be respected and protected.”Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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