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their appearance, and Sikhs in par- ticular because of their turbans. The original FlyRights app, created in coordination with the TSA, allowed a traveler to submit a complaint at the same time to the coalition and to the TSA for investigation.
Lutheran touch PHOTODISC
Clergy tax-free housing allowance unconstitutional
A
federal judge on Nov. 21 ruled that an Internal Revenue Ser- vice exemption that allows
clergy to shield a portion of their salary from federal income taxes is unconstitutional. The clergy housing exemption
applies to an estimated 44,000 minis- ters, priests, rabbis, imams and others. If the ruling stands, some clergy could experience an estimated 5 percent to 10 percent cut in take-home pay. The suit was filed by the Wisconsin-
based Freedom from Religion Foun- dation on grounds that the housing allowance violates the separation of church and state and the constitu- tional guarantee of equal protection. U.S. District Court Judge Barbara
Crabb ruled in the foundation’s favor, saying the exemption “provides a ben- efit to religious persons and no one else, even though doing so is not nec- essary to alleviate a special burden on religious exercise.” The case, decided in the Western District of Wisconsin, will likely be appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The housing allowances of pas-
tors in Wisconsin remain unaffected after Crabb stayed the ruling until all appeals are exhausted.
Churches routinely designate a
portion of a pastor’s salary as a hous- ing allowance. So a minister who earns $50,000 may receive $16,000 as a tax- free housing allowance, essentially earning $66,000. Having to pay taxes on that $16,000 ($4,000 in this case), would mean a 6 percent cut in income. The exemption is worth about $700 million per year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation’s Estimate of Federal Tax Expenditure. Tobin Grant, a political science
professor at Southern Illinois Univer- sity, Carbondale, said the exemption dates from an era when clergy lived in church-owned parsonages.
Leesa Wimmer, an associate in min- istry and member of St. Matthew (Kellers) Lutheran Church, Perkasie, Pa., met Susan Anderson, whose hus- band is a Northeastern Ohio Synod pastor, while both were assigned to the decorating team of the State Din- ing Room in the White House. Of 1,000 people who volunteered to dec- orate for the holidays, 83 were chosen. Wimmer’s lasting impression came in the form of glitter, which she left on President Barack Obama’s suit coat when he hugged her, she said.
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I couldn’t pass on the other side of the road like a Levite to pre- serve a rule. All I saw was love
for my son. Frank Schaefer, who was convicted
in November by other United Method- ist clergy for officiating at the wedding
for his gay son in 2007, invoking Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan to explain why he broke church rules. He was quoted by The Washington Post.
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