Pastor's Wife: Church Is a Divorce Asset
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From MyWay News: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071116/D8SV1II00.html
Nov 16, 5:25 PM (ET)
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) - The estranged wife of a pastor claims her husband blended his professional and personal finances so thoroughly that his church should be counted as an asset in their divorce.
A judge agreed in a decision published this week to hear arguments on the claim, and he ordered a financial appraisal of the church. Lawyers said it could represent the first time anyone in New York state has tried to treat a religious institution as a marital asset.
The wife argues that her husband of 31 years used his Brooklyn church as a "personal piggy bank," setting his own income, spending the congregation's tithes as he pleased and running a catering business from the building, according to the decision by state Supreme Court Judge Arthur M. Diamond. The couple's names were redacted from the decision.
The wife said $50,000 of the couple's money went into starting the church, and that the church property is partly hers.
"That church is no different than any other business he might have opened," said the wife's lawyer, Robert Pollack.
The pastor maintains he is simply a church employee, and the institution's funds should not be considered his, according to Diamond's decision.
"My client can't own the church," said the minister's lawyer, Eleanor Gery.
A message left at the church was not immediately returned early Friday.
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I love this, I wonder what sort of legal precedent this is going to set?
I would say that within 10 to 15 years, churches and other religous organizations will lose their tax-exempt status.
How do you figure that? What will happen in america that will cause it?
And taxing churches could bring in more tax money.
I doubt they'll ever lose their tax-exempt status, but I think they will come under more scrutiny from the IRS. I've railed about this previously in other forums, but most religious organizations (including churches) are not required to file annual tax returns with the IRS, even though most other tax-exempt organizations are.
Usually an organization's tax return is prepared after a certified public accountant audits the organization's financial activities. The audit process will usually turn up any sketchy activity, and CPAs are legally bound to report such activity to the leaders of the organization, and to the IRS if the activity is particularly egregious.
I'm surprised this woman didn't hire a forensic accountant to go through the church's records if she was so convinced that so much of her money was tied up in the church.
Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.
Why Believe?
I read once that this sort of thing is why the Catholic church stopped allowing priests to get married. Not because of divorce, of course, but church assets being passed on to children of priests as inheritance.
So the protestants just need to stop allowing preachers to get married.
Ta-Dah! This issue is solved.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci