According
to §107 of the US Tax Code, all “ministers of the gospel” are free from income
tax on their housing expenses. Not
everyone thinks this benefit is a good idea. The most recent of several
challenges came in November 2013 when the Wisconsin District Court ruled that
the clergy tax benefit was unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause. Judge
Barbara Crabb made the decision because,
she argued, the tax benefit is given to individuals solely based on religious
merit, not on need – “basically, clergy treat the tax benefit as a public
entitlement, and they are afraid to lose it.” That decision has drawn a lot of
criticism from religious organizations. Read the complete article at -- http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2014/11/21/how-rich-pastors-are-getting-richer-while-poor-pastors-stay-poor/35143
The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
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