Anthony McCann2 360x1000
lifeinmiddlemarch2
Lafayette and Jefferson 360x1000
storyparadox2
Spottswood William Robinson 360x1000
1paradide
Stormy Daniels 360x1000
Maria Popova 360x1000
2trap
399
Anthony McCann1 360x1000
2confidencegames
Learned Hand 360x1000
1theleasofus
13albion
2lookingforthegoodwar
Adam Gopnik 360x1000
499
1madoff
Margaret Fuller 360x1000
Maurice B Foley 360x1000
1transcendentalist
4albion
Margaret Fuller2 360x1000
Gilgamesh 360x1000
LillianFaderman
1defense
7confidencegames
1lafayette
Thomas Piketty2 360x1000
5albion
6confidencegames
5confidencegames
Richard Posner 360x1000
Betty Friedan 360x1000
3confidencegames
George M Cohan and Lerarned Hand 360x1000
8albion'
1gucci
2albion
2gucci
Tad Friend 360x1000
1jesusandjohnwayne
1lauber
1confidencegames
Margaret Fuller 2 360x1000
3theleastofus
1empireofpain
2theleastofus
1falsewitness
11632
7albion
Margaret Fuller4 360x1000
2falsewitness
299
storyparadox3
3defense
Ruth Bader Ginsburg 360x1000
Susie King Taylor2 360x1000
2transadentilist
Margaret Fuller3 360x1000
6albion
Edmund Burke 360x1000
1trap
lifeinmiddlemarch1
Office of Chief Counsel 360x1000
10abion
9albion
Storyparadox1
2paradise
1albion
Thomas Piketty3 360x1000
14albion
2lafayette
Mary Ann Evans 360x1000
Brendan Beehan 360x1000
3paradise
12albion
2defense
Margaret Fuller5 360x1000
James Gould Cozzens 360x1000
AlexRosenberg
1lookingforthegoodwar
Margaret Fuller1 360x1000
Mark V Holmes 360x1000
Susie King Taylor 360x1000
11albion
4confidencegames
2jesusandjohnwayne
Thomas Piketty1 360x1000
199
George F Wil...360x1000
Samuel Johnson 360x1000
3albion
Originally Published on forbes.com on February 21st, 2012

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William Thornton has graciously agreed to do a guest post on the clergy housing allowance.  Reverend Thornton blogs on issues related to his denomination under the title SBC Plodder.
When the housing allowance makes news, it is likely as a result of another lawsuit being filed against it or because of some prominent member of the clergy using the provision to shelter hundreds of thousands of their ministerial income on an opulent home or homes. Rarely newsworthy is the common, routine, and proper use of the allowance by tens of thousands of clergy for whom it is of such modest benefit that few non-clergy would object.
As a Southern Baptist pastor, I have benefited from the ministerial housing allowance and am fond of this particular expression of our tax policy. I have also been disgusted at the use of the housing allowance by a few highly paid clergy to shelter huge sums of income on fabulous primary homes and even second homes, though I understand that the latter has been suspended by a recent court decision.
I cannot make a sensible case for the average taxpayer paying taxes on his income without any exclusion for his modest home while wealthy clergy live in mansions valued in the millions and are able to exclude hundreds of thousands of dollars from income taxes under the housing allowance.
When Jesus said that in His Father’s house there were many mansions, I do not believe He had in mind a mansion of the type that wealthy clergy like ordained trumpeter Phil Driscoll and television evangelist Kenneth Copeland use to shelter income through the minister’s housing allowance. I also would speculate that Jesus would look askance at requiring others to underwrite part of the cost of such homes through tax policy.
But before we bury the allowance with a shrill trumpet blast from Rev. Driscoll or with haughty disgust over Elmer Gantry-type of religious racketeers, I would note that the average senior pastor in my own Southern Baptist Convention earns a salary of under $60,000. That pastor may live in a modest home provided by the congregation and almost certainly has no second home. Tens of thousands of these clergy appreciate the very modest tax benefit provided by the housing allowance.
I recognize that some object to the housing allowance on the basis of what they view as the illegitimacy of some members of the clergy whose ordination is viewed with suspicion. I grant that there are individual cases where it may be difficult to discern an ordained individual’s ministerial function and role but, again, only the most miniscule fraction of clergy would cause this question to be raised and I am wary of the government making determinations of legitimacy or illegitimacy of clergy. I have never known of a Southern Baptist minister who was ordained solely for the purpose of being eligible to shelter income through the housing allowance.
When our legislators or judiciary are asked to revisit the issue of the housing allowance, and there are some prickly issues involved in it, my hope is that they are not blinded by the tiniest fraction of recipients who raise the ire of us all so that they cannot see the vast bulk of people for whom it is beneficial.
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My own view of the housing allowance is very similar to Reverned Thornton’s and comes out of a similar environment from time spent as the most tax literate member of a congregation’s governing board.  I will note that I believe that a minister who is required as a condition of employment to live in a house provided by his congregation should be covered by Section 119, the convenience of the employer section. Ironically, in the sixties and seventies some parishes gave up their parsonages because it was unfair to the clergy who were losing out on the automatic accretion in wealth that came from home ownership.  Those were the days.
You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.