Kudos to William ...

[Bruce Gourley]

... for being regarding his opposition to the clergy housing exemption (a view I agree with).

[Ed Pettibone]

[ET]

It will be interesting to see if William encounters some blowback from all this.

Interesting discussion.....my brother is an SBC pastor, but in modest to small size churches. I'll have to get him to read William's blog and discuss it with him.

[William Thornton]

I am not opposed to the housing allowance although no sensible and responsible person can justify the current tax laws that allow for unlimited use of it on a minister's home. I will link an informative article on it Tomorrow.

Some of the people who write and comment on Forbes believe the HA to be unconstitutional. I do not. Some think a workable solution is to cap the amount, a view that I cannot find a strong argument against.

[Bruce Gourley]

[William Thornton]

My view on the clergy housing allowance is that it is a welcome tax break for ministers but one that is viewed by the public only when abuses are publicized. These abuses contribute to the pressure to revise or eliminate it. I would much rather revise it than eliminate it.

I started a separate topic for this here in the SBCNT forum.

[Tim Bonney]

[Stephen Fox]

Congrats to William. Forbes is a real number. And to get mentioned there bespeaks of his writing ability.

It still befuddles me how he remains a fundamentalist, however. I do wish William would read Marilynne Robinson on Calvin. I think his Forbes Fan will be impressed if he navigates Robinson and has a take.

No schadenfreude here, but I do invoke Marshall Frady to good end in my latest blog on Furman's Convocation for the Academic Year. Not written as well as Thornton does routinely, but strong substance; a place I'm convinced Marshall and his Father Yates would want Thornton to go.