45. Defendant Patterson’s use of the Seminary to advance his own non-ecclesiastical personal and/or political beliefs is also demonstrated by the fact that he leases a portion of the Seminary property to the Republican Party.My guess is that everybody is getting a sweetheart deal out of this transaction. The GOP is financially supporting the authoritarian theology of its fundamentalist base and the seminary is teaching students how to spread the authoritarian ideology of its neo-conservative political allies.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
On the GOP's Lease at Southwestern Seminary
Thanks to Mark Gstohl, Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Xavier University, for his careful reading of the facts stipulated in the court documents for Sheri Klouda's law suit against Paige Patterson and Southwestern Seminary. He called my attention to fact number 45 on page 8 of the "Plaintiffs Third Amended Complaint and Request for Declaratory Judgment and Jury Demand." It is on page 13 of 26 in the .pdf file posted at the SBCOutpost. Here's what it says:
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8 comments:
What about separation of church and state?
Isn't there some problems with the tax laws with this? I can see, also, how it might help Klouda's case!
Not nearly all Republicans are neo-cons or authoritarian, are they?
What a relief to find out that Patterson's seminary has incorporated a place for his true God.
He is a political dominionist--long may the Republicans rule! His religion has nothing substantial to do with Christianity or the Bible.
An interesting test would be to see if he would rent space to the Democrats on the same terms.
Asinus,
You can't read the man's heart. Geez - a more intolerant comment would be hard to make. You apparently know someone's eternal destiny. Shame on you.
Bruce:
I hope you and all your commenters here have read Garry Wills on the Rove Era (and one could add the Patterson and Mohler era) in his American Christianities.
Still looking for a review from you, Bruce, as I hear Jim Evans and Brent Walker are working on a review as well.
Do you have contacts in Texas to get to the bottom of the Ed Young/Bill Clinton differences in their remembrances of Inerrancy and how it played in the 90's?
That could be as much fun as Patterson housing the GOP.
Garry Wills; must reading for you all.
Sfox
Good work on the conversation with Ben Cole. I hope you can pursue it in written transcript form; keying in on Adrian Rogers son affection for the Lausanne Covenant, an outreach that historically has been soft on the Inerrancy question.
Can Cole and Adrian's son embrace Lausanne Covenant without embracing the BWA and giving further pains to Mohler's wing of the SBC?????
Rhology, my role here is that of a fruit inspector.
Had you forgotten that passage about "by their fruits you shall know them"?
Elisabeth asked, "What about separation of church and state?" and "Isn't there some problems with the tax laws with this?" And Ron Spross mentioned "An interesting test would be to see if he would rent space to the Democrats on the same terms."
This really is not so much a church/state separation issue as an income tax issue. For example, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State's 'Tax Guide For Churches And Religious Organizations' points out, "Under the Internal Revenue Code, all IRC section 501(c)(3) organizations, including churches and religious organizations, are prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office." So this is a "trade off" -- accept the tax exempt status, play by our rules. Further, "Violation of this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status..."
And it would seem that there is nothing violational of the tax code in Southwestern leasing something to any political party to use, as long as they don't refuse to lease to any other parties who wish equal access. Again, from 'Tax Guide For Churches And Religious Organizations': "The question of whether an activity constitutes participation or intervention in a political campaign may also arise in the context of a business activity of the church or religious organization, such as...the leasing of office space..." This appears to be acceptable if "the good, service, or facility is available on an equal basis."
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