In 2004, Hunter succeeded the legendary Rev. Cecil L. "Chip" Murray at First AME Church in
So it's good news that Hunter is negotiating with tax authorities to resolve his obligations, and that he and church financial officials have agreed that he will repay more than $100,000 in expenditures including family vacations, clothes and jewelry. The church also is instituting stricter accounting policies. Hunter now knows -- as other members of the clergy have discovered, sometimes too late -- that even preachers must render unto Caesar honest and transparent stewardship of the funds entrusted to them.
Although religious organizations derive many of their protections from the 1st Amendment to the Constitution, it's Congress that has decided to exempt them (and other nonprofit organizations) from taxation. What Congress giveth, it can taketh away.
At present, religious organizations actually receive more leeway than other nonprofits when it comes to reporting compensation. Like a charitable foundation or a blood bank, a church must certify that compensation is reasonable, but it doesn't have to file the same detailed paperwork about salaries. Government recognizes that a comfortable living for a pastor or bishop is viewed in some churches as both a matter of pride and a matter of faith.
That could change if the impression grows that churches -- or clerics -- are flouting the law. Sen. Charles E. Grassley of
