In a column reprinted in today’s Virginian-Pilot, Michelle Singletary points out another loser in the last change to the bankruptcy laws: recipients of tithes.
Before the new law went into effect, bankruptcy court judges were required to permit debtors to tithe a portion of their income on a regular basis. Specifically, the Religious Liberty and Charitable Donation Protection Act of 1998 allowed debtors filing for bankruptcy protection to exempt up to 15 percent of their annual income from creditors for tithing or charitable donations.
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 trumped that law…
After this case was decided back in August, Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois) co-sponsored legislation to restore the prior law. The bill passed the Senate unanimously and is now awaiting action in the House.
A couple of things here. First, here is a specific example of a judge following the law and not legislative intent in deciding a case.
“It was not the ‘whim of judicial interpretation’ that produced the result,” said Jonathan C. Lipson, an associate professor of commercial, corporate and bankruptcy law at Temple University in Philadelphia.
“Quite the opposite,” Lipson said. “It was incompetent drafting by Congress that forced the judge to produce the result the statute compelled.”
Secondly, if you were a creditor, how would you feel if the church got paid before you? I’m not sure about this.
As I was researching this, I came across another blog posting on this same article. Check out Orthonomics for another take on this as well as some interesting questions.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
It’s the legislation that just keeps giving, isn’t it?
The Lord’s Prayer, at least according to Matthew 6:12, talks about forgiving “us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Why?
Because it was sinful to be in debt to someone.
Now, in today’s world, debt is a way of life. Debt has allowed us to live a more comfortably. But, also taught in the Bible is moderation. If debt is not under control, such as what happens in bankruptcy, is it not sinful? Is that person who loaned the money now going to suffer a loss because of the actions of the bankrupt party? Is that not a form of stealing?
Why would any church want to put added pressure on the congregant by expecting a tithe when that person cannot handle their own expenses?
Why? Because the church counts on those tithes to pay their bills.
Like I said, I’m not so sure that such payments should be allowed under the bankruptcy code. Supporting the church is important, but supporting yourself is more important. Perhaps without the tithing in some cases there would be fewer bankruptcies?
One can come up with several questions on this issue. Should tithing be an allowed budget item for a debtor in bankruptcy? If so, creditors may, in effect, be funding the debtor’s moral obligations when they may or may not agree with them. Should Congress base the tithe allowance on the same principle as allowing a tax deduction for charitable contributions? Should it be solely the debtor’s responsibility to carve out funds for tithing from the allowed budget only after paying creditors? Perhaps that is consistent with the “give under Caesar” command? I can see all sides. What I can’t accept are the arguments by bankruptcy lawyers that bankruptcy is moral under the Bible because God tells us to “forgive our debtors” in the Lord’s Prayer, or to forgive debts every severn years. A command to forgive our debtors is not nearly the same as DEMANDING that someone else forgive our debts under force of law. I am not commenting on the general ethics of morality of filing, just that mis-using and mischaracterizing the Bible to say that bankruptcy is somehow authorized by God is particularly objectionable. Bankruptcy is not a positive condition, and should not try to be passed off as such. The truth of that will set us free.
Another example of what a fantastic job the GOP has done of shifting the conversation. While we argue here about whether or not bankrupt individuals should be able to tithe, corporations are still able to shaft millions of people out of their earned health and retirement benefits through the bankruptcy process.
And look what we’re talking about.
MB – We are also not talking about the war in Iraq, the poisoning of the former KGP spy, and the abuse of energy drinks by teens I just read about. Is there a conspiracy to shift the conversation from those topics??? Some people simply have the ability to discuss a specific topic of interest without hearing the black helicopters overhead. I resent the fact that you, by posting about bankruptcy, are trying to shift the discussion from the fair tax.
Bugger off, Scott. The topics are intricately related. The bankruptcy bill was pushed primarily with a rhetoric of “personal responsibility”, and most of its defenders (mostly paid, but a few sad unpaid souls service it, too) follow that. If you don’t like that I’m pointing out that this discussion is akin to arguing over the arrangement of the deck chairs on the Titantic, well, that’s your problem, and not mine.
Oh, and please, take this as a personal attack – go troll for clients somewhere else.
Wow, basic name calling – always an impressive, intelligent argument.