PRESS
RELEASE
President
Signs Bill That Will Protect Tithes and Charitable Donations
On Friday, June 19, President
Clinton signed into law the Religious Liberty
and Charitable Donation Protection Act of 1998, a bill supported by the
4,000-member Christian Legal Society. The
new law protects churches, parachurch ministries and secular charities
from having to give to bankruptcy
creditors all donations received by the charity from a donor who later
went bankrupt.
Bankruptcy trustees from
Kentucky to Oregon have sued churches to confiscate offerings received
up to six years before the donor
filed bankruptcy. "Congress
and the President heard our message and have told bankruptcy judges to
get their hands out
of the offering plate," remarked Steven T. McFarland, director of
the Center For Law And
Religious Freedom, the legal
information and advocacy arm of the Christian
Legal Society.
McFarland helped draft the
bill and testified on the problem before both Senate
and House Judiciary subcommittees
last September and February, respectively. "This
law will not allow a debtor or a charity to rip off creditors; if
the creditors' trustee can prove
actual fraud, then they can
still recover the donations," McFarland explained.
"But the Act declares
an end to the hunting season
on the coffers of innocent churches. Charities
no longer have to give creditors
the donations they received from their sincere, consistent
supporters."
"This isn't giving churches
special treatment. The bill protects all charities,
religious and secular," continued
McFarland. "Christian Legal Society applauds Congress and the
White House for their
willingness to work together
to end this threat to the autonomy of religious
institutions and other charities."
Christian
Legal Society is a national membership organization of nearly
4,500 Christian attorneys,
judges, law professors and law
students, as well as supportive laypeople.
The Center for Law and Religious
Freedom is CLS' advocacy arm. Since 1975, the Center has filed
briefs by top
church-state experts in
scores of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and
lower courts in support of
religious liberty for all faiths.
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