By Lonnie Wilkey
Editor, Baptist and Reflector
lwilkey@tnbaptist.org
FRANKLIN — The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board announced plans Sept. 2 to join an amicus (a strong interest in the case but not a party to the case, commonly referred to as “friend of the court”) brief in a certiorari (request to review a lower court decision) filed before the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of “New Life in Christ Church v. City of Fredericksburg, Virginia.”
“The Tennessee Baptist Mission Board was approached about joining the amicus brief by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF),” said Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the TBMB.
According to attorney Ryan Tucker of ADF, the case “involves denial of a tax exemption for parsonage housing and issues related to church autonomy.”
The case involves “church staff who live in and conduct their college ministry from the house on church property,” Tucker explained in a letter provided by Davis. [Read more…]