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Hot Tubs and Real Estate Transactions
Jul. 31st, 2021 12:22 pmContent warning — does have a bunch of hot tub and real estate in it (and will have more as I edit it), but it’s mostly about right wing / evangelical organizations sexually abusing minors and others.
https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/they-arent-who-you-think-they-are
“The next year, White purchased real estate valued at $47,818.50. According to multiple interviews, White commonly bought property for directors and assisted directors in their financial needs. The house Newman built on that land included elements particularly attractive to children, including a hot tub and a fireman’s pole.”
That blog post is very long, very worth reading, deeply disturbing, and mentions a Ravi Zacharias post by the same authors. I recently read a Christianity Today article about the collapse of RZIM, which was referenced by the David French blog post about the events (I got that order of that backwards, and it was all spawned by a longer report).
I call out the paragraph about the property purchase, because while the sexual allegations are obviously horrifying, I suspect that the easiest part of all of this terrifying awful to prosecute will be tax evasion on the purchase, sale and non-monetary transfer of real estate. I think there is a lot of that going on, with people failing to pay state and federal income and capital gains and/or gift tax on these transfers. I also suspect a lot of money laundering going on, as money that is tax advantaged as a donation to a church is used to purchase real estate, which is then transferred to people (individual or corporate) without paying the taxes owing at that point. Basically: money donated to a church would be taxed when it is used to pay a pastor salary, however, if it buys property that gets transferred to the pastor (possibly through layers), the pastor may get the money without having to pay any taxes on it. If this is occurring at scale, among people who run megachurches and church-planting networks, this could be a ton of money, that in turn goes to political candidates and parties and causes and is distorting our nation’s politics.
About the authors of that piece: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/frenchrevolution/about/
Funny slice of life from early in their marriage: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/12/30/i-ignored-friends-familys-warnings-not-marry-my-husband-was-i-making-big-mistake/
These authors mention they did a piece on Ravi Zacharias and RZIM; here is a recent CT piece about RZIM that I read: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/ravi-zacharias-rzim-investigation-sexual-abuse-sexting-rape.html
The Dispatch is Substack for Christians, and let me tell you, the temptation to qualify that or put it in quotes is real, but I think not putting it in quotes is fine.
https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/they-arent-who-you-think-they-are
“The next year, White purchased real estate valued at $47,818.50. According to multiple interviews, White commonly bought property for directors and assisted directors in their financial needs. The house Newman built on that land included elements particularly attractive to children, including a hot tub and a fireman’s pole.”
That blog post is very long, very worth reading, deeply disturbing, and mentions a Ravi Zacharias post by the same authors. I recently read a Christianity Today article about the collapse of RZIM, which was referenced by the David French blog post about the events (I got that order of that backwards, and it was all spawned by a longer report).
I call out the paragraph about the property purchase, because while the sexual allegations are obviously horrifying, I suspect that the easiest part of all of this terrifying awful to prosecute will be tax evasion on the purchase, sale and non-monetary transfer of real estate. I think there is a lot of that going on, with people failing to pay state and federal income and capital gains and/or gift tax on these transfers. I also suspect a lot of money laundering going on, as money that is tax advantaged as a donation to a church is used to purchase real estate, which is then transferred to people (individual or corporate) without paying the taxes owing at that point. Basically: money donated to a church would be taxed when it is used to pay a pastor salary, however, if it buys property that gets transferred to the pastor (possibly through layers), the pastor may get the money without having to pay any taxes on it. If this is occurring at scale, among people who run megachurches and church-planting networks, this could be a ton of money, that in turn goes to political candidates and parties and causes and is distorting our nation’s politics.
About the authors of that piece: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/frenchrevolution/about/
Funny slice of life from early in their marriage: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/12/30/i-ignored-friends-familys-warnings-not-marry-my-husband-was-i-making-big-mistake/
These authors mention they did a piece on Ravi Zacharias and RZIM; here is a recent CT piece about RZIM that I read: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/ravi-zacharias-rzim-investigation-sexual-abuse-sexting-rape.html
The Dispatch is Substack for Christians, and let me tell you, the temptation to qualify that or put it in quotes is real, but I think not putting it in quotes is fine.