In a ruling last Friday, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago reportedly rejected congregation leader Rev. Greg Dixon Jr.'s request to delay the enforcement of an order by U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker requiring that the Indianapolis Baptist Temple surrender its property to satisfy a $6 million tax debt to the Internal Revenue Service, the Associated Press reported.

Judge Barker in September had ordered members of the congregation to vacate the church property by noon Nov. 14, and authorized U.S. marshals to seize the property by force if necessary.

Dixon reportedly plans to file another request for a stay with the Supreme Court, AP said. The case is thought to be the first in which the seizure of a church has been ordered to satisfy a tax debt, according to the report.

The dispute involves about $6 million in uncollected taxes including penalties and interest dating back to 1987. According to court documents, the IBT stopped filing federal employment tax returns and paying federal employment taxes in 1986, the year it renounced its status as an unincorporated religious society, and began defining itself as a New Testament Church, based on "its belief that the exclusive sovereignty of Jesus Christ over the church required it to disassociate itself from secular government authority."

On its Web site, the IBT claims that as a New Testament Church, and not a not-for-profit charity under the Internal Revenue Code, it is not tax-exempt, "but rather non-taxable as per the U.S. Constitution."  

In an update on the proceedings on its site, www.indianapolisbaptisttemple.com, IBT contends that if it "were to pay a tax or comply with the employer tax regulations of the federal government, or surrender the property of the Church . . . the Church would be recognizing a sovereign, i.e. government, over the Church which would be greater than the Lord Jesus Christ."

The church claims, "The act of doing so would not only be an act in disobedience to the ordinances and instructions of the Lord Jesus Christ, but would also be a denial of an attack on the Holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ as God."

-- SmartPros News Staff

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