Members of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple remained camped at the church Friday morning, awaiting the arrival of U.S. marshals to seize the church property in a dispute over employment taxes totaling $6 million.

Congregation members have been keeping vigil at the church since Tuesday, the day church members were ordered by a district court judge to vacate the church property to satisfy the tax debt to the IRS.

The church stopped withholding federal income and employment taxes from its employees' paychecks in 1986, when it became a New Testament church, under the beliefs of which it is a sin for the church to pay taxes.

"It is against our religious practices for the church to pay taxes," congregation leader Greg A. Dixon said, speaking from the church Friday morning.

Dixon claims the dispute is over control, not the actual taxes. "The IRS wants them paid as employment taxes. We're paying them as self-employed ministers," he said. "A New Testament church is not an employer."

Dixon said an attorney for the church met with local and federal enforcement agencies Thursday to "open the lines of communication."

He added that church members have no plans to leave the church willingly, but emphasized that there will be no violence when the marshals come to seize the property.

"There's no room for compromise," he said. "If they shut us down, they'll do the same thing to churches all over the country," he said.

-- By Melissa Klein

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