Ethics

Church/State Implications for Bailout Plan?

By Ed Brayton

Howard Friedman asks some interesting questions about the Bush plan to create a $700 billion fund to purchase bad mortgages.

An August 8 article in The Deal points out that a surprising number of churches are delinquent in their mortgage payments and face foreclosure, though lenders attempt to avoid foreclosing. In many cases the mortgage holders are not financial institutions, but instead holders of church bonds. But where the mortgage lender is a bank, is the draft bailout legislation broad enough to permit purchase of shaky church mortgages by the Treasury? If so, are there any church-state problems with the federal government essentially owning an interest in church buildings?

A very good question.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on September 23, 2008 (boomark / email).