It's not just Bethelites...All of Babylon is sinking fast!

by cameo-d 4 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  cameo-d

  Laid-off religious workers denied jobless benefits

  God may provide, but the state may not when it comes to unemployment benefits for employees laid off by churches, synagogues and other religious groups.

  Carol Bronson discovered that a few months ago after she lost her secretarial job at Temple Emanuel synagogue in Virginia Beach. Bronson assumed she could draw unemployment benefits, but when she filed a claim, she was denied.

  It was a hard way to learn that under Virginia law, as in many states, tax exemptions for religious organizations include freedom from paying unemployment taxes, though the IRS requires they pay Social Security and withholding taxes.

  "I had no idea that there would not be any benefits for me after leaving my job," said Bronson, who worked at the synagogue for two years.

  .....

  Budget cuts, including layoffs, are one way religious congregations are coping with a recession that has slashed their income from investments or contributions.

  Earlier this year, a survey by the National Association of Church Business Administration showed that 32 percent of responding U.S. churches were having economy-related difficulties, up from 14 percent in August. Twenty percent said they had laid off staff.

  Not every state bars unemployment compensation to employees of religious groups.

  In New York, for example, employees whose work is not religious in nature, such as a cook or a secretary, are entitled to benefits, and their employer must pay the state unemployment tax, said Karen Williamson of the New York Department of Labor.

  But in Virginia, the lack of state unemployment benefits surprised Jane Dembert, who was laid off by Christ and St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Norfolk earlier this year.

  Dembert was the church's director of communications and had worked there 17 years when she lost her job. She filed for state unemployment benefits and was denied.

  .....

  Coleman Walsh, chief administrative law judge with the state's employment commission, said his experience is that most people don't know faith-based groups are exempt from unemployment taxes.

  -------------------------------------------------------------

  And I bet no one in the church payroll office ever told them, even if they knew!!
• 

  purplesofa

  thanks for posting!!!!
• 

  Marjorie

  Thank you for posting this article, Cameo.

  In New York, for example, employees whose work is not religious in nature, such as a cook or a secretary, are entitled to benefits, and their employer must pay the state unemployment tax, said Karen Williamson of the New York Department of Labor.

  This is great news for many of the Society's ex-Bethelites!

  However, even if they were made aware of this provision, most will not avail themselves of it. Sad.
• 

  cameo-d

  Bye-Bye Babylon. Watchtower will topple soon, too.

  Earlier this month, Bishop Richard G. Lennon of the Diocese of Cleveland, which serves more than 750,000 Catholics, announced that 29 parishes will close and 41 others will merge. The reconfiguration plan, which will effectively cut 52 parishes in the current tally of 224, is scheduled to go into effect by June 30, 2010.

  Other cities that have had waves of closures have included places as various as Camden, New Jersey; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and New York City. All of this comes at a time when the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports that Catholicism in America has lost more affiliated members than any other faith tradition.

  (from March 25, 2009)
• 

  cameo-d

  More victims of "christian" child abuse to be vindicated!

  Archbishop slams orders over response to child abuse

  26 May 2009

  excerpts:

  DUBLIN Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has attacked Irish Catholic orders for concealing their culpability in decades of child abuse, and said they needed to pay greater compensation to victims. Yesterday's comments from the veteran Vatican diplomat were the harshest yet to be made by a Roman Catholic leader following last week's report detailing widespread abuse in scores of Church-run industrial schools from the 1930s to 1990s. Seven years ago, the orders agreed to pay 128 million (£113m) to the government to be protected from victims' civil lawsuits. Everyone who accepts the state settlements, which average 65,000, must waive their right to sue both the Church and government. Their abusers' identities are also being kept secret.
  
  Scores of other alleged victims have refused the offer and sued the Church and state authorities, with mixed results. Mr Martin said many church leaders remained "in denial" following a nine-year investigation by a child abuse commission, which recently published a devastating 2,600-page report.
  
  He said the report documented beyond any doubt that Church institutions were places where "children were placed in the care of people with practically no morals". He spoke of the Church's "stunning" failure to complete transfers of cash, property and land worth at least 128m over the past seven years. "There may have been legal difficulties, but they are really a poor excuse after so many years," he wrote. http://news.scotsman.com/world/Archbishop-slams---orders.5300736.jp