Texas Comptroller gets UU-ed... Big Time!

The Fort Worth Startle Gram (what we Cowtown natives call the Star Telegram) reports that the Unitarian Church of Deniison, TX, is, after all, an actual church and, therefore, deserving of tax-exempt status.

Duh.

Denison church's tax-exempt status granted

By Jay Root

Star-Telegram Austin Bureau

AUSTIN _ Reversing an earlier decision, state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn announced Monday that a Unitarian church in Denison would get its tax-exempt status after all.

The decision came after the Star-Telegram reported on May 18 that the comptroller's office had ruled the Red River Unitarian Universalist Church was not a religious organization for tax purposes.

The status was denied, the state said, because the church "does not have one system of belief."

Stunned church officials said it was the first time in U.S. history that any state had denied tax exempt status to the Unitarians because of their religious philosophy. Father-and-son presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams are among past adherents of the Unitarian church.

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"She's either abysmally ignorant of the law or a religious bigot," said Robert London, spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington, D.C. "She's acting like a grand inquisitor in deciding what should be a religion."

Jesse Ancira, general counsel for the comptroller's office, said Strayhorn is no bigot and isn't prejudiced toward any religion. He said that other Unitarian Universalist church groups have been granted tax exemptions but that each case is evaluated separately.

I repeat.

Duh.

"In this case, we didn't think they met the test of religious worship," he said this week. "We know they have a common belief in moral and ethical principles, but there is no one statement of faith. It's a free and open belief in several religions, including those that believe in a higher power."

Carole Keeton Strayhorn (f/k/a Carole Keeton Rylander, f/k/a Carole Keeton McClellan, f/k/a Carole Keeton) is the daughter of W. Page Keeton, former dean of the University of Texas Law School, who was co-author of the most widely-used treatise on tort law, Prosser & Keeton on Torts.

Perhaps Ms. Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn (a name most true believers would cite while stoning her to death at the well!) needs a history lesson:

the Unitarian Church was in fact founded in 1567 in Koloszvar, Translvania. Over the centuries, borders have shifted over this town and back. When it has been Hungarian, the name is as above; when Austrian, it is called Klaussenberg; and when Romanian, Cluj.

Here'a clue for you, Carole:

The First Unitarian Church of Baltimore was established in 1817.

In 1967 the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Unitarians throughout the world, observed its/their 400th anniversary in Koloszvar/Klaussenberg/Cluj, as was widely reported, and of course many visited it. At present, the UUA has announced a job opening there for a divinity student to teach English as a Second Language.

There were Unitarian settlers from England worshipping in Colonial America, and various early historical figures before 1825 have professed or been claimed for the faith.

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