To Define and to Rule: The IRS and Clergy Self-Employment

Abstract

This paper explores the implications of recent Internal Revenue Service rulings that have challenged the employment classification of selected religious leaders. Such actions raise important questions concerning the possible coercive actions of the state in shaping religious life. This work explores the role of ideology in such decisions, as well as the questionable role of bureaucratic discretion in these decisions. The IRS uses the employer/employee paradigm, which is central to corporate capitalist ideology to define the clergy/community relationship. The employer/employee paradigm conflicts with the communitarian ideology inherent in many religious communities. This article explores the significance of the free exercise and the establishment clauses of the federal constitution and argues that the present clergy status (self-employed) minimizes the conflict between church and state. This leaves the religious community free to debate the role of leadership within its internal polities.