Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
A reader sent along a fundraising letter from Faith and Action, a religious right group that seeks to evangelize the political leaders in Washington DC, that I found quite amusing.
Please let me confide in you as I get right to the point-we just got sucker-punched and now we need your help to recover from the blow!You know Faith and Action is the only Christian missionary outreach to our top-government officials located across the street from the Supreme Court, one block from the US Capitol and ten minutes from the White House. That also puts us directly in the crosshairs of the enemies of the work of God like the ACLU, the American Atheists and current leaders in Congress that sympathize with them. We've learned over the years there's nothing they won't stop short of doing to shut down Faith and Action.
Before I go into detail about what just happened, let me remind you (and them, if they're reading this) that we resolved before God long ago that we will never let intimidation or force of any kind drive us out of this critical mission field. By God's grace and with his help we have stood up to these bullies before and we will do it again!
Demons: the ACLU, American Atheists, and of course, those unnamed political leaders that are the enemies of all things good and righteous - i.e. liberals. But guess what? This "sucker punch" didn't have a damn thing to do with any of those groups.
Out of the blue, without warning, the Federal District of Columbia government, which is now at the beck and call of the current congressional leadership, pulled out an old rule and hit us right where it hurts-in the pocketbook!They went back several years in their records and demanded we pay a "fee" of $8,500 plus penalties for "recording" the deed on our ministry center property. This was a fee our title company insisted non-profit church-related organizations ARE NEVER REQUIRED TO PAY!
However, the Federal District of Columbia Legal Department "reviewed" our status and determined, in retrospect-and without further explanation-that we did have to pay this draconian fee, plus huge penalties or face even greater fines (although we are a fully qualified tax-exempt religious/charitable non-profit corporation). We appealed but lost, so this past week we were forced to pay this "fee" totaling $12,456.01.
We've prayed about this, talked at length with our lawyers and with Christian legal experts and they say at this stage the Federal District of Columbia Government holds all the cards and we have no alternative.
In other words, their title company was full of shit and they really do have to pay this entirely legal and required fee. OMG, those evil atheists are out to destroy us! Highly dishonest marketing.
Politics
Comments
Part and parcel of delusional thinking. Everyone is out to get them.
These folks save up the slights and attacks against them and spray them out like shotgun pellets. One pellet is often enough to bring down game. They scatter the shot in hopes that the recipient agrees with at least one bogey man on the list. Targeted bullshit. It must work either because the recipients are afraid or are morons. Either way they don't belong in government.
Posted by: MikeMa | February 7, 2010 9:21 AM
Wow. Someone in DC grew a pair and decided to make a religious group pay their fair share instead of free-loading.
Posted by: Chris Caprette | February 7, 2010 9:30 AM
Perhaps Faith and Action needs to learn the difference between "missionary outreach" and "lobbying." It seems that D.C. has figured it out.
Posted by: BobApril | February 7, 2010 9:34 AM
They used to demonize the Democrats as Communists.
They seem to have de-emphasized this attack, they label them "Socialists", now.
Is it progress ?
Oh, and Liberal is still a dirty word. I wonder why.
Posted by: _Arthur | February 7, 2010 10:14 AM
Not to worry. Some chump driving a Cadillac, with a toy poodle hanging out the window, will fork over the dough.
How these people can claim to have God on their side while playing the victim gets me!
Posted by: Reverend Rodney | February 7, 2010 10:27 AM
Rev @5:
They trump up all these powerful enemies, then survive in spite of them, "only by the grace of God," dontcha know. Trials of Job for this [snark]righteous organization.[/snark].
Posted by: ERinSTL | February 7, 2010 11:14 AM
Uhh... $8.5K for recording a deed? I worked on title and lien issues for a mortgage company for years, and I never saw a recording fee anywhere close to that. Methinks that there is a lot more involved in that figure than a recording fee.
Posted by: Chuck C | February 7, 2010 11:43 AM
Huh. When I bought my house, I paid an extra fee that was insurance against mistakes made by the title company. So that if the title company did make a mistake that would have cost me money, someone else would have paid for the mistake.
Posted by: Chiroptera | February 7, 2010 12:19 PM
Despite the analogy actually being in "dumb ass" territory, I do agree with the point being made.
Posted by: Chiroptera | February 7, 2010 12:22 PM
Oops. That last comment of mine was supposed to be in another thread. Sorry.
Posted by: Chiroptera | February 7, 2010 12:26 PM
Chuck C states:
Two impressions . . . I agree, in my county in Michigan it's $56 (it was $20 for years). In addition, we are talking about a socially conservative outfit, so some combination of dishonesty and idiocy is also probably in play.
Using this site as a resrouce it appears that if this orginzation saw a transfer of property with consideration rather than a quit claim deed, than the value of the property was probably in the low to hundred hundreds of thousands of dollars based on whether their plea for money to cover the Deed Recordation Tax or also includes that plus the Deed Transfer Tax.
My guess (and it really is a guess):
a) they purchased the property for some consideration
b) they paid their recording fees at their Closing, contrary to their soliticitation.
c) they were able to close a couple of years ago without paying one or both transfer taxes, which they are now on the hook to pay. Mostly likely they purchased the property under a seller-financed land contract, they recently refinanced and paid-off the seller which resulted in the transfer of the warranty deed (which sellers normally pay if they're cashed-out at th closing).
d) They paid about $386K for their property ($8500/(1.1% Deed Transfer Tax + 1.1% Deed Recordation Tax = $386,364)
In my state (MI) and county the transfer taxes run .75% and .11% respectively, totaling .86%.
Posted by: Michael Heath | February 7, 2010 12:38 PM
My favorite quote: "the American Atheists and current leaders in Congress that sympathize with them."
I had no idea atheists were so influential with congress! That must be why anyone running for public office has to pretend not to be religious!
Seriously, what world do these people live in?
Posted by: Eric R | February 7, 2010 1:44 PM
Is this the same outfit as runs C Street House, or do all these loony groups just sound the same to me?
Posted by: BaldApe | February 7, 2010 3:13 PM
Bald Ape - nope, this is a different crew than the C Street posse. Note the claim to be "the only Christian missionary outreach to our top-government officials located across the street from the Supreme Court, one block from the US Capitol and ten minutes from the White House." The other lobbyist-missionaries have different addresses.
Fans of Rob Schenck (proprietor of F&A) will be gratified to know that he ended up turning a profit on the whole deal:
Yeah, he likes to use the g-word a lot.
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | February 7, 2010 4:11 PM
"They used to demonize the Democrats as Communists.
They seem to have de-emphasized this attack, they label them "Socialists""
To your typical far-right crazy, socialist and communist mean exactly the same thing.
Actually they mean exactly the same thing to most of the moderates too, in my experience. American education on government and economic systems seems to consist of 'go team capitalism!'
Posted by: Suricou Raven | February 7, 2010 4:35 PM
I see appeals similar to this from the FRC on a regular basis. Maybe not *quite* as blatently manipulative, but close. 'The nasty anti-God liberals have done something that will cost us money! Show your faith by donation now.'
And with a complete lack of self-awareness, they also advocate a stratagy they refer to as 'defunding the left' - targeting liberal organisation's funding sources and hitting them with expensive legal actions and unfavorably expensive laws in an attempt to deplete their money supply.
Posted by: Suricou Raven | February 7, 2010 5:01 PM
Only if you equate progress with utterly destroying the credibility of socialism. The Democrats are an unmitigated corporatist disaster; anything they touch turns to ash.
Case in point.
Posted by: Miko | February 7, 2010 5:59 PM
Michael Heath: I think your scenario is correct: They paid the title transfer fee at closing, but not the transfer tax; here in NC they are both paid at closing, but I can see doing thing differently. Here in NC the tax is purchasing tax stamps good for 2% of the sales price, in general.
And how did lobbyists come to believe that they were immune from all governmental fees? This is just a weird assumption. That, and why were they concerned with an amount less than what lots of DC offices pay their intern? This is just senseless. Good to know that God's running out of money for this nonsense. He really doesn't much care about economics, you know.
Posted by: kehrsam | February 7, 2010 7:08 PM
We've learned over the years there's nothing they won't stop short of doing to shut down Faith and Action.
Surely the Faith and Action writer meant, "there's nothing they will stop short of (refrain from) doing to shut down Faith and Action"? It seems that "God's grace and ... help" doesn't extend to acting as a English coach.
Posted by: Ted Powell | February 7, 2010 11:36 PM
"an English coach"
Posted by: Ted Powell | February 7, 2010 11:37 PM
The Bierce-Hartmann-McLean-Skitt Law of Prescriptivist Retaliation strikes again. :-)
Posted by: Walton | February 8, 2010 4:08 AM
I'll pray that they keep praying and ignore the letters advising them that they need to pay. Bah, what the hell am I talking about - prayer is useless - except for extracting money from other people who believe in prayer.
Posted by: MadScientist | February 8, 2010 7:25 AM
Miko:
Are you making a point of some sort? What exactly is your idea of a "corporatist disaster". Are you saying that libs/dems are not as adept at fucking the public as the reactionaries/repukes? If so, I'll concede the point.
Posted by: democommie | February 8, 2010 8:59 AM