Jay Sekulow
February 18, 2007
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Jay Sekulow is a name that comes up constantly in church/state separation cases because he has made a name for himself in representing Christian Nationalists. Perhaps he is just a tireless crusader on behalf of the fight against secular government. Or, maybe he's just in it for the money. He and members of his family have made over $33 million since 1998 from the Christian Right legal organizations and charities they run.
According to The Tennessean, these are just some of the profits and payments which Jay Sekulow and his family have gotten since 1998:
- $15.4 million to the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, a law firm co-owned by Jay Sekulow. According to the 2009 tax form, he owns 50 percent of CLAG. The firm was known as the Center for Law and Justice when it received some of the payments.
- $5.7 million to Gary Sekulow, Jay Sekulow's brother. He is paid for two full-time jobs -- as CFO of both the American Center for Law and Justice, or ACLJ, and Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, or CASE. In 2009, his combined compensation topped $600,000.
- $2.74 million in private jet lease payments to Regency Productions, a company owned by Jay Sekulow, and PFMS, a company owned by his sister-in-law, Kim Sekulow.
- $1.78 million to Regency Productions for leasing office space and media production.
- $1.11 million to PFMS for administrative and media buying services.
- $1.6 million to Pam Sekulow, Jay Sekulow's wife, including a $245,000 loan from CASE, which she used to purchase a home from the charity. The balance of the loan was later forgiven over several years and reported on the 990s as income.
- $681,911 to Jay Sekulow's sons, Logan and Jordan, for media work and other duties at CASE.
It's obviously not unreasonable to earn a decent salary just because you're operating a non-profit organization or a charity. If you put in a lot of hours and bring a lot of benefit to an organization, you should be compensated reasonably -- but critics argue that there's more going on here than simply a decent compensation package.
And some of those critics of conservative Christians.
One of the charities is controlled by the Sekulow family -- tax documents show that all four of CASE's board members are Sekulows and another is an officer -- an arrangement criticized by a nonprofit watchdog group. ...
Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity watchdog group, said there's a problem when a charity's board is dominated by family members.
Nonprofit board members are supposed to be independent and look out for the best interests of donors. That's nearly impossible with so many family members on a board, he said, after reviewing three years of CASE and ACLJ tax returns.
"Are they going to operate in the best interest of the family or the best interest of the charity or the public?" he said. "They are only human."
John Whitehead, founder of the conservative Rutherford Institute, a Christian civil rights charity founded in 1982, was more blunt about Sekulow, whose work he has followed for years.
When Christian charities become successful, he said, they can lose sight of the ethics of their faith, which include handling money with care. Six-figure salaries and perks like a private jet clash with Christian ideals about charity.
"If you read the New Testament, the founder of Christianity said, 'I have no place to lay my head,' " Whitehead said. "I am aghast at modern evangelism and the money."
Source: The Tennessean
Jay Sekulow of course has his defenders, but some of his defenders seem to have trouble making a convincing argument. Curiously, the worst may come from someone who is actually being paid to defend Sekulow -- Ronn Torossian, a public relations executive serving as an ACL spokesman. Torossian insists that Sekulow has a "very small" income ad a "very small" home.
But, uh, which of his homes is "very small"? He has three: a $655,000 home in Tennessee, a $690,000 home in Virginia, and a $262,800 home in North Carolina. If any of them are "very small," then Jay Sekulow was cheated and I'm not sure that his judgment can be trusted. Just how likely do you think that really is, though?
No comments:
Post a Comment