Comments on: Religion and Bankruptcy

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 07:29:18 +0000

Listed below are some possible reasons for the high rate of bankruptcy in Utah but my observations from living in Utah for three years:

*great percentage of self employed people and people working for small businesses

*greater percentage of MLMs (multi-level marketing schemees)

*lack of large private employers and Fortunes 500 companies based in Utah

By: Xanthippas

Xanthippas — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:54:44 +0000

Unless a study controls for all of the various factors that can influence bankruptcy filings, I’m not sure how much use it is other than as anecdote.

By: Nate Oman

Nate Oman — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:22:34 +0000

I don’t think that the issue is whether one can pay tithing in bankruptcy. Rather, I think it is whether or not a bankruptcy may void a pre-bankruptcy transfer to a religious entity. I am torn on this issue. On one hand, I am not particularlly sympathetic to the claim that insolvent debtors ought to be able to give their assets to a church thus depriving their creditors of payment. On the other hand, I can understand the concerns of churches (particularlly small, congregationally based churches) that run the risk of getting sucked into expensive litigation over the scope of a trustee’s right to pre-petition payments.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:57:51 +0000

I find this a fascinating area of law–particularly on the question of whether someone can continue tithing into bankruptcy.

Compare, for example:

Jool Nie Kang, TITHING: A FRAUDULENT TRANSFER OR A MORAL OBLIGATION? 18 Bankr. Dev. J. 399

and

Richard Corbi, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO CABLE TV, BUT NOT EDUCATION: A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE BANKRUPTCY CODE TO PERMIT ALL EDUCATION EXPENSES IN CHAPTER 13 BANKRUPTCY PLANS, 43 Fam. Ct. Rev. 625 (2005)