Name and shame
Churches are being hauled over the coals in public for being late with their charity returns. The Charity Commission (CC) ‘name and shame’ tactic, employed against registered charities late with their returns, is making many Christian organisations ‘bad witnesses’.
The CC shows the name and record of submission of returns and accounts in full view on its web site. Those that are late are highlighted in red and marked as overdue; and the number of days they are late by is also clearly displayed.
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is urging its members to ‘look to their affairs’ as many of these churches are ‘red-lined’ – indeed, some of them have taken years to submit their returns to the CC.
On its web site, the FIEC said that it was ‘inexcusable that an evangelical church should ever fall behind. It must mean that the church has been careless or indifferent in responding to the regulatory requirements and this is a bad witness and an unnecessary one’.
