Mark Driscoll and other politically conservative Christians have accused the US evangelical magazine Christianity Today of taking government money. In some cases calling it a USAID grant. (USAID is the United States Agency for International Development, which President Trump is seeking to drastically scale back so it is virtually abolished.)
Some tied that money to USAID. From a YouTuber:
Respected theologian Robert Gagnon posted Megan Basham’s comments on FB with the comment “Christianity Today, funded by Democrats? For what purpose?” But that post has disappeared from Gagnon’s feed. And so has Basham’s post too! (UPDATE, a reader tells The Other Cheek that Gagnon’s post is still live.)
Because it turns out it was money for keeping people on staff during Covid.
Here’s what the US tax system definition of a Employee Retention credit is “The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) – sometimes called the Employee Retention Tax Credit or ERTC – is a refundable tax credit for certain eligible businesses and tax-exempt organizations that had employees and were affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The requirements are different depending on the time period for which you claim the credit. The ERC is not available to individuals.”
Readers will remember similar policies in Australia during Covid.
This has been episode one million and seventy three of “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet.”