His name is written in the Book II

The first post in this series is here.

Okay, who really thinks that Bradley Dean Smith (Bradlee Dean) and You Can Run But You Cannot Hide took a spin on Comet Kohoutek between 2002 and 2008?

I don’t think so either. But according to this site, they did give temporal authority the slip between those years:

(The record that is indicated to be from 2003 is actually the original 2002 non-profit  990 return, as mentioned in the posted linked above, it was corrected, and that is the 2002 record in the database; they both cover activity for the “short” year 2002.)

But we know that YCR was around in the interim, at least to get evicted from its office in Plymouth in 2007!

Let’s try a little inferential exercise to see what was happening to YCR during the “missing years.” Line 9 of the 2002 form 990 shows $35,841 in revenue for the three-month period covered by the “final return.” That includes revenue of $31,819 from gifts and grants. On an annualized basis, that’s just a little short of $144,000.

Moving to 2008, the next period for which YCR files a 990, line 9 of the return shows $385,670 in revenue, and of that $368,903 was gifts or grants. Since the new YCR was incorporated in April of 2008, this revenue is probably for less than for the year, too, perhaps substantially less.

(It is the “grants” that I would love to see broken out by grantor, especially to see how much public money might be included.)

It is safe to say the YCR organization was growing during this time.

But what brought YCR back from the comet, down to earth, in from the cold, in 2008?

It was probably a “come to Jesus meeting.” So to speak.

Karl Bremer has chronicled Smith and YCR’s involvement with the tax frauster Glen Stoll so well that it need not be recounted here. Although you probably will want to read about some of Stoll’s other customers, the people who ran the creationist theme park with dinosaurs and people frolicking together. So it’s easy to see the quality of the intellect that Stoll attracted.

There came a time when Bremer’s posts, and the attention of Andy Birkey, too, became uncomfortable enough that YCR was prompted to get its tax lawyer to write a letter to the publisher of the Minnesota Independent and to complain to the Washington County Sheriff about Bremer. The tax lawyers says, hey, everybody’s current; don’t darken YCR’s doorstep again, intimating that it would be defamation if anybody wrote anything contrary to what the lawyer said.

But, this is the same lawyer who signed as the preparer of YCR’s 990 return for 2009 which showed tax-free ministerial housing allowances to Bradley Dean Smith in the amount of $45,887 and Jacob MacAulay in the amount of $24,869. That’s just for 2009.

By now, you won’t be surprised to know that Karl and Andy wrote about this, too. But I have a little more to add.

Remember the name Judy Sky? Sky Ministries and a church called His Present Glory in Newport, Minnesota are listed as the ordaining or authorizing body in Bradley Dean Smith’s ministerial credential filing in the Big Book of Reverends. Well, it seemed odd that a single church – or person - could make a minister out of Smith, so I decided to inquire. An internet search reveals that His Present Glory is now called 3rd Day Ministries. A telephone call to the number listed for 3rd Day Ministries yields a disconnect message. I found a telephone listing for a Judy Sky, and I’ve left messages at that number – identifying myself as Steve Timmer, not Spot, of course – but those calls have not been returned.

Perhaps more significantly, I have made several requests to YCR – again identifying myself – over the last three weeks requesting information about the ordination or other ministerial credentials of the YCR staff, any seminary or other religious training received by them, and since they preach about it a lot, any constitutional law education received by, especially, Smith and Jacob MacAulay. After the third request, I was told that YCR’s attorney would be in touch, but he never has been.

Without the assistance of the parties, what can we say about YCR’s payment of tax-free ministerial housing allowances to Smith and MacAulay?

If we climb in the way-back machine, and look at the 2002 form 990 for the old YCR, the directors and officers of YCR are listed as follows:

(Did you note the ministerial housing allowance here, too? Not to mention that Smith and Sky have the same address.)

It certainly looks like Judy Sky has been a mentor to Smith for a long time. And if you read Judy Sky’s testimony on the 3rd Day Ministries website, her religious organizations have been involved, principally, it is fair to say, in substance abuse recovery ministry. Nothing wrong with that, admirable, really. That’s probably how Sky and Smith became acquainted.

But it doesn’t mean that Sky can appoint ministers for tax purposes.

Smith and YCR have ranged far afield, and away from pastoral activities to, inter alia, do a radio show on a conservative political station (with aspirations to go national, apparently), have a punk rock band, and – again according to Dean and MacAulay on the radio – give talks at the behest of conservative political organizations to college political science classes.

Well, it can’t be avoided any longer; we’ll have to look into what the IRS thinks makes a minister for purposes of the housing allowance. That’s what I will try to do, in vivid and arresting prose, in the next post.