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AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A court says a dormitory associated with a televangelist's Ohio megachurch qualifies for a tax exemption because it facilitates public worship by providing free lodging for people attending services.
Suburban Akron's Grace Cathedral is home to televangelist Ernest Angley (AYNJ'-lee). His tactics at controlling his congregation by requiring some parishioners to have vasectomies and other methods were the subject of a newspaper investigation last year. He denied wrongdoing.
Ohio Supreme Court justices sided Tuesday with the church in a state Board of Tax Appeals challenge.
The state argued Grace Cathedral uses the dorm to support events intended to benefit its private, for-profit subsidiaries, not the general public, and so was ineligible for a charitable exemption.
The church said dorms housed people attending live religious services whose global reach and impact classify them as public worship.
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