Would you take a moment to consider this question?

Can you think of anything which your government might do which would move you to do an act of civil disobedience as a moral witness and protest?  

           For some people, myself included, making war is such a thing.  That is why my wife and I sent the following letter to the U.S. government and the leaders of our spiritual community explaining why we are refusing to willingly pay the full amount of our federal income tax.  Again, can you think of anything…?.

April 5, 2012

Douglas Shulman, Commissioner
Internal Revenue Service 
Room 5577
1111 Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004

Dear Commissioner,

We pay these income taxes under protest, because of the unconscionable way they are spent.  You, the federal government, are spending 47%  of every tax dollar on the cost of past and present wars  (see http://www.warresisters.org).

 Killing people is not a workable way to make the world a better place, nor the United States a more secure place.  In plain language, this is no way to run a government.

 We are concerned in particular that in the future a court may find us in violation of international laws pertaining to war crimes perpetrated by the U. S. Government (in Iraq, Afghannistan, Pakistan, etc).

Or, who knows, given the terrorist nature of warfare itself, we may be guilty of donating for the support of a terrorist organization as defined by U.S. laws in recent years.

As Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, we find our conscience offended, and the exercise of our religious belief  infringed by coercion to pay for war–believing as we do that people are forbidden by God, and the teachings of Jesus which reveal God, to kill people.  By clear implication, paying people to kill people cannot be an innocent action.  

As a free expression of our religion we are withholding $10.40 from payment of the tax which the enclosed form shows that we owe.    We do this in concert with others who are also making this statement, recognizing that the 1040 tax form confronts Americans with a clear issue of conscience.   We are donating this to the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, the legislative effort to democratize taxation  http://www.peacetaxfund.org.  This is a symbolic action, of the sort on which this country was founded–remember the Boston Tea Party.  

We ask the legislature to pass a law recognizing the right of conscientious objection to paying for war (The Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill) and the executive branch to cease and desist from limiting the free exercise of our religion.

Sincerely,

John K. Stoner
Janet H. Stoner

cc: Rev. Jim Amstutz, Rev. Michelle Dula, Congressman Joe Pitts, Senators Toomey and Casey