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

 “Conscience and Taxes in a Culture of War,” a March 11^th forum in Lancaster, Pennsylvania sponsored by 1040 for Peace and Every Church A Peace Church, asked a different question about the upcoming April 15 tax deadline: how can we use the filing of our annual federal tax return to witness for peace and against the wars that have become a permanent feature of U.S. foreign policy?

For Shane Claiborne, the activist who co-founded The Simple Way in Philadelphia, commitment to Jesus the Nazarene has prompted him to adopt a posture of “revolutionary subordination” vis-à-vis the federal government.  “I respect the law and those who administer it but I also have been called to be prophetic, to expose injustice.”  Thus, when he filed his federal tax return for 2010, he paid only 70 percent of what was due. In a letter sent along with his return, Claiborne described his reasons for not paying the other 30 percent. 

When asked if he also would support the practice of sending a letter of protest while overpaying federal taxes, Claiborne said, “Yes.  I support provoking our imaginations to witness, to raising the right questions, stimulating more conversation and not more polarization.”

For Pat Hostetter Martin, the Harrisonburg, Virginia resident who has engaged in tax witness for nearly 40 years, it all began with the friends, neighbors and colleagues victimized by war during the ‘60s when she was working in Vietnam.  “I expect the federal government eventually will get the money I withhold. That’s not the point.  The point is that I speak on behalf of those victimized by my government’s wars.”

Jack Payden-Travers also began witnessing via nonpayment of taxes during the Vietnam War.  These days he works on Capitol Hill where he leads the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund.  Citing the witness of the Berrigan brothers and their acts of protest during the ‘60s, Payden-Travers urged the audience not to de-value symbolic acts, such as withholding $10.40 from one’s tax payment.  “There is great power in symbolic acts, in refusing to offer the pinch of incense.”

Moravian College professor Kelly Denton-Borhaug, shifted the focus from government to the need for witness to the church and broader society.  “The necessity of war as sacrifice has incredible resonance within American culture,” combining the potent image of Jesus on the cross with the war-making of U.S. military personnel.  “This use of religious imagery to talk about war is so powerful that continuous war is now seen as normal and dissent has been largely suppressed.  Meanwhile, the peace movement hasn’t measured up to the power of this message.”

Although “the sacralization of war” has long been a device political leaders of all stripes have employed to win popular support, Denton-Borhaug insisted the stakes are higher now.  “The U.S. military is so dominant, and the U.S. war culture so pervasive, that we dare not ignore it.  The threat to the world is too great.” Besides, she said, it is our faith that is being hijacked for military purposes. 

When it comes to taxes, what does conscience require?  Purity may be a pipe-dream, beyond our reach. Witness is something each of us can achieve.  And it is what conscience requires.

*****

For more information, go to www.1040forpeace.org

and/or contact Berry Friesen (717) 471-9691 or H.A. Penner (717) 859-3529.

There are clear and demanding tasks for all citizens, rich and poor, white, black, brown and yellow to do, now. We can’t all do everything, but we can all do some thing, and here is one thing we can all do. Or at least all of us who pay taxes for war. Which seems to be most of us!

Author Tom Englehardt said Oct. 20: “Chris Hellman of the National Priorities Project did the math for TomDispatch and found—again, a conservative estimate—that American taxpayers are shelling out at least $1.2 trillion a year for the vast military, intelligence, and homeland security combine that operates in their name.”

All of this to keep you safe from the next underwear bomber.

Any movement for social change must renounce some things and embrace other things. Let’s be clear about two things which humanity in general and Americans in particular must renounce. In this we follow Jesus, who excoriated greed and renounced violence.

Let’s review the reasons capitalistic greed and homicidal security are wrong and failing. Then let’s envision things we must embrace and do to create a new system, coming to focus finally on one very critical and doable citizen action.

Renounce capitalistic greed
Until we as a society renounce selfish consumption we will have a Wall Street of greedy exploitation. Wall Street is possible because the public accepts the lie that everyone’s greed is all that is needed to assure a successful economic system.

Even though you’ve heard it before, it is true—we must, as a culture and a human family, renounce selfish consumption. Oversized houses, cars, meals, vacations and sports feed and sustain the worst of Wall Street like heat, water and wind sustain a hurricane. There is enough in the world for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.

Second, we must press the demand that Wall Street renounce ecological destruction. But ecological destruction follows selfish consumption like night follows day, so Wall Street is not going to stop ecological destruction until we stop selfish consumption. Humanity will continue on its spiral toward ecological doom until we learn (as some native cultures can teach us) that the true cost of what we consume is first a cost to the environment, and after that it has some kind of monetary cost.

Unbelievable CEO salaries are only the tip of the iceberg—a grim logical conclusion—of a mindset which justifies greed and ignores ecology.

Third, Wall Street must renounce strangulating interest rates and greedy speculation in derivatives. At issue is the observance of a simple truth: The fact that some is good (as in charging some interest) is no proof that more is better. And we can remind ourselves of the opposite truth: the fact that too much is evil is no proof that some is not good.

This is not rocket science. There is no perfect economic system, and the search for one is a waste of time. An economic system in this is like a human body: it works when necessary restraints are observed and it does not work when those restraints are not observed.

Renounce homicidal security
We’ve got to renounce not only capitalistic greed, but also homicidal security.

Homicidal security is the pursuit of personal or national security based on the preparation of and offensive use of overwhelming violence to kill and subdue other people. By no means have all cultures in history, or the present, assumed as universally and easily as Americans do that it is acceptable moral behavior to seek security by initiating violence against others. Indeed, international law has prohibited such conduct. To renounce homicidal security means several specific things.

It means to quit justifying war. Sadly enough, as one generally willing to be considered a follower of Jesus, I have to say that the putative followers of Jesus called Christians have led America in justifying war.

Two centuries ago in this nation many Christians busied themselves justifying slavery. Today their direct religious and intellectual heirs are justifying war. It is devoutly to be hoped, and I believe expected, that the time is coming when justifications of war will be as discredited as justifications of slavery. Until then individuals and movements for social change are charged with the task of being among the first to quit justifying war. Slavery was not dealt with by taming it or reducing its worst features. It is illusory to think that war will be dealt with by those approaches.

Second, to renounce homicidal security means to quit justifying bullying. Who is justifying bullying, you ask? Well, at the personal level, not many. But on the national and international level the justification of bullying is taken for granted—it is the foundation of a hundred “national security” and “national defense,” schemes parading themselves as the indispensable wisdom of expensive think-tanks and storehouses of sagacious “realpolitik.”

Public school teachers and administrators agonize and write articles on the problem of bullying, never once casting a glance toward the astonishingly militarized culture in which our youth live their lives. Has there ever been a more egregious case of expecting to reap what was not sown? Any outside observer would have to conclude that this is a pitiful, whining society—having the nerve to complain about bullying among its children, offspring of a bullying nation.

Third, the way to renounce homicidal security is to embrace security for all. There is no security for some at the price of insecurity for others. To think so is a sister to thinking that you can amputate your left hand and not affect your whole body. The human family is an organism with linkages as close and inviolable as those of the human body, and the health of every part depends on the health of the whole.

Security for all is possible, but of course not without effort, creativity and compromise. It is a question of giving up the failed ways of homicidal security and accepting the principles and practices which will nurture the security of all.

The largest single corruption of Wall Street is it’s profiting in the military industrial complex, about which General Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us generations ago.

We can trace this militarism back: Selfish consumption in America has depended historically on the war system to enforce the acquisition of the resources of others—i.e., of the world. Squirm, wiggle, deny, divert—this fact remains clear and its consequences have come home to roost. War enabled by homicidal production is the means of maintaining an unjust distribution of the world’s resources. This is wrong, and it is therefore unsustainable.

The managers of the war system do not, indeed, tell you that the central purpose of this military machine is to assure control over the flow of world resources and trade. Are they perhaps smart enough to know that the human conscience, the public conscience, would rebel against such a patent injustice? I think so.

What they tell you is that this war system gives you “security.” So here we have history’s most ambitious and diabolical protection racket. (As in the world of crime—you pay for protection from certain people or powers.) This very big protection racket must be addressed. So, let’s address it.

Embrace nonviolent power
The occupy Wall Street movement has had the wisdom to embrace nonviolent power. This is its amazing “secret weapon.” Not a whole lot has been made of this in media reports, and perhaps not explicitly in the general assemblies of the movement (although I’m sure that nonviolence is a very conscious and active principle of most of the movement’s participants). Nonviolent action is the foundation on which the security of all can be built.

Nonviolent power is understood and practiced by people who do some very specific things. First, they nurture friendship. The principle is simple—we are most secure among friends. So, while friendship is right and valued for its own sake, like other practices which are right in life, it brings a reward. That reward is security in the company of people who respect and value one another. This principle applies as surely to nations as it does to individuals. Witness the historic relationship between the United States and Canada.

Second, people of nonviolent power forgive mistakes and wrongs. The rightness and usefulness of this forgiveness is obvious to anyone who considers how they get along with themselves. We forgive our own mistakes and wrongs, understanding that our very life depends on getting second chances. It is the same in interpersonal and international relationships.

Bad leaders and propagandistic media can lead people away from their inner wisdom which affirms forgiveness and second chances, but there is no sound reason why people should not follow their instinct which says that forgiveness is necessary, possible and life-giving. Perhaps we should spend a little time imagining a world in which, for a single day, no one forgave themselves and a million little things in the people around them. Such a world, I promise, would fail miserably before noon on the first day of the experiment. Comedy shows have been built around individuals who are absolutely narcissistic and unforgiving, illustrating my point.

Third, people of nonviolent power love their enemies. This is admittedly a big jump. But what to do about enemies? It’s a big problem so it demands a big solution. We’ve tried annihilation—still are trying it. It hasn’t worked, isn’t working. We’ve tried isolation—build fences and walls. Keep us, the pure, good and holy inside, and them, the impure, evil and unholy, outside. Hasn’t worked, isn’t working. So let’s try reconciliation. Turn those enemies into friends—or at least family, so we don’t forget that even if we don’t like them all the time we can choose to love them.

We are, after all, just one human family. So we’re not just one big happy family. Is your family at home just one big happy family? We cannot build our security on the insecurity of the rest of the human family, and in particular, there is no reliable security based on the primitive and failed notion of homicidal security. Renounce it.

Fourth, people of nonviolent power can refuse war taxes—they can give $10.40 for peace. Here is a concrete nonviolent action. Move beyond vague ideas, abstract talk and airy idealism. Act now for peace, resist militarism, using nonviolent power for peace.

When April 15 comes and you face that 1040 Form from IRS, fill it out, tally the total owed, and subtract $10.40 for peace. Refuse to pay that amount. Make a clear, unequivocal, civilly disobedient statement of protest. Send that statement to congressperson, your peers, IRS, your relatives, your pastor or priest, your newspaper: make it clear to them that you are leaving the herd’s mad rush after homicidal security.

You could well justify doing more than $10.40 for peace. But how would you justify doing less? Discuss it with a friend. Then do it.

We remember that sunny Tuesday morning when news from New York City interrupted our morning activities. The first crash – into the North Tower – happened at quarter to nine. Fires were burning near the point of impact, but at first it didn’t seem catastrophic.

But moments later, another passenger jet crashed into the South Tower. That’s when we knew these were not accidents; these were acts of violence meant to cause fear, destruction and death.

We remember how events seemed to be spiraling out of control. Around 9:30 the Pentagon was hit by a third passenger jet. A fourth plane was reported down somewhere in western Pennsylvania. Many other hijackings were reported, as well as car bombs and fires at the Capitol.

Just before 10 o’clock, only an hour after being hit, the South Tower exploded and fell. We remember the dust, boiling in every direction like a volcanic eruption, hanging in the air and blocking the sun before covering surrounding buildings and the streets below in pulverized concrete and gypsum.

We remember our horror as we watched the television clips over and over again. People were dying, right before our eyes! From the North Tower, up to 200 people jumped to their deaths. Around 10:30, the North Tower disintegrated, just as the South Tower had.

We remember our anger, along with our fear. Who had committed this terrible crime? At noon, Senator Hatch said the FBI and CIA had concluded Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda did it.

That evening, President Bush told his Security Council the Taliban in Afghanistan was to blame along with al-Qaeda. He said: “I want you all to understand that we are at war and we will stay at war until this is done. Nothing else matters, everything is available for the pursuit of this war. Any barriers in your way, they’re gone. Any money you need, you have it. This is our only agenda.” He had already decided that war – and not the rule of law – was the way he would pursue justice and defend America against those who had committed violence against America.

We remember the clean-up at Ground Zero. For weeks after the 9/11 attacks, there were extremely high temperatures in the rubble. “You’d get down below and you’d see molten steel . . like you’re in a foundry,” said a fireman.

We remember the 19 hijacking suspects and how 11 of them received visas through the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the same office the CIA had used to bring Muslim fighters into the U.S. for training. These 19 men attracted lots of attention. Veteran FBI field agents actively investigated some of them, but their efforts were always blocked by supervisors who later were promoted.

We remember the 9/11 Commission and what chairmen Tom Keane and Lee Hamilton said about it: that it was “set up to fail” and that the Commission was so upset by the shifting and conflicting stories officials told to explain the failure of the air defense system that it considered launching a separate investigation into obstruction of justice by the Pentagon and the FAA.

The Commission’s report did not mention Building 7, a third office tower that imploded on the afternoon of 9/11; did not explain what caused the massive core supports in the Twin Towers to fail; said nothing about the Saudi and Pakistani money supporting the alleged hijackers; waved off suspicious stock trading activity in the weeks just before 9/11; ignored the shocking failure of the NSA to share info about suspected terrorists in the U.S.; and held no official accountable for not heeding the warnings of an attack. No wonder architects, engineers, scientists, military officers, fire fighters, pilots, former public officials and academics have risked their reputations by calling for a new investigation.

We remember the 220 acres of concrete pulverized inexplicably into gravel and dust. Two years ago, chemists published peer-reviewed research showing the presence in the dust of highly manufactured explosives. Can we still say we have a free press if our media does not find this research newsworthy?

We remember October, 2001 and the anthrax letters that said, “Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great.” Amid the fear and panic, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, greatly expanding government while diminishing our civil liberties. To this day, the anthrax attacks have not been solved. What has been confirmed is that the anthrax was made in a U.S. military lab and that it had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or Islam. It just was supposed to look that way.

We remember the invasion of Afghanistan. One week after 9/11, the President signed a joint resolution of Congress: Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists. It was not a declaration of war. It simply authorized the President to use violence anywhere in the world against anyone who he thought may have had something to do with 9/11. He could treat them as terrorists and the Geneva Conventions would not apply. It was a blank check, outside the U.N. and international law, and opened the door to abuses such as Guantanamo.

We remember being told that the first purpose of the invasion of Afghanistan was to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, dead or alive. Yet he repeatedly “slipped through our fingers” first in a convoy of vehicles from Jalalabad and then from his mountain hide-away. Only six months after 9/11, President Bush said he wasn’t that concerned about bin Laden.

We remember President Obama twice expanding the war after he promised to end it, using the same rationale as President Bush: al-Qaeda, safe havens, bin Laden, terrorism. But we also recall reports that there are only 50-75 isolated a-Qaeda individuals left in Afghanistan. And now the President Obama says bin Laden is dead.

The war in Afghanistan is the longest in American history. It’s costing us $10 B a month. Why are Americans still fighting and dying there? In July, 37 died; another 31 died on one day in August. IED attacks are on the rise, leaving many soldiers maimed for life. And why are U.S. troops still making those terrifying night raids on private homes? Why are they dropping bombs on civilians who turn out to be kids gathering wood, or families at a wedding feast? Each is an act of terrorism that only creates more terrorists.

We understand that opium dealers, oil companies, defense contractors and the large banks are happy with the present situation in Afghanistan. Twelve military bases are being built there. So it’s a permanent occupation. Unless we change direction, some of today’s toddlers will die one day in the war in Afghanistan.

We remember the invasion of Iraq. In January 2001, at the first meeting of the National Security Council, President Bush spoke of regime change in Iraq. Throughout the spring, Dick Cheney worked on it too – with the oil company executives in secret meetings. On the day of 9/11, Donald Rumsfeld began implementing the plan to invade Iraq.

We remember how Iraq was falsely blamed for 9/11. And how later, President Bush accused Iraq of developing weapons of mass destruction, even though he knew it was not true. The President relied on canned intelligence, publicized forged documents about yellowcake from Niger, promoted the fabricated story of an Iraqi defector, and provoked fear about nuclear terrorism.

But the deliberate lies of our government were only the start. There also was the torture. It started already in the spring of 2002, not to pre-empt another terror attack, but to establish a link between Saddam and 9/11 and thereby justify the invasion of Iraq. The United States has long been respected in the world for its commitment to the rule of law. During these past ten years, our leaders have squandered this treasure and brought disrepute on our country and our people.

We remember the civil war our military fomented in Iraq, the hundreds of thousands who died, the millions made into refugees. We recall the deformed babies of Fallujah and 4.5 million orphaned children. We are ashamed of the human rights violations at Abu Ghraib prison. We grieve for the fallen soldiers and contractors, and for neighbors and friends who carry the scars of war with them every day.

And now our country is at war against Libya, and has launched drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Ask President Obama, Congressman Pitts or Senators Casey and Toomey about this escalation of U.S. violence against Muslims and they will take you back to 9/11, to al-Qaeda, to terrorism, to fear.

We remember the 1990s when we planned for “a peace dividend” after years of high military spending driven by fear of the Russians. Then in 1997, a new group called the Project for the New American Century said military spending needed to increase significantly. It said the public was unlikely to support this new spending “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor.” Many members of this group became part of the Bush Administration.

Our military has always been expensive. But its spending has doubled since 9/11, and that’s without counting the cost of the wars and Homeland Security. The Pentagon maintains around 1,000 bases in at least 38 countries. Special forces are engaged in covert, search-and-destroy actions in over 100 countries. Here in America, law enforcement has begun to manufacture the terror threats it then foils. It wants us to be afraid so we will support the war machine.

We have become a fear-filled people, intimidated whenever the word “terrorism” is spoken. We no longer hold our public officials accountable. We no longer insist on the rule of law. We don’t object to the extension of the 9/11 “state of emergency” year after year, to the full-body scanners and pat-downs at the airports, to the government monitoring of our private communications. We no longer take risks to pursue peace.

Since 9/11, war and weapons have become America’s signature products. It’s what we do. It is the one thing quarreling politicians will always agree about, the economic stimulus they all will vote for. In these 10 years, permanent war has been normalized. It has become our daily bread.

But war is not the answer! It deadens the conscience and makes us calloused and unfeeling. It takes away our God-given humanity. It makes us more afraid while spawning more enemies, more violence, more debt and more tyranny.

How will we break this addiction to fear and violence? By remembering 9/11 truthfully. By reducing our spending on weapons of war. By ending the U.S. occupation of other lands. And by pursuing peace courageously.

This litany was written for a September 11, 2011 public gathering at Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The gathering was sponsored by 1040 for Peace, Every Church A Peace Church, and the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice.

As his buddy Peter picked up a sword and cut the ear off one of the persecutors, Jesus scolded Peter and picked up the ear and healed the wounded persecutor. The early Christians understood the message – it was a message of Amazing Grace. It was a message about how there is something worth dying for, but nothing in the world worth killing for – not even freedom or democracy. One of the early Christians said, “When Jesus disarmed Peter he disarmed every Christian.”

After all, we don’t see Christians picking up swords again for hundreds of years.
I am one of those Christians who believe we should still have the right NOT to kill, even in an empire that has a military bigger than Rome’s. Perhaps that’s why it has been hard for me to navigate what to do as tax season approaches, with so much of our federal tax money going towards militarism. It was a crisis familiar to the early Christians who were accused of insurrection and tax evasion because they had an allegiance that subverted, or super-ceded, their national allegiance.

So I respectfully filed my taxes this year, and I sent the IRS the little letter below. My intention is to respect my country and contribute to the common good… but also to uncompromisingly follow the way of the nonviolent Jesus this Easter — in a world that continues to pick up the sword… and die by the sword.

~

Dear Internal Revenue Service,

I am filing my 1040 here. As you will see, I made $9600 this past year, and found that according to the 1040 form, I owe $324.44 of that to federal taxes. While I am glad to contribute money to the common good and towards things that promote life and dignity, especially for the poor and most vulnerable people among us, I am deeply concerned that 30 percent of the federal budget goes towards military spending, with 117 billion going to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Further, when we include the 18% that goes towards past military costs, such as the 380 billion in debt payments, 80% of which are military related debts, that number goes up to a total military budget of 1,372 billion dollars — nearly half of the federal budget).

My Christian faith and my human conscience require me to respectfully reserve the right not to kill, and to refrain from contributing money towards weapons and the military. For this reason, I am enclosing a check for $227.11, which is, according to the form, 70% of what I owe. The remaining $97.33 represents 30% of my tax payment, the amount that would go towards military spending. I will donate this remaining 30% to a recognized US nonprofit organization working to bring peace and reconciliation. My faith also compels me to submit to the governing authorities, which is why I am writing you respectfully and transparently here. I am glad to discuss this further if you have any questions.

May we continue to build the world we dream of.

-Shane Claiborne

Many of the folks in attendance were from the Anabaptist “peace church” tradition of Christianity. Mennonites and Brethren, like the Amish, come from the Anabaptist movement, tracing back to the radical reformation of the 16th century. They, along with the Quakers are known for their commitment to peace, a simple way of life, and for their suspicion of power. They also have a history of war-tax resistance.

Money has power. And so withholding money has power too, especially when a bunch of people do it together. If one percent of U.S. taxpayers held back $10.40 as an act of respectful protest, that’s nearly 1.5 million folks. Movements are like snowballs, they start small but get big pretty fast (as we can see in recent events in Wisconsin or the Egypt). And movements grow real fast in an age of Facebook… even the Mennonites are using the internet these days, albeit with a fair amount of caution.

As Christians, we have a particularly subversive example when it comes to economic imagination: Jesus himself. There are two occasions when he is interrogated by the authorities regarding taxes. On one occasion, he borrows a coin. (The fact that he did not have one is significant). He asks the interrogators whose image is on that coin, and then says “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” (Matthew 22:21). On the other occasion, he instructs the tax collectors to go catch a fish, and telling them the fish have a four-drachma coin in its mouth for them (Matthew 17:27). (Try that in April!)

Both of these stories are usually interpreted as proof that Christians must simply submit to the authorities, and give Caesar whatever he asks of us (notably with little regard of whether Caesar is a dictator or elected, evil or benevolent). But it seems Jesus has got something more clever up his sleeve.

In both instances, Jesus is asked a straight-forward, yes-or-no question: “Do you pay taxes?” In both cases, his response subverts the question, going deeper to challenge its basic assumptions. He doesn’t dodge the questions; he transcends them. He forces his listeners, taxpayers and tax-collectors, to ponder. To what, exactly, does Caesar have a right? What has Caesar’s image… and what has God’s image? What is Caesar’s, and what is God’s?

I am particularly fond of the fish stunt. It is as though Jesus is winking at Caesar, saying, “Oh, Caesar can have his coins… I made the fish.” Caesar can have his silly metals, after all he can keep making more of them even if they aren’t worth a dime — but coins have no life in them. Life is branded with the image of God — and Caesar does not own that.

(No doubt there is much more to this interaction. Many of the coins had Caesar’s image on them with the caption “Son of God”, which was deeply problematic for Jews and Christians. Jesus continually challenges the ways we attribute to money God-like power. At one point Jesus even personifies money, giving it a name — “Mammon”… and telling us we cannot serve both it and God. Things are more convoluted in our world where we try to make them one and the same, so our money says “In God we Trust” while our economy reeks of the seven deadly sins. When we can use “In God we Trust” bills to buy heroin, or pornography, or guns or bombs… we are in danger of taking God’s name in vain. It would be more honest for our money to say, “In God we hope to trust” or “In God we sometimes trust.” Otherwise, Jesus might look at Washington’s face on the bill, and say “Send it back to Washington… “)

In a nation where such a high percentage of taxes go to military — hence ultimately death-dealing — pursuits, this teaching should give every tax-paying Christian long and troubled pause.

Catholic activist Dorothy Day posed the Christian dilemma like this: “Once we’ve given to God what’s God’s, there isn’t much left for Caesar.” She, too, was a war tax resister.

Just as Jesus does not answer the tax question by saying, “Yes, pay your taxes,” it is also significant that neither does he say: “No, stick it to the Man. Don’t pay them.” He provokes a third way, an imaginative and prophetic path forward that is both respectful and revolutionary.

Some theologians call it “revolutionary subordination.” An old peasant joke asserts that “When the emperor passes by, the peasant bows … and farts.” The model of revolutionary subordination is humble, and playful. It acknowledges Caesar’s power while recognizing that there is a far greater authority in the universe than Caesar.

It’s impossible to know exactly what Jesus would do if he lived in the U.S. of A, rather than first-century Rome… But I can’t help but think he’d find a way to creatively critique the priorities of the empire in which we live, just as he critiqued the empire in which he lived. Rome and the U.S. share some things in common — including that their biggest budget item is military spending.

Deeply disturbed by the amount of money going toward weapons and military pursuits, many Christians and other people of conscience throughout history have been unable to support such war-making. They have reserved the right not to kill.

After all, for centuries Christians were jailed and even killed for refusing to make imperial sacrifices, and for refusing to kill for flags and idols, insisting that there is something worth dying for but nothing worth killing for. They refused to pledge allegiance to anything short of Christ. And they, like Jesus were accused of insurrection (Luke 23:2).

If Jesus and the Mennonites can teach us a little something here — it is that we need imagination as we live in the empire. We are, in Jesus’ words, to be as “shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves”.

Some of us will live below the taxable income so we don’t even show up on Uncle Sam’s radar. Others will withhold the portion of federal taxes that goes directly towards weapons and donate that money to a humanitarian group that is working for peace. Perhaps others will join the snowballing movement that shorts the 1040 tax bill by $10.40 as a coordinated prophetic stunt — check out the [1040 for Peace] website.

This tax season, may the God who brought money from the mouth of a fish guide us in revolutionary subordination to our own Caesars. Let us remember that there is a God that cares about life in an age of militarism. Let us all find a way to wink at Caesar.

[Admin note: Reposted from the Huffington Post www.huffingtonpost.com/shane-claiborne/give-to-uncle-sam-what-is_b_837785.html]

Tax time is not usually considered an opportune moment for the proclamation of the Gospel. But I’m suggesting we rethink that assumption. In another of his letters, Paul wrote to the church in Colosse about how on the cross, the Messiah had “disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them.” Aren’t we remiss if in our annual ritual of filing Form 1040 with the rulers and authorities, we fail to bear witness to that triumph?

But how, you may ask, does one witness to the Reign of God while filing an annual tax return?

1040 for Peace answers that exact question. It is a purposeful plan to convert the unpleasantness of tax time into a sign of the Kingdom. For those who owe taxes and must pay, it means the withholding of $10.40 from the amount due and the sending of letters of explanation to those in authority over us. For those who owe no taxes but still must file a return, the letters remain important. They break the complicity of silence and bear witness to the Way of Jesus.

I began participating in 1040 for Peace in April, 2010. My reasons for doing so are included among the “testimonials” on the 1040forPeace website and I won’t detail them here. In short, I see the act of not paying $10.40 to be an act of witness to the one whose life and death judges all the principalities and powers, including the imperialism and militarism of the United States government.

What has the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) done about our nonpayment? It has sent us letters noting the underpayment. It has tacked on a small amount of interest. I understand we may be required to pay a penalty of up to 25 percent of the underpayment, or $2.60. And the IRS could choose to file criminal charges against us for “willful failure to pay”.

Obviously, the $10.40 is primarily a marker, a sign meant to communicate resolve and sincerity. So after the point is made, some choose to respond to the IRS letters with payment. Others leave the matter for the IRS to resolve, usually through a set-off of money owed by the IRS at a later time.

1040 for Peace doesn’t honor one approach more than the other. This isn’t about our purity, our courage, or besting the IRS. It’s about witness.

The letters we prepare explaining ourselves are not primarily for the IRS. The people working there are functionaries, simply doing their jobs. The witness we make for the Kingdom of God is directed to our members of Congress, where the decisions are made.

Even more importantly, our letters are shared with our congregations, friends and families. The Kingdom of God does not depend on what happens in Washington, D.C. Its power rests in the faithful witness of Jesus the Messiah and his followers. So we practice being faithful witnesses, and we encourage others to do the same.

We do not know what impact the collective witness of faithful Christians may have. During World War II, the witness of conscientious objectors in mental hospitals led to major changes in mental health practices. Was that their goal? It may have been in the thoughts of some, and that would have been a good thing, but probably most were just trying to give a faithful witness to the way of Jesus.

So have a look at the 1040forPeace website. Amid our preparations of Form 1040, does conscience prompt us to join this witness? In witnessing through tax withholding, we’ll be in good company. Dorothy Day, Denise Levertov, Gene Stoltzfus and John Howard Yoder have all been there before us.

Berry Friesen (March 15, 2011)
 

“This is a fun time to be alive!”

That’s how Shane Claiborne began as he addressed an overflow crowd of 1,100 people January 4 at the Lancaster Church of the Brethren.  

Claiborne, a Philadelphia neighborhood activist with a national reputation as a speaker and author, referred repeatedly to the core problems:  poverty, militarism, violence, bigotry. 

But through it all, he brought a message of good news:  “In Jesus, God has moved into the neighborhood and joined our struggle.  And God wants us to be part of the miracle.”  Those who respond to that invitation often will find themselves on a collision course with the way things are, said Claiborne.  Judging from his many entertaining stories, it’s a fun ride. 

“Fascination,” “prophetic imagination” and “community” popped up frequently in his remarks.

“The Gospel spreads not through force but through fascination,” Claiborne emphasized.  “We are called to be people who are fascinating to the world.” 

“Prophetic imagination” is what enables those with few resources to resist and overcome oppression.  It’s that creative, almost playful grace that enables common people to confront the powers, “not shaking our fists at Caesar, but winking at him.”  1040 for Peace, the witness against militarism that withholds $10.40 from the annual payment of income tax, is one example Claiborne cited.   

“Community” is what sustains us, according to Claiborne.  “Surround yourself with people who remind you of the kind of person you want to be,” he said.  “In the struggle we’re in, there are no lone-rangers.  We need each other. We need community.” 

Claiborne is part of The Simple Way, a group that lives and works in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.  A flag football league for youth, housing reclamation, and conflict resolution are a few of their activities there.   Claiborne also talked about the importance of his community’s internal practices:  morning prayers, common meals, and Sabbath observance.

During the Q & A portion of the evening, several asked about the congruence of military service with the Jesus way.  “Does Jesus expect all of us to be pacifists?” asked one questioner.  “‘Just war’ is just war,” Claiborne replied.  “When Jesus disarmed Peter, he disarmed us all.” While not insisting on pacifism, Claiborne didn’t fudge the question.  “Violence is evil.  It’s never noble and worthy of praise.  Let’s acknowledge that and then have our debates about whether or not it is necessary.”

Though voicing strong opinions, Claiborne never seemed to be preaching, only telling stories.  “We need to be careful not to prescribe our journey to others,” he said.  He asked us to consider Matthew and Zacchaeus:  both tax collectors, both part of the corrupt tax system, both fascinated by Jesus. One left everything and became one of Jesus’ disciples, the other sold half of what he owned, repaid four times over those he had cheated, and continued on as a very different kind of tax collector.

“How will we know we are staying close to the Jesus way?” asked a member of the audience.  “God is close to the poor and the suffering,” said Claiborne.  “We’ll be there too.”

Claiborne’s appearance was sponsored by the Taxes for Peace Interest Group of the Lancaster Interchurch Peace Witness, by 1040 for Peace, and by the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice.

*****

Berry Friesen, January 5, 2011