Sunday, July 3, 2011

On not paying religious tax.

Benjamin Chung August 9, 2010 at 1:37pm
On not paying religious tax.

Recently I talked with a good friend of mine who has not paid federal income tax for about ten years, and he does not believe in paying taxes that are not constitutional. So he is willing to go to jail on this note. I on the other hand pointed out to him the harm of paying religious tax. Let me elaborate: churches used to levy taxes on the general public when they asked for money to build church building, to help with training of clergy, or the poor. When the Catholic Church tried to tax the poor in order to build St Peter's Cathedral, the Germans rebelled and set off events that led to Reformation. Now I do see that Protestants have continued this tradition, when they began a humble denomination, they keep growing, and growing, soon this unchecked growth leads to taxation on the believers. One notable example recently is the church my sister used to attend. The church was renovating and began to ask for money, I think it was 7 million dollars, or more. My sister with her meager salary was unfairly taxed about 6 thousand dollars, so I asked her to back out of it. She unhappily did so, I was helping her with her mortgage. Religious tax in the form of excessive building projects, elaborate payment to clergy, or religious enterprises may not be biblical or constitutional. Jesus did not required his followers to pay this type of tax, and similar to the rights granted us by the Constitution here in this country, I make the appeal not to pay religious tax where it is illegal or un-constitution. Tithing is Jewish and I am not sure why Christians picked this item but ignored Kosher laws, or circumcision, or bigamy, etc.
I think if I hear another religious tax item, I might join the Christian Tea Party!

No comments:

Post a Comment