Diane Butler Bass writes that as a Christian she enjoys paying taxes.
Wednesday morning, at 9 a.m. sharp, I took my tax payment to the local post office. When I handed it to the clerk, she said, “I hate tax day.” I replied, “Not me. I don’t love parting with the money, but I kinda like it. That check is a bargain — roads, schools, medical care, social security, and the freedom of living in the greatest country in the world. It is patriotism by checkbook. Why should I hate it?”
Many of the readers here feel this way — taxes are a pretty good deal.
Please go read the article.
I particulary like this bit where she Butler Bass quotes Professor Vida Scudder, a social gospel theologian from the early 1900s, as saying:
Now in view of Christ’s persistent feeling that it is dangerous to be rich — a feeling that no subtle exegesis has ever succeeded in explaining away — one might have expected to see His disciples, His Church, eagerly welcome the plan and press it with enthusiasm.
And then there is the whole Christian morality ethic:
Part of the new social ethic was the idea of a progressive income tax, whereby the richer members of society would pay a greater share to care for those of lesser means. The progressive income tax was passed in 1913, but many Christians groused about it — a bit like today’s conservative Christians holding “tea parties.”
h/t to Kentucky’s Levellers