Paying Taxes

[awke]

Would you ever refuse to pay taxes because you felt that your government was using the money for immoral means?

If so, at what point would you refuse to pay?

 

[byzantium]

If the government promoted abortion, homosexuality, contraception, or any serious sin against the will of god, you have a just and righteous cause in my opinion.

 

[CatholicSheila]

The issue I have with refusing to pay taxes because of one immoral the government might be supporting is that there are many moral things I know they do support. My taxes don’t just go to one thing.

They go to roads, hospitals, schools, supporting the poor and disabled, ensuring national security, policing our streets, etc. etc.

 

[WKW_69]

In Jesus day Rome crucified thousands of people, invaded lands and murdered people in collective punishments. However when asked about paying tax to Rome Jesus said it was our duty to pay our taxes. When it came to debts Jesus endorsed the imprisonment of people that refused to pay the debts they owed.

 

[byzantium]

Well yes you are still obligated to follow the laws of the land as government is instituted by god. However i would say you have a justifiable reason to revolt and overthrow the government if possible.

Like what Franco did in Spain, the atheistic communist government was overthrown. Did not Constantine the Great take control of the Roman Empire, by gods will. Not everthing the Roman Empire did was wicked.

Did not Pope Pius V release all Catholics in England of obediance to the English monarchy.

 

[ManyFaces]

I am American and would never consider not paying my taxes.

 

[Viki63]

I have seriously considered not paying taxes, because so much government money goes to support Planned Parenthood. But my first responsibility is to my family, and I couldn’t support them if I were in prison.
There is a website that discusses this, and they say that if you have people to support, you should wait and find other ways of expressing your disagreement with government policies.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

Your obliged to pay your taxes. If you choose not to, then you face punishment. These are the facts. If you need further justification you can look at the infrastructure that your Government (elective) supplies. This infrastructure provides for the safety and comfort of the entire population.

There have been and indeed are today, governments which deserve to be overthrown. But Australia, and the United States are not two of them.

ATB

 

[naomily]

"Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away."

 

[mikekle]

Your obliged to pay your taxes. If you choose not to, then you face punishment. These are the facts. If you need further justification you can look at the infrastructure that your Government (elective) supplies. This infrastructure provides for the safety and comfort of the entire population.

There have been and indeed are today, governments which deserve to be overthrown. But Australia, and the United States are not two of them.

ATB

I think if you were to look at how the founding fathers thought, (thru many of their writings), I think you would see the US is LOOOONG overdue for a revolution, our Govt has gotten completely out of control, and I believe our founders would be rolling in their graves if they saw much of what is going on, ESPECIALLY if they found out how many ‘citizens’ backed this corrupt entity.

They said “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots”, yet if anyone were to even attempt such a thing, they would be quickly arrested, and labeled a domestic terrorist…sad thing, many ‘citizens’ would turn patriots into police as quick as they could.Just look at how many people want Edward Snowden arrested…yet all he did was expose something illegal a Govt agency was doing…??? AMAZING how far our nation has strayed from the founders wishes.

I dont celebrate July 4th anymore, I find it silly that so many people go about acting so patriotic, flying flags, etc. but at the same time, if anyone would take such actions as some of our most honored patriots for the benefit of the nation, they would turn them in, or label them a terrorist…??? Doesnt make sense to me…I think if they had been alive at the time, some would have likely turned in many of our nations patriots!!

 

[Mickey_Finn]

I think if you were to look at how the founding fathers thought, (thru many of their writings), I think you would see the US is LOOOONG overdue for a revolution, our Govt has gotten completely out of control, and I believe our founders would be rolling in their graves if they saw much of what is going on, ESPECIALLY if they found out how many ‘citizens’ backed this corrupt entity. I think you make a big mistake when you focus on the writings of our Founding fathers. For instance when you look at one of the key writers of the much touted Federalist Papers. Alexander Hamilton a man who came from simple means, and climbed up through the ranks to be G. Washingtons aide-de-camp. Quite an accomplishment by anyones account. but remember, it was this same man who lead the federal troops to stop our first tax revolt. He also complained bitterly about the lack of roads to move his forces against the citizens. We’ve got our roads now by the way.

They said “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots”, yet if anyone were to even attempt such a thing, they would be quickly arrested, and labeled a domestic terrorist…sad thing, many ‘citizens’ would turn patriots into police as quick as they could.Just look at how many people want Edward Snowden arrested…yet all he did was expose something illegal a Govt agency was doing…??? AMAZING how far our nation has strayed from the founders wishes. Talk is cheap, it wasn’t Thomas Jefferson a man of great priveledge who left bloody tracks in the snow of valley Forge. Also think how nice it would have been if James Nichols had dropped a dime of his brother, and McVeigh when they were blowing up things on his farm. many lives would have been saved, and many nightmares avoided.I dont celebrate July 4th anymore, I find it silly that so many people go about acting so patriotic, flying flags, etc. but at the same time, if anyone would take such actions as some of our most honored patriots for the benefit of the nation, they would turn them in, or label them a terrorist…??? Doesnt make sense to me…I think if they had been alive at the time, some would have likely turned in many of our nations patriots!!

ATB

 

[JimG]

"Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away."

You will note that he never answered the question.

 

[seakelp]

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Of course you must pay your taxes. No one, anywhere, agrees 100% of the stuff anyone’s government does. If we allowed people to be antisocial and refuse to pay taxes based on how they feel about the way taxes are spent, we’d have no governments, only anarchy.

(I’ll wait patiently for a libertarian poster to cheer for this nightmare scenario)

The fact is, you do have a remedy if you don’t like the way your taxes are spent: vote and lobby. That’s why we call it a democracy.

 

[on_the_hill]

Pay your taxes and vote.

 

[JimG]

Jesus was a good speaker. He knew how to avoid loaded questions.

In this case the question was “Is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar or not?”
If he answered “Yes,” he could—and would—be accused of opposing Jewish law.
If he answered “No,” he could be accused of being an insurrectionist.

So he simply refused to answer the question. By asking for a Roman coin he showed that they were already cooperating with Caesar in accepting his coinage. But he still didn’t answer the question.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.” does not answer the question asked, and he did not intend for it to.

He didn’t say what is Caesar’s and what is God’s. (Well, we know that everything is God’s, but just what is Caesar’s?) Jesus simply showed a mastery of refusing to answer a question directly, since either answer would have been wrong I some way

 

[Valhk]

Jesus was a good speaker. He knew how to avoid loaded questions.

In this case the question was “Is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar or not?”
If he answered “Yes,” he could—and would—be accused of opposing Jewish law.
If he answered “No,” he could be accused of being an insurrectionist.

So he simply refused to answer the question. By asking for a Roman coin he showed that they were already cooperating with Caesar in accepting his coinage. But he still didn’t answer the question.

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.” does not answer the question asked, and he did not intend for it to.

He didn’t say what is Caesar’s and what is God’s. (Well, we know that everything is God’s, but just what is Caesar’s?) Jesus simply showed a mastery of refusing to answer a question directly, since either answer would have been wrong I some way

From the answer Jesus gives, one can determine that the primary goal he is trying to achieve isn’t whether or not they should pay taxes but the reasoning of why. The ideology of the day stated that one should pay taxes because Caesar was God. Jesus explains that Caesar and God aren’t even in the same league. The basic fact is that all currency is in one way or another owned by someone else. In the United States, currency is owned by the United States government (18 U.S. Code § 333) so paying taxes is essentially “giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

 

[Jared2914]

I don’t like big government, but I still think the government at least tries to do good with tax money. It wastes a lot of money and uses some of the money for evil, but most of it goes to things I support like infrastructure, national defense, and care for the elderly/disabled. If it ever came to a point where I believe the government is spending most of the money for evil purposes, I might stop paying taxes. Luckily, I will probably not have to worry about that in my lifetime.

 

[JimG]

From the answer Jesus gives, one can determine that the primary goal he is trying to achieve isn’t whether or not they should pay taxes but the reasoning of why. The ideology of the day stated that one should pay taxes because Caesar was God. Jesus explains that Caesar and God aren’t even in the same league. The basic fact is that all currency is in one way or another owned by someone else. In the United States, currency is owned by the United States government (18 U.S. Code § 333) so paying taxes is essentially “giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

I think his primary goal was to avoid answering a loaded question. He did not say that it was lawful (under Jewish law) to pay taxes to Caesar. He did not say that it was unlawful.

I have seen this text used sometimes to support particular tax policies. I don’t think the text can be used in support or opposition to any policy! He just was not going to fall into their trap. He did not answer the question.

 

[Valhk]

"Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away."

I think his primary goal was to avoid answering a loaded question. He did not say that it was lawful (under Jewish law) to pay taxes to Caesar. He did not say that it was unlawful.

I have seen this text used sometimes to support particular tax policies. I don’t think the text can be used in support or opposition to any policy! He just was not going to fall into their trap. He did not answer the question.

I feel like this could be a suitable answer until I read the conclusion of the story. I doubt the Pharisees would leave amazed if he had simply avoided the question. But putting that point aside for a moment, if it were so that Jesus had simply avoided the question, what do his words mean in this particular instance?

 

[seakelp]

From the answer Jesus gives, one can determine that the primary goal he is trying to achieve isn’t whether or not they should pay taxes but the reasoning of why. The ideology of the day stated that one should pay taxes because Caesar was God. Jesus explains that Caesar and God aren’t even in the same league. The basic fact is that all currency is in one way or another owned by someone else. In the United States, currency is owned by the United States government (18 U.S. Code § 333) so paying taxes is essentially “giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

I agree with this interpretation. I think what Christ is telling us is that worldly authority must be obeyed in an earthly way. After all, what does it matter? Money is money. We are Christians, we don’t care for these things because we care about the Kingdom of Heaven.

So, yes, we should obey the laws of man (with exceptions, of course). But we should also know that God has bigger and better plans for us.