Diocesan
Life Columns
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Bishop Paul's writes a monthly column for the Diocesan Newspaper, Diocesan
Life, edited by Communication
Minister, Bill Lewellis.
For more features from the life of our diocese, check Diocesanlife....ONLINE; and Bethlehem
News.
Tax Revolt
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Diocesan Life, September 2001
Home Depot and Sam's Club are doing it. For all I know, all retailers
are. Customers can spend their tax rebate checks in these stores
without ever depositing or cashing them. We are offering the same
service - let me explain why.
The decision to make the rebates was in part a decision to give
back revenues that could have funded children's programs or health
care initiatives. The rebates and the recent reforms in the tax
(and estate tax) laws are going to push us further on the path
to a two-class society.
That is a trend about which opinions vary. Some think it is a
good thing; others do not.
My sense of what is "enough" and what constitutes "wealth" has
been permanently altered by an experience I undertook on behalf
of the diocese. When I visited Swaziland in Africa, I experienced
Third World poverty and illness. Seeing people living in shelters
scraped out of the dirt, only to discover that they are school
teachers, increased my profound gratitude to be an American, and
increased my sense of my Christian responsibility to share.
Knowing that adults and children in our partner diocese of Kajo-Keji
are dying of starvation as I type these words elicits my compassion
- and my anger: since the beginning of the last century, famine
is almost always the result of political decisions that can only
be described as evil.
I do not know what Bill Gates is doing with his rebate check,
but Diana and I are dividing ours between New Bethany Ministries
and famine relief for Kajo-Keji.
I invite you to share your windfall in the same way, or at least
to tithe it in a ministry of compassion. What an interesting dinner-time
conversation with the family, deciding whom to help. You may have
a local ministry you want to support, or an international ministry
that is a focus for your parish.
Deciding not to have things so that others can eat is a discipline
as old as Christianity. Christianity's early development took place
primarily as an urban religion. Each early city organization of
Christians had a feeding program for the poor as an essential part
of its program.
The Church in Jerusalem, as we see it in Acts, was in this ministry
from the very beginning. The Church's making sure that this ministry
was carried out fairly is where we get deacons. It is a fundamental
part of Christian discipleship to deny ourselves so that others
may merely survive. It is also an opportunity to enter Christ's
joy. Really.
So back to our "service."
For those who would like it, the service we provide is exactly
like that "service" of Sam's Club or Home Depot. You can simply
endorse your check to Diocese of Bethlehem with a word or line
indicating what cause you want to support. We will forward money
for foreign relief through Episcopal Relief and Development and
cut checks for total amounts for Reach, New Bethany, and other
ministries.
If you have already deposited your check, you can of course send
a similar amount or a tithe of it, in the same way. Again, if you
have children, it is a major act of Christian education to involve
them in the decision about whom to help.
Three hundred dollars is not a fortune. Multiplied by the tax
payers in the diocese, however, we are talking about several million
dollars that can help people whose need we can barely imagine.
The title of this piece is "tax revolt." Historically that is
an expression for people taking action to lower their taxes. The
suggestion here is that we take action to counter the culture of
having with a witness for sharing.
For those of us with empty nests, it is easier to just do without
the checks entirely. For others a tithe may be what is practical.
But let's all do something with this unbudgeted income to care
for others and to give a silent witness to the people in government
and the news media who are watching where that money is spent.
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Index)
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