Newspaper Columns by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Another Kind of Tax Revolt
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
September 2001Home Depot and Sam's Club are doing it, I understand. Many retailers may be doing it. Customers can spend their tax rebate checks without ever depositing or cashing them.
At the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, we are offering a similar service. You may want to consider offering the service at your church, synagogue, temple or mosque.
The tax rebates are giving 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 may push us further toward a two-class society.
That is a trend about which opinions vary. Some think the rebate program is a good thing; others do not.
My sense of what is "enough" and what constitutes "wealth" has been permanently altered by a visit to Swaziland where I experienced Third World poverty and illness. Seeing people living in shelters scraped out of the dirt -- to discover later that they were school teachers -- increased my profound gratitude to be an American.
It also heightened my sense of my Christian responsibility to share.
Knowing also that adults and children in our partner diocese of Kajo-Keji in southern Sudan are dying of starvation 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 in Bethlehem and famine relief for Kajo-Keji.
I invite you to share your windfall in a ministry of compassion. What an interesting dinner-time conversation with the family, deciding whom to help.
Deciding not to have things so that others can eat is an ancient religious discipline. Christianity's early development as an urban religion included a feeding program for the poor as an essential part of its program.
We read in our scriptures that the institution of deacons arose out of the Church in Jerusalem's intent to make sure that the ministry to the poor was carried out fairly.
It is a fundamental part of Christian discipleship to deny ourselves so that others may merely survive.
I have indicated to our parishioners that they can simply endorse their checks to Diocese of Bethlehem with a word or line indicating what cause they want to support. We will forward money for foreign relief through Episcopal Relief and Development and cut checks for total amounts for ministries to the poor and marginalized in various parts of our 14 counties.
Those who have already deposited their checks may, of course, send similar amounts or a tithe in the same way.
Three hundred dollars is not a fortune. Multiplied by the taxpayers who read this, however, many millions of dollars can help people whose need we can barely imagine.
As I write, "tax revolt" comes to mind. That has to do, though, with 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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