Today is tax day. “You also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Romans 13:6-7). There is no doubt that God supports the payment of taxes.
Jesus apparently did not even owe a particular tax but He paid it anyway, albeit from the mouth of a fish (Matthew 17:24-27). Wouldn’t we all love to have a pond full of those fish!
God required all Jews to pay the same tax – a flat-tax, as it were, of half a shekel at every census (Exodus 30:11-16). That was a religious tax; it went to support the tabernacle. By the day of Christ, it had returned to half a shekel after being reduced to one-third of a shekel during the post-exilic period. In the Law of Moses, God did not require more from the rich; He did, however, make allowances for the poor (Leviticus 14:21, for example). He did require Israelites to help their poor brothers and to pay the poor what they were due, in a timely manner (Deuteronomy 15:7, 11; 24:12).
Our tax system – everyone agrees – is seriously distorted. After all, what does Bill Gates owe me? What does he owe more than I do? Do I not use the military services as much as he does? Do I not use police services as much as he does? Do I not use the educational system as much as he does? Why should he pay more in taxes than I do?
More specifically, why should he pay for my children? I’m thinking specifically of the additional child tax credit. How is it fair for the government to (forcibly!) take money from Bill Gates and give it to me to support my children which I brought into this world freely and without coercion? It is one thing for the government to provide a tax credit for children – it encourages children and families which are the cornerstone of a society. It is quite another to take money from one person and give to another to support the second’s decision to have children. I fail to see the fairness in that.
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I also don’t believe Bill Gates owes me health insurance. God requires me to work to provide for my needs (Ephesians 4:28). God requires me to provide for my family (1 Timothy 5:8). God requires me to take care of my own health (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Those are all personal responsibilities that I have. If I want to insure my health, I have that right. I also have the obligation to pay for what services I use (see the above quote from Romans 13:6-7). To be honest, the whole existence of the health insurance industry has distorted the medical care system and their pricing structure.
If I can’t afford children, I should not have them. If I have them, I am obligated to pay for them – spiritually, physically, educationally, psychologically, etc. That’s my choice when I did what I did to bring them into the world. They don’t show up by accident. If I learn that I can’t afford them, I should work more so I can afford them. If my wife has to work to support our family, then so be it. I may ask for assistance in times of crisis but I fail to see the fairness in having someone else (forcibly) take money out of Bill Gates’s pocket to support my family, my life, my decisions, my lifestyle.
May each of us be responsible for ourselves and prepare financially to help others freely and generously.
–Paul Holland
