As the U.S. Congress debates a tax reform bill, Matthew Schmalz, associate professor of religious studies at Holy Cross, digs into the Christian and Hebrew bibles to find guidance on tax policy from Jesus and others.
Writing for The Conversation, Schmalz says there are no easy answers to be found, but there are some clues. The Book of Leviticus says the needy have a right to the leftovers of the harvest. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” And in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus taught: “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full.”
“At the very least,” Schmalz writes, “this means that people should never be afraid to offer up what they have in order to help those in need.”
Read the piece at The Conversation.
Additional Coverage:
Raw Story, Dec. 11
Professor Schmalz overlooks the most important point when he comes to his “tax the rich” conclusion.
Throughout the Bible, and in all of Mr Schmalz’s examples. They use the verb “giving”. Giving is an individual moral choice. When people decide to give to the poor it is a moral decision and results in an action of “good”. In the case of taxes, there is no moral decision. you pay your taxes regardless of how properly or ill spent the resulting “revenues” are. For instance, in Illinois, I can look forward to some of my taxes being used to pay for abortions. Abortion is repugnant. I wouldnt donate to it if I had the choice. I don’t have the choice.
Taxes are administered by bureaucrats. There is no moral aspect to their decision making. Often, there is a political motivation (which also isnt moral).
As soon as you change “giving” into “taxing” you remove the moral aspect which makes something funadmentally good.