Life, Death and Taxes

So what ought Christians do about paying taxes?

In the Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke), Jesus states that one should give to Caesar what is due to Caesar, and to God what is due to God. In the history of Christian exegesis, this split between the political and the spiritual has proved a contentious issue, suggesting that ultimately what is owed to God is more important than what is owed to the political. For example, Augustine's masterpiece "City of God" makes a distinction between the secular and the spiritual. Though Christians are a part of both, being amidst both the political and the spiritual requires properly loving God over all things at all times, even over any temporal commitments (even to one's mother)! In the process, political involvements, although not necessarily in direct conflict with one's relationship to God, are relative, minor and rather unimportant in relationship with God. Of course, the political in Jesus' and Augustine's time was very different than our concept, largely being set up, run by and organized to promote the wealth, success and life of the elites, usually 1-2% of the population.

So what, in this 11th year of the 21th Century, should we do? The modern political state such as the US is based on social contract theory, assuming that we as citizens have made a contract with each other that establishes certain responsibilities and rights for the political. Amongst these rights and responsibilities is the right to raise revenue to support the operations of the government. These responsibilities, specified in very general terms in the US Constitution (ex. regulate commerce in Article 1), have changed over the years, but ultimately have as a foundational idea the general welfare of the nation. Ergo, you see the development of schools, public works, a social safety net as the means to promote this general welfare. Taxes, obviously, are at the root then of these governmental responsibilities.

As Christians, there is then a tension between supporting the government's aim to promote the general welfare and the focus on one's spiritual relationship with God (giving to God what is due to God).
This tension is complex because of the current context, where living abundantly means having access to education, meaningful work, clear water and air, health care and the like. In short, the issue becomes: giving to Caesar now has become a component of giving to God, as the modern political state is supporting God's aims of helping all live abundantly.

The issue of taxes as such--and one's duty to pay them--becomes a matter of supporting government policies that do promote life abundant. Obviously, this idea of life abundance also is fraught with questions (i.e. the role of the military, excessive medical treatments, abortion). Yet, the current debate about taxes in this country does not frame the issue in such ethical terms. Often, it is about not taxing because the wealthy spend more and we need the wealthy to spend to create jobs. Not only is this line of reasoning counter-intuitive (i.e. more money in the hands of more people who HAVE to purchase goods means more jobs as the wealthy don't skimp on things where the lower classes do), but it also misses the wider issue of the good that government does. Our nation-state builds roads to drive to the schools that teach our children and takes us to the hospital to be born and keeps the streets safe for our children and plows the roads when they get snow covered.

Here in Minnesota, we have a $6 Billion deficit and the governor (a Democrat) wants to raise taxes on the highest 5% in order to support education, health care and infrastructure. Seeing that giving to Caesar helps us live out the attempt to help ALL live life abundantly means seeing taxes as part of God's work.