It wasn’t that long ago that it seemed like the war tax resistance movement couldn’t get no respect in the anti-war movement at large. But now there are multiple, independent, war tax resistance campaigns — evidence perhaps that finally this idea’s time has come.
The latest campaign is a project of Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, a coalition of many Christian groups who “are called to raise a prophetic voice, speaking truth to power and proclaiming that security cannot be obtained through military domination, but through trust in God alone.
Therefore we confess our complicity in this merciless violence and commit ourselves to finding genuine security in God, who insists that we build just relationships with all people. We call our government to immediately begin an orderly process of withdrawing U.S. troops and closing U.S. bases with a timetable supported by the Iraqi people and to work toward an end to funding war.”
Up to now, as far as I can tell, the coalition has limited itself to prayer, vigils, protest, petitioning, lobbying, and symbolic displays in pursuit of this goal. But they’ve just asked coalition members to sign on to “The Pledge for Peace” which asks them to go further, and which reads in part:
I will do everything within my power to avoid complicity in acts of war that violate my fundamental beliefs. I pledge:…
- To resist the powers and principalities:
Through war tax-resistance: I will educate myself about war tax-resistance and share that information with others. As I am able, according to my own calling and conscience, I will with-hold all or a portion of my own taxes until I can be confident that the United States will seek peace through a combination of diplomacy and development together with other nations of the world.
