Tax resistance in the “Peace Churches” → Brethren → Dave Leiter

Again in 1982, only the Messenger (of those Brethren periodicals I reviewed) covered war tax resistance, but they did so often.

In January 1982 a Brethren church in Indiana hosted a war tax resistance workshop:

War tax workshop reflects peace witness

A concern for active Christian peacemaking was the motivation for the gathering of over 50 people from at least seven religious traditions last January. The event, sponsored by the Peace Action Committee of the Northern Indiana District and held at Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren, was a war tax resistance workshop led by Dale Aukerman of the Brethren Peace Fellowship.

The two main body presentations dealt with “our peacemaking and the end of the world,” and “war tax resistance as seen from the perspective of Matthew 18:15–17.” Participants were called to “claim the sovereignty of God and take our Christian discipleship seriously. The key to our peace witness is to strive to be faithful to God.”

The workshop is one of a growing number being held throughout Brethren churches, often in conjunction with other denominations. The groups explore nuts-and-bolts alternatives of withholding taxes and support each other in maintaining the witness under Internal Revenue Service pressure, as well as sharing the vision of peace inherent in faithfulness to God.

Kevin Zimmerman shared the thinking that went into his war tax resistance in the February 1982 issue of Messenger (source). Excerpt:

Although my body is not being conscripted to support war, my tax money is, and at this point in history which do the military powers need more? My money! As Dale Brown notes, “If it becomes possible through automated warfare to kill and destroy with unmanned aircraft and minimal personnel, then the witness of withholding economic support may become an issue of even greater importance to the conscientious Christian peacemaker.” I am not opposed to supporting my government or paying taxes to my government. But I believe when our government goes directly against Christ’s teachings we are to follow Christ. Peter and the apostles found themselves forced to resort to civil disobedience in an attempt to fulfill Christ’s teachings and, when arrested, responded, “We must serve God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

I would like to see Congress pass the bill supporting the World Peace Tax Fund. That portion of my taxes supporting our military could instead be put into this fund to be used for such peaceful purposes as United Nations activities, research into nonviolent solutions to international conflicts, disarmaments efforts, and international education and welfare. In this way I can support my government as well as the peaceful lifestyle demonstrated by Christ.

Christianity has never been and will never be a spectator sport. We are commanded to go out and spread the word by helping our neighbors and sharing their burdens, but also by letting our government know too, by letter or by civil disobedience, when they have broken God’s laws. By sharing my feelings, I hope others will seriously and prayerfully consider how their tax money is being spent, their role in our military machine, and Christ’s teachings to “love our enemies.”

The June issue covered the Supreme Court ruling against Old Order Amish who wanted their conscientious objection to the social security system allowed by law (source). Excerpt:

When the case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger agreed with the IRS, saying, “The tax system could not function if denominations were allowed to challenge tax systems because tax payments were spent in a man-er that violates their religious belief.”

Such an attitude could seriously hamper efforts to establish an alternate peace fund into which conscientious objectors could channel taxes that now fund military budgets.

That issue also announced the formation of a “Tax Resister’s Penalty Fund” (still going strong today as the War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund):

Support for Tax Resisters

Dave Leiter, of North Manchester, Ind., is heading up a network of people interested in distributing the burden of penalties or interest levied against military tax resisters. An example of such support would be for 200 people to share a $500 penalty by each contributing $2.50. If interested, write the Tax Resister’s Penalty Fund…

Another article in the same issue, on possible responses to the nuclear arms race (source), recommended war tax resistance as one of the possibilities:

Refuse to pay some of your Federal income taxes as a witness to your faith. If you’re scared, try a small amount like $7.77. If that’s too scary, at least send a letter describing the difficulty of praying for peace and paying for war.

Mike and Carol Zuercher Stern shared their war tax resistance journey in a letter-to-the-editor in the July issue (source):

The way a person spends money is an indicator of one’s personal priorities. In the past year (perhaps more clearly than any other time in recent history) our country has corporately demonstrated what it considers to be most important by how it spends money. Top priority is military superiority over all other nations — bigger and better bombs, submarines, missiles, and napalm.

As Christians and conscientious objectors to war, we cannot accept this national priority as though it were our own. We oppose the building of weapons whose ultimate use means the shedding of human blood. Each April 15 we are reminded of our personal participation in funding a national priority which we believe stands in direct contradiction to our Christian faith.

Our response each year has been to file all the legally required tax forms while witnessing by a variety of symbolic protests against the use of tax dollars for weapons of war. This year we felt compelled by conscience to refuse to pay the entire amount of taxes which had not been withheld already from our salaries. This $438, less than 25 percent of our total tax obligation for the year, will be given instead to charitable organizations. In doing so, we affirm our commitment to the gospel of love, healing, and reconciliation.

That issue also reported on Ralph Dull’s theatric tax resistance protest:

Nix on corn for taxes, says IRS to Ralph Dull

Ralph Dull, of the Brookville, Ohio, Church of the Brethren, has refused to pay a portion of his income taxes each year since 1950 as a protest against military spending. This year he chose a new way to draw attention to the issue.

On April 15 he pulled up in front of the Federal Building in downtown Dayton to offer the Internal Revenue Service 325 bushels of corn in lieu of taxes owed. The action was “to dramatize and emphasize the need for the Federal government to turn its priorities around and support constructive people programs,” Dull said, “rather than use our resources for an arms race that is murderous and suicidal.”

He asked the IRS to sign a statement acknowledging the value of the grain and guaranteeing that its value would be used only for non-military purposes. When the IRS refused to sign. Dull sold the corn to a local elevator. A check for about $777 was made out to Church World Service and given to the National Farmers Organization’s Food for Poland project.

“Apart from the religious aspect of this issue,” said Dull, “what this symbolic action lifts up for consideration is human decency. It is vulgar to squander material and human resources while there is so much opportunity to relieve existing human misery.”

An article from the September issue, focused on resistance to draft registration, noted in passing that “The United Methodist Church… said [in 1980], ‘We… support all those who conscienttiously object to preparation in any specific war or all wars; to cooperation with military conscription; or to the payment of taxes for military purposes; and we ask that they be granted legal recognition.”

A report on the Annual Conference in that same issue noted that war tax resistance was a last-minute addition to the agenda:

Study commmittee to provide guidance for employers of “war tax” protesters

Brethren war protesters who decide to withhold tax money going to war purposes may find their employers less than enchanted with the idea. Brethren employers may be sympathetic to the idea but are up against federal regulations to withhold taxes. So what’s a body (such as Annual Conference) to do?

Acting on a late-breaking query from Northern Indiana District, Annual Conference elected a committee of five to study the problem and report in 1983. The committee is charged to come up with helpful guidance for church institutions so they can adequately respond to their employees employees who wish to withhold their “war taxes.”

The study was approved, despite at least one speaker grousing that he hadn’t “heard one good thing about the US government this week.” Chances are he was correct. The 1982 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren will not be remembered as an exercise in flag-waving patriotism. For the majority of the delegates to Wichita, judging by the voting record, patriotism was best evinced in responsibly and prayerfully calling one’s government to account in the areas of justice and peace.

That committee would include Dale W. Brown, William R. Faw, Ramona Smith Moore, Phillip C. Stone, and Marty Smeltzer West.

In the November issue, Ingred Rogers reported on a war tax resisters’ alternative fund that her Brethren church established:

Withholding and choosing life

The Manchester Church of the Brethren has established a “Fund for Life” as an expression of support for those who feel moved to refuse payment of war taxes. This was a significant step in a long process of soul-searching and consciousness-raising.

The process began in the fall of 1978 when several members formed a tax-concerned group. Driven by the conviction that to contemplate nuclear holocaust is sin against God and humanity, we came together to discuss how to express our conscientious objection to war taxes. Careful reading of the Bible convinced us that the Scriptures give no single, absolute statement about payment of taxes. But we are indeed called to obey God above all, and trusting in weapons of mass destruction is clearly idolatrous.

From the beginning, we saw our action as an effort to maintain faithfully the Brethren peace testimony. It became increasingly important to us to allow the church to make a witness on behalf of tax resisters. Our denomination as a whole had already committed itself to recognition of war-tax resistance as a form of conscientious objection. Now it was a matter of asking for support from the local congregation that had nurtured us and had had a vital influence on tiie formation of our peace position.

After the first church board discussion on the issue, the tax group prepared a proposal for a Fund for Life. The original draft provided that resisters would deposit in the fund the money withheld from taxes. Money unclaimed by the Internal Revenue Service was to become the property of the Manchester church as a completed gift by the original depositor and used for peace work. As in an escrow account, money up to the amount deposited could be returned to the individual if the IRS should claim the sum.

The church board raised two objections. If the money can be returned in full to the original depositor once the IRS demands it, where is the witness, the risk, the sacrifice? If the church holds money owed to the government, might the whole congregation legally be implicated?

The board decided to bring the proposal to the next council meeting for discussion, and to delay a final vote for another six months to allow the congregation to reflect upon the issue of war-tax resistance.

The resulting education program was thorough and rewarding. As expected, we met with disagreement and heated debate. A second draft suggested that the money should be a completed gift from the beginning without strings attached. Also, money deposited would not necessarily have to be withheld from taxes; anyone could contribute as an expression of support.

The tax group found this second draft more true in some ways to the original intent. Both drafts were presented in Sunday school classes. After three more modifications, the group settled on this wording:

1. The congregation leaves the withholding of war taxes to the individual conscience of each member or friend.
2. Any member or friend of the Manchester Church of the Brethren may contribute money to the Fund for Life.
3. The income from said gifts and the gifts themselves shall be used by the church for activities that are expressly peace-making, including the support of those persons mentioned in item four. None of these gifts or the income from said gifts shall be used for the operating budget of the church.
4. Upon request, our congregation shall financially assist any member or friend who withholds war taxes if the Internal Revenue Service presses for collection of his/her tax liability. Such contributions shall come from the fund or from special contributions of individual members of the congregation.

This latest version was adopted by the church in the fall of 1981.

Our need for education and discussion on this subject increases. Every year we are painfully made aware of the shift in priorities in our national budget; every year more billions are sacrificed for weapons which will destroy God’s creation. The Fund for Life has been an attempt to seek alternatives to quiet acquiescence. It is a small but significant step in accordance with the faith we proclaim.

An article on “Grassroots Peacemaking” in the December issue noted:

The study of peacemaking has led some Brethren to question the payment of taxes that support the military system. Southern Ohio has a special committee on the World Peace Tax Fund. Michigan’s district conference in March will act upon a resolution that urges congregations not to pay telephone taxes. Manchester (Ind.) church has created a Fund for Life (see [above]). Galen and Wanda Miller, of Oregon/Washington District, divide their Federal tax into two checks — one made out to the Department of Health and Human Services and one to the Internal Revenue Service — and include a letter stating that they don’t object to paying taxes for constructive programs.

The Church of the Brethren stood firm and refused to honor an IRS levy filed against pastors Louise & Phil Rieman in 1987, and the church’s Messenger magazine also brought news of war tax resisters from other denominations.

There were several passing references to war taxes in the early 1987 issues of Messenger, but it wasn’t until the August/September issue that there was anything substantial. That issue brought a brief update on Presbyterian war tax resister Maurice McCrackin (source):

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has publicly asked the forgiveness of an 81-year-old Cincinnati minister who was defrocked 26 years ago for his anti-war activism. The Rev. Maurice F. McCrackin, pastor of the non-denominational Community Church of Cincinnati, was deposed from the ministry by the Cincinnati Presbytery in 1961 after he refused to pay the portion of his income taxes that would have gone for military spending. The denomination’s General Assembly in June formally confessed error and endorsed an action to restore him to clergy status.

The following page brought this news:

Tax resisters’ fund issues 11^th appeal

Since 1983, more than $40,000 in tax-resistance fines has been covered by a network of people who contribute to a “Tax Resisters’ Penalty Fund (TRPF).[”] The fund, which aids those who refuse for conscientious reasons to pay taxes for war, issued its 11^th appeal for funds in April.

Founded in 1983 by Dave Leiter, then coordinator of the North Manchester Fellowship of Reconciliation, in Indiana, the TRPF provides financial and moral support to war-tax resisters, allowing those who do not directly resist war taxes to support those who do.

War-tax resisters resist funding militarism by refusing to pay all or a portion of their income taxes. They are not tax evaders, says the TRPF committee, because they do not use withheld money for personal benefit. Many channel the withheld taxes to organizations that work for peace and justice.

Using US federal budget figures, the committee says that 62 percent of income tax monies go to pay for current and past military expenses.

Since 1982, the Internal Revenue Service has levied $500 in penalties on deductions it considers “frivolous,” including war-tax deductions.

Resisters submit requests for reimbursements of such charges to the Penalty Fund. The TRPF does not pay the original tax burden — only penalties and interest.

Between two and four times annually, requests are evaluated and tabulated by a committee of eight people, and an appeal is sent to supporters of the fund. The amount of the appeal is shared equally by supporters.

The 11 appeals issued since 1983 have ranged from $1 to $15 per supporter. The fund has about 570 supporters and has given more than $40,000 to more than 80 war-tax resisters, according to the committee. The next appeal goes out this month.

The War Tax Resisters Penalty Fund is still in operation today and still operates much as described in the above article.

At the 1987 Annual Conference, the committee that had been set up to yet again study the war tax issue and make recommendations announced “that it was choosing not to write a new statement on the issue of conscientiously opposing paying taxes that go for military purposes.” Instead, they recommended that Brethren go back and study the previous reports issued by previous committees, and heed the calls from previous conferences to seriously study the issue. (source)

The Church of the Brethren stood firm against an IRS levy in 1987, as reported in the January 1988 issue:

Tax resistance action results in IRS levy

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a tax levy on funds the General Board holds for Phil and Louise Rieman, co-pastors of the Ivester Church of the Brethren, Grundy Center, Iowa. The action is a response to the Riemans’ tax withholding as a conscientious objection to paying taxes that are used for war.

The levy requires the General Board to take money held on their behalf from the Pastor’s Housing Fund and send it to the IRS. If the board fails to do this, the IRS has declared its intention to levy the board’s bank accounts and take the amount plus a 50-percent penalty.

The Executive Committee voted November 11 not to send the required amount and to file a protest letter that supports the Riemans’ right to engage in tax resistance. The committee also told the IRS that the Pastor’s Housing Fund is of such a nature that the government does not have the right to levy against it.

In February, representatives from Brethren, Mennonite, and Quaker groups had come together for a three-day conference about war taxes, sponsored by a “New Call to Peacemaking.”

Peace churches meet, discuss war taxes

“People who express opposition to war need to consider conscientious objection to paying for it,” stated Chuck Boyer, General Board peace representative, after returning from a three-day discussion of war tax issues.

Thirty-six historic peace church members — Brethren, Mennonites, and Friends — including Boyer, and Julie Garber, of the Manchester Church of the Brethren, North Manchester, Ind., met February 15–17 to discuss issues surrounding withholding of war taxes.

Prior to that consultation, 18 leaders from the historic peace churches met to discuss how best to work together for peace. It was the first meeting of the heads of the peace churches in more than 10 years.

The simple fact that the leaders met and got to know each other better was the highlight of the meeting, said Donald E. Miller, general secretary of the Church of the Brethren.

In addition to Miller, General Board executives Joan Deeter, Melanie May, and Roger Schrock; board chairwoman Anita Smith Buckwalter; and church historian Donald F. Durnbaugh represented the Brethren.

Both meetings were sponsored by New Call to Peacemaking, a cooperative peace church organization.

The war tax consultation focused on options and consequences for church agencies that refuse to withhold employees’ federal income taxes. One Mennonite and two Quaker agencies already have policies of breaking the law by not withholding federal taxes of employees who oppose paying the military portion of their taxes.

The Church of the Brethren has not dealt directly with this issue, said Boyer, since no General Board employees have asked that their taxes not be withheld. At the St. Louis Annual Conference, however, the larger issue of corporate civil disobedience will be discussed.

Of greater interest to the Brethren was lengthy discussion of the US Peace Tax Fund bill in Congress. Consultation participants agreed to organize a group of leaders to visit Washington, D.C., to register concerns about tax withholding and to support the bill.

Boyer has begun organizing “Six-by-Six” clubs of Brethren to promote the bill. Groups of six will visit their legislators in Washington or at local offices six times to promote the bill.…

The Peace Tax Fund bill would allow conscientious objectors to put the portion of their taxes that would support the military (presently about 53 percent) into a special fund to promote peaceful programs. Conscientious objectors could then pay all their taxes without violating their consciences.

The March 1988 issue reported on the policy the General Board of Friends United Meeting had adopted of refusing to withhold taxes from the paychecks of employees who were conscientious objectors to military taxation (source). The June issue followed by reporting on a similar action by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (of Friends), which decided “to withhold but not forward to the Internal Revenue Service the estimated military portion of its employees’ federal income taxes” (source).

The May 1988 issue brought the news that the Church of the Brethren General Board’s Executive Committee “is studying whether the board can withhold the telephone excise tax as a protest against military expenditures” (source).

The July 1988 issue reported that the Mennonite Church was jumping on the bandwagon too: “The General Board of the Mennonite Church has recommended that church agencies honor the requests of employees who wish to withhold payment of taxes used for military purposes” (source).

That issue also reported on the Brethren Revival Fellowship, which was trying to prod Brethren back in a more conservative direction (source). It quoted their newsletter on the tax resistance issue: “We believe that those who are loyal to Christ are bound by the biblical mandate to respect the government of the land in which they reside, and should pay their taxes when due. What the government does with the money is no longer their responsibility.”