Tax resistance in the “Peace Churches” →
Quakers →
20th–21st century Quakers →
Chris Moore-Backman
Chris Moore-Backman is a Quaker war tax resister and the plaintiff in a case that is trying to convince the Arizona federal district court, and eventually the Ninth Circuit court of appeals, to declare that a right to legal conscientious objection to military taxation is implicitly guaranteed by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of .
If he can do this, there will be a district court split on the issue (two
other district courts of appeals have turned down similar arguments), which
would increase the likelihood that the United States Supreme Court would take
up the case. If the Supreme Court did so, it might decide in such a way as to
make conscientious objection to military taxation legal in the United States.
Congress would then either have to enact some sort of scheme to accommodate
such conscientious objection, or it would have to amend the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act so that it no longer covered conscientious objection to
military taxation.
That is to say that the case is a long-shot and that even if it succeeds, it
could easily wind up being a hollow victory. Still, sometimes long odds just
make the bet more attractive.
Moore-Backman is also trying to reinvigorate the Quaker tradition of war tax
refusal. he spoke at the San
Francisco Friends Meeting about his case, about Quaker war tax resistance, and
about the “double life” that many modern Quakers lead in which they give lip
service to the peace testimony while taking comfort instead in a safely
conventional lifestyle. There were about 18 people in attendance, most of whom
were either present war tax resisters, past war tax resisters looking to get
back into it, or people hoping to learn how to become war tax resisters. Plans
were discussed to create an ongoing discussion and mutual support group
centered on war tax resistance within the Meeting.
notes and updates about the new health care bill, IRS enforcement tactics, taxpatriatism, the advantages of credit unions, and the criminal case against war tax resister Frank Donnelly
resource updates, including new brochures, a “penny poll” tutorial, the new War Resisters League pie chart, and reviews of the new Death and Taxes film
If you liked Liz Scranton’s profile, you’ll probably also like this account from a produce-addled wild-eyed hairy mountain man.
Both tell of lifestyle choices that go beyond tax resistance to a more radical reinvention of what it means to live a good life.
War tax resistance in the Friends Journal in
In , most of the mentions of war tax resistance in the Friends Journal were brief and retrospective.
The issue noted that Christopher Moore-Backman had lost a federal district court suit in which he had asserted “that the use of his federal income tax payments for military spending substantially burdened his religious exercise in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
An obituary notice for Alfred Frederick Andersen in the issue noted that “[h]e refused to pay federal income taxes for most of his adult life, and the family home was sold at auction by the IRS in .”
A review of a book on conscientious objectors of World War Ⅱ mentioned that, among the activities such conscientious objectors took after the war, “Stephen L. Angell, a Quaker CO and a social worker, started his own business during the Vietnam war to avoid paying taxes toward a war he could not morally support.”
And an obituary notice for Angell, in the issue said that “[i]n , to avoid paying taxes for the Vietnam War, he resigned from Nassau County Health and Welfare Council and formed a consulting organization that would pay him less than taxable wages.”
There were also some mentions of Robin Harper’s war tax resistance in that issue (I covered these in the Picket Line).
A retrospective on the lives of George & Lillian Willoughby in the issue remembered:
Lillian had always felt a deep calling to refuse to pay income taxes since such a large percentage went to war costs.
One day after lunch, George and some students and I [Lynne Shivers] were chatting under the trees.
Two IRS agents approached us and announced that they planned to confiscate the Willoughbys’ red Volkswagen Beetle.
We were stunned and said little.
A few minutes later, Lillian walked briskly toward all of us, carrying a briefcase with papers she needed as a dietary consultant.
She opened the car door and got in, saying, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have to get to work!”
And she drove away!
Friends bought the car when it was auctioned off and gave it back to the Willoughbys, but the IRS did not use an auction again in the Philadelphia region for the next 30 years.
The IRS called it “The Willoughby Principle.”
