Tax resistance in the “Peace Churches” →
Quakers →
20th–21st century Quakers →
Lonnie Valentine
Some bits and pieces from here and there:
The creative activists of the Free Keene movement are at it again.
This time they’ve formed a group called “Robin Hood of Keene” that shadows parking enforcement officers on their rounds and quickly fills expired meters before they can reach them to write out tickets.
Members of the group place cards under windshield wipers that read,
“Your meter expired; however, we saved you from the king’s tariffs, Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Please consider paying it forward,” and includes an address where donations can be sent.
Alleging that the Robin Hooders have “repeatedly and intentionally taunted, interfered with, harassed, and intimidated” the meter officers, the city has filed for a restraining order (the activists insist that this has nothing to do with any intimidation or harassment on their part, but with the city’s loss of revenue from the thousands of parking tickets they have prevented).
In the filing, parking enforcement officer Linda Desruisseaux said,
“Besides following me, crowding around me, making video recordings of my activities, and placing coins in expired meters to prevent me from writing tickets, these individuals repeatedly taunt and harass me, asking why I am stealing peoples’ money and telling me to get another job…
In particular, Graham Colson likes to taunt me by saying,
‘Linda, guess what you’re not going to do today — write tickets.’…
The taunting and harassment tends to get worse when there is a group, as they try to one-up each other at my expense.”
The IRS scandal that all the frogs are croaking about is largely a steaming pile of political bullshit… but the winds are blowing the smell directly into the offices of the IRS, which which is making it an unpleasant place to do business:
A former Internal Revenue Service official who ran the unit now at the center of scandal says the agency is about to be hit by a wave of resignations that he fears will hobble its operations.
“I think there’s going to be a significant number of departures from the agency,” said Marcus Owens, a Washington attorney who served as director of the exempt-organizations’ office .
The same post is now occupied by Lois Lerner, who has come under fire for her agency’s treatment of conservative groups.
“That’s going to have an impact on tax collections and tax administration,” said Mr. Owens, who said he thinks the controversy has been overblown.
Mr. Owens, who worked for the IRS for 25 years, said a number of IRS officials have talked to him about their plans to leave.
He said the investigations underway have crushed morale, while some IRS officials are starting to get threatening anonymous calls at home.
In the other IRS scandal, the one that to me seems more actually scandalous, the agency has backed down from its repulsive legal opinion that Americans have no legitimate privacy expectations in their email communications, so agency investigators should feel free to rifle through them without bothering to get a warrant.
The new policy says the agency won’t aim to read your email at all if it is only pursuing a civil action against you, and will “in all cases” obtain a warrant when trying to get your email from whichever Internet service provider is storing it, when pursuing criminal cases.
Fran Quigley at Counterpunch takes another look at the Transform Now Plowshares case, and in particular how the government progressively ratcheted up a misdemeanor trespassing charge against the three pacifists until now they stand convicted of federal terrorism felonies, awaiting sentencing from jail as they’ve been deemed violent criminals too dangerous to release.
The fabled Greek crackdown on tax evasion seems mostly for show: “of the estimated 13 billion euros that government officials say is owed by Greece’s 1,500 biggest tax debtors, only about 19 million euros [≈0.1%] has been collected in .”
Lonnie Valentine speaks on Quakers and the War Tax Concern: Unfinished Business?
Earlham is a Quaker educational institution, and so there is more than usual interest in the history and current practice of war tax resistance in the Society of Friends at this gathering.
But we have war tax resisters here from a variety of backgrounds, and from all over the country… and even as far away as Kipkarren River, Kenya.
They include relatively new resisters, and some legendary veterans of the movement.
The evening began with Lonnie Valentine (the Trueblood Professor of Christian Thought and Professor of Peace & Justice at Earlham), speaking on the topic of “Quakers and the War Tax Concern: Unfinished Business?”
He believes that peace-minded Quakers need to become more “militantly nonviolent” if they want to recapture the way in which their movement was once a real threat to the status quo.
Radical societal change can only come about if the powers that be are undermined on multiple levels — economically, militarily, politically, and ideologically.
Early Quaker tithe and tax resistance was conducted in that fashion, but now (when such things are practiced at all) they tend to be much less confrontational and much narrower in scope.
Ari Rosenberg introduces members of the local community to the NWTRCC gathering
He recapped the struggle the Society of Friends had when trying to determine the limits of war tax resistance, and how the eventual compromise (to resist explicit war taxes, but not taxes “in the mixture”) proved unsatisfying and unstable, and was challenged by John Woolman and others.
Valentine told the story of Quaker William Rotch of Rhode Island, who, after receiving some bayonets as part of a payment of a debt due him during the Revolutionary War, threw them overboard rather than risk having them requisitioned by the military.
Valentine then challenged the audience to consider whether property destruction of a similar sort might be a worthy addition to their war tax resistance tactics.
What if, he asked, instead of only having a war tax resisters’ penalty fund to reimburse resisters who had penalties and interest seized by the IRS, we also had a more assertive response, in which we destroyed federal government property equal in value to any seizures it made?
Valentine believes that Quakers, not only because of the important role they have played in American war tax resistance, but also because of the ways they have also dropped the ball in that movement, have a special responsibility to lead now.
He was a little less certain about how to make this happen… suggesting that maybe a campaign to try to get a lot of Quakers to resist a small, symbolic amount might be a good start.
Joanna Swanger, Director of Earlham College’s Peace and Global Studies Program, addresses Strategizing for Social Change in 21th Century America
After dinner, Joanna Swanger, Director of Earlham College’s Peace and Global Studies Program, gave the opening convocation on the subject of Strategizing for Social Change in 21th Century America.
Swanger’s talk concentrated on the theory of peace action. She believes that the principles of non-violent action as studied by Gene Sharp and others are not necessarily applicable to our place and time.
This is in part because she believes that the U.S. government does not respond to nonviolent pressure in the way expected by this school of nonviolence theory, and also in part because the internet and corporate control of media have changed the rules of visual communication in society.
What should we do instead?
Well, I’m not too sure what she recommends.
It all sounded pretty abstract to me and I tuned out after a while.
is the first full day of the conference, full of workshops and then a keynote address by Peter Goldberger on the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision for American war tax resisters.
Rossella Fidanza tries to ease the fears of Italians who may be contemplating a tax strike by explaining in some detail the long and not particularly frightening process by which the Italian tax authorities pursue those who haven’t coughed up their tribute (a process that’s not too unlike what I’m familiar with in the U.S.).
It’s so easy for a taxpayer in Italy to enter into an installment agreement and then put off the first payment for three and a half years, it seems, that Italian taxpayers could (if they chose) put their government in a world of hurt without risking much of anything themselves.
A West Auckland farmer who has been cheated out of some of his property via eminent domain has decided to take his revenge on the Durham County Council by withholding his council tax until he recovers the promised payment.
Some audio from ’s conference in Milwaukee is also now available on-line, including:
Patrick Kennelly on the work of the Afghan Peace Volunteers:
A panel on “Methods of Resistance” with Mary Watkins, George Martin, and Ruth Benn:
Here’s a video of Lonnie Valentine’s presentation on Quaker war tax resistance at the Quaker History Roundtable held at the Earlham School of Religion:
Here are a few more items concerning tax resistance that I found in back issues
of Friends Bulletin, the journal of the Pacific
Yearly Meeting of Quakers. First, a brief note from the
issue about a group who were
supplementing their tax resistance with a lawsuit:
Phil Drath explained that this suit has been filed by a group of people who
are refusing to pay the 10 per cent telephone tax on the Vietnam War. The
courts are being asked to decide if it is legal to make citizens pay taxes in
support of an illegal war. The litigants are asking for permission to pay the
amount (which is now being held by a bank) to the American Friends Service
Committee to wage peace. Phil Drath will be glad to furnish information to
anyone interested.
“I’m convinced,” comments Virginia O’Rourke of Berkeley Meeting, “the best way
to undertake witness against the illegal use of our tax monies by the
government (over 70 per cent of every tax dollar is used for war preparation)
is to make oneself invulnerable to
IRS
collection tactics by radically altering one’s life style. This I have
attempted to do personally and as much as possible. An individual can easily
adjust and adapt. But with the responsibility of teen-age children, I feel
trapped in the white, middle-class ‘bag.’ I hope in a year to have the last of
my children graduated from high school and on his own. Then I hope to devote
my full time and energy in joining others who are attempting to build
alternate life styles for a new society.”
O’Rourke had been an active war tax resister for some time already, and at one point
petitioned the
Tax Court to recognize that her war tax resistance was valid on Constitutional
grounds: to find a First Amendment right to conscientious objection to
military taxation, and to find that the government was prosecuting an illegal
war and so it was a citizen’s right (or duty) not to fund it, among other
things. (The Tax Court did not deign to address her arguments but agreed that
the IRS
had grounds to assess an income tax on her for the years in which she refused
to file.)
The issue included a letter on
“Taxes and Giving”
from Samuel R. Tyson (Delta Meeting), urging Quakers to be more conscious and
conscientious about taxpaying (excerpts):
Each year we are faced with the inescapable task of whether to file an income
tax form or not. The President has certainly given the world a demonstration
about paying taxes and about the merit of giving, an attitude which is not
wholly admirable. [President Nixon was a few months away from resigning in
the face of the Watergate and other scandals, including allegations of tax evasion.]
Each year it becomes more imperative to ask ourselves why we comply with the
tax laws. What is reflected from our computations for Form 1040?
Third– we have the expectation of gain from giving. What happens to the
income left after the withholding of taxes for governmental violence? Do you
give (donate) as much as you pay by federal fiat? Are the gifts dependent upon
tax deductibility? Do you give as much where there is no tax advantage? Do you
give directly to people with no strings attached?
Fourth– Taxes are used to kill people. Is the federal state more
concerned with life giving or death dealing? Because your resources can be
levied, does it matter whether your voluntarily pay your taxes to the state?
Does rendering unto Caesar relieve the individual from personal responsibility
for the uses of tax money? There are jobs with withholding and
self-employment; does it make any difference how long we hold onto our income?
Fifth– peace comes with giving all. Will peace come by continuing
acceptance of taxes for killing? Is it more likely to come when we begin the
process of being liberated from self and becoming less dependent upon
governmental functions? Is there need to resist taxes? For torturing of
prisoners, for the wars over the world, for the building of 1984 information
storage banks, for supplying our present energy “needs” by nuclear reactors
with their explosive radioactive potential which may be at the expense of our
children’s children, and for the establishment in California of a violence
center to change the behavior of violent individuals: chemically, surgically,
or by behavior modification?
What are we giving our lives for? It is always our choice. Don’t blame the
administration which gives us exactly that for which we pay.
The Monterey Peninsula Friends Meeting contributed a parable and an exhortation
to the issue that ends with one of
the strongest corporate declarations of war tax resistance that I have found
from 20th Century Quaker meetings:
The devil took the Quakers to a very high mountain
the mountain of academic-socio-economic success
and showed them all the kingdoms of the world,
and the glory of them;
and he said to the Quakers
all this I will give you…
financial security
acceptance in your society
many opportunities for doing good
tax exemption for your worship centers and your service programs
many other benefits too numerous to mention
if you will fall down and worship me…
bless the armies which protect your privileges
pay taxes without question for my armies around the world
(a few words of dissent to support your moral image is OK as long as you
refrain from any form of civil disobedience)
And the Quakers said (multiple choice — check one):
we want to keep our service program going, so…
we’re uneasy with your terms, but we like the benefits…
would you serve as one of our Trustees? We need more practical minds like
yours…
as children of God and members of the Religious Society of Friends we are
under obligation to free ourselves from this complicity.
Historical References
. William Penn informed the queen
that his conscience would not allow “a tribute to carry on any war, nor
ought true Christians to pay it.”
(I still have not been able to track down a source of this quote in the
writings of William Penn. The earliest mention of it I’m aware of is in William
Rakestraw’s pamphlet from around ,
“Tribute to Cæsar”.)
. Monterey Peninsula Friends
Meeting, “It is not enough to recognize an evil and our participation
in it. We recognize that the Light not only tells us what to do, but also
what not to do. Thus, the words of Margaret Fell speak to us:
‘Now Friends, deal plainly with yourselves, and let the Eternal Light
search you… for this will deal plainly with you; it will rip you up, and
lay you open…’
[Minute:] We, Monterey Peninsula Friends
Meeting, urge Friends as individuals to stop paying war taxes; likewise,
we urge Friends to corporately adopt the position favoring the nonpayment
of war taxes.”
* Adapted from Peter J. Ediger’s “Temptation” by
Walter and Sali Damon-Ruth, Monterey Peninsula Meeting [which in turn
is a riff off of the temptation of Jesus described in Matthew 4:8–11]
A letter-to-the-editor from John Fitz of Berkeley Meeting
in the edition was skeptical about
the proposed “World Peace Tax Fund Act” legislation that had captured the
hearts of many people who were conscientiously troubled by paying war taxes and
were hoping some democratic accommodation would make the problem go away.
“I am not able to support the push to obtain passage of the [Act]…” Fitz wrote,
“in spite of the fact that I am a long-time advocate of tax refusal and have
myself often been a refuser. I believe that Friends should ignore the movement
to obtain passage of this Act… and should refuse to avail themselves of its
provisions if it ever passes.” The Act, he felt, would keep the war tax system
intact while enabling some people to feel aloof from it: a “salve” he called
it. He compared it to conscientious objection to the draft, which reinforces
the legitimacy of military conscription by exempting its potentially most
potent foes. “The only Quakerly way of facing the draft is to refuse to let
that system dictate our lives, and accept the costs of such refusal” he wrote,
and similarly “the only Quakerly way to face the seizure of our tax moneys for
the military is to refuse to pay it at all.”
The annual issue of war-tax payments becomes a deep concern for many Friends.
John and Louise Runnings of University Meeting invite other Friends to
join with them in protest. They are preparing a brief for the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals, which is hearing their case against the
IRS.
John Fitz, Berkeley Meeting, urges Friends either to refuse payments
or, at the least, to write a letter of protest when filing returns; he makes a
cogent case for tax-refusal. Albuquerque Meeting reports on
correspondence with Robert Anthony of Pennsylvania, whose article in
Friends Journal started them moving toward tax
refusal. He had claimed a War Claims [sic — “war crimes” I think is
correct] tax reduction, which was denied by the courts but is on appeal; if
the appeal goes to the Supreme Court that body faces the dilemma of denying
First Amendment rights or penalizing an individual for following religious
convictions.
Orange County includes in its newsletter a statement by Lonnie
Valentine, clerk of Peace and Social Concerns Committee, “Why I Refuse to Pay
Taxes for Military Spending.” She [sic] writes, in part: “The payment
of taxes for military spending is only one of many ways I participate in the
killing I would not do… (It) is the tightest bond to the death of others that
I feel I can change… If I do not pay, the armies still exist, but I have
removed my helping hand… I do not refuse to pay in hopes of peace, I am at
peace and therefore refuse to pay… War tax refusal is for me a beginning, not
an end.”
Here are a few more items concerning tax resistance that I found in back issues
from of Friends
Bulletin, the journal of the Pacific Yearly Meeting of Quakers.
The issue included an announcement
from the Orange County Monthly Meeting of
the launch of “The Conscience and Military Tax Resolution.”
This sort of thing is frequently proposed in modern war tax resistance circles,
but has yet to show much success. In this incarnation people who “are not ready
to resist now” could sign on to the resolution to “show that you are at least
ready to begin when 100,000 others agree to do so.” Once that target was
reached, signers of the Resolution would begin to refuse to pay at least a
certain percentage of their taxes. The goal of this was to pressure the
government into passing “the World Peace Tax Fund Bill or similar legislation
which would provide a legal alternative for taxpayers morally opposed to war.”
The issue had several items on
war tax resistance, beginning with this statement and commentary:
We express our love for God and all the peoples of this earth. A vital act of
this love is to refuse cooperation with registration for the draft and
payment of our tax money for war. We testify against rendering unto Caesar
that which is God’s. We, the individuals who serve on the Pacific Yearly
Meeting Peace Committee, join with those Friends who refuse to cooperate with
war taxes and registration. As a result of this call, we have chosen to
protest war taxes, some refusing at least a “Token Ten” dollars.
Friend — what canst thou say?
Lonnie Valentine
Betsy Eberhart
Gladis Innerst
Mike Turner
Ellen Lyon
Duane Magill
Franklin Zahn
Ed Flowers
Bonnie Wells
The above statement, written by the Pacific Yearly Meeting Peace Committee and
others came with labor over several minutes on conscription and peace from
monthly meetings as well as Friends General Conference
minute, Philadelphia Yearly
Meeting’s statement, and Sarasota Monthly Meeting’s Statement of Peace. The
intent was a minute of action in which our Peace Testimony would be not just
words but applied to our lives in .
Two suggestions came out of a subsequent threshing session: 1) that the
statement be made available for others to sign and 2) that the Peace Committee
be available to labor with monthly meetings on this statement.
All monthly meetings have previously received Franklin Zahn’s “War Taxes–Minus
a Token Ten” of which develops the
idea and makes suggestions on alternative uses of the token ten dollars. In
essence, withholding $10.00 in objection to the federal government’s use of
our tax money for war is similar to withholding the
U.S. Tax from
telephone bills which was done during the Vietnam War.
I am raising the question within monthly meetings and among Peace Committee
members whether
PYM Peace
Committee should sponsor a weekend conference at Quaker Center. Your
suggestions and/or responses would be appreciated.
Also, I hope that monthly meetings, meanwhile, are taking advantage of Lonnie
Valentine’s availability to provide workshops on War Tax Objection.
In peace and love,
Ellen Lyon, Clerk
PYM Peace
Committee
How can we who are above the draft age support Friends faced with
registration? In Our Peace Testimony it says:
Our witness to the way of peace requires that we refuse military service of
any kind, and challenges us to consider whether we can in any way submit to
that involuntary servitude which is conscription. Friends should work to
abolish state conscription — whether for military or other purposes — and
should refuse personally to cooperate with the draft.
Since many of us do not have this opportunity to refuse to register for the
draft, we must look to those other ways in which we can refuse cooperation
with the draft.
One way is refusing registration of our money for war through the taxation
system. When we willingly submit a tax form, we are supporting registration
for the draft; when we willingly pay taxes of which over half is used for war,
we are supporting registration for the draft. When we do these things, we are
withdrawing support from Friends who are refusing to register for the draft.
Therefore, one unequivocal way we who are above draft age can support Friends
resisting the draft is to resist payment of those taxes which, in part, go for
registration and conscription.
If we recognize our “involvement in militarism through the payment of taxes
used for military purposes” but do not act to end such involvement, then are
we not hypocritical to tell Friends faced with registration to refuse military
service? If draft age Friends take the Peace Testimony to heart and refuse to
cooperate with the draft, then is it not time that we who are no longer of
that age refuse to cooperate with the drafting of our money for war?
Perhaps our Peace Testimony states what we believe too rigidly when it calls
on Friends to refuse cooperation with the draft. Perhaps, however, the
testimony does not state what we believe with regard to the payment of war
taxes strongly enough. If we agree that we should refuse cooperation with the
draft, then it is time we should refuse cooperation with war taxes.
That issue also included this on-point notice from one Quarterly Meeting:
In these times of draft registration and military buildup, many persons may be
led to actions in harmony with the Quaker Peace Testimony. College Park
Quarterly Meeting supports those who feel spiritually led, for reasons of
conscience, to perform such actions, including non-registration for the draft
and war tax refusal.
A letter to the editor from Walter Klein
in that issue suggested that Quakers, instead of resisting war taxes, should
pay twice their normal tax, but pay the extra amount for a non-military
purpose, perhaps one chosen as a group. “It would be legal, it would be a
statement of conscience, wars and armament would continue; but the message
might be loud and clear and perhaps more effective.” He suggested the program
be called “ ‘The Better Use of Government’ Fund or
‘BUG’ Fund
for short.”
Lonnie Valentine reminded Quakers of their historical tradition of war tax
resistance in the issue:
A.J. Muste once remarked that “The two decisive powers of the government
with respect to war are the power to conscript and the power to tax.” Now it
can be claimed that the government’s ability to wage war depends decisively
upon its power to tax. After all, our nuclear age began beneath one airplane,
twelve men, and millions of drafted tax dollars.
As early as American Friends recognized the
connection between taxes and war. In an epistle to Pennsylvania Friends, John
Woolman, John Churchman, and others wrote:
As we cannot be concerned with wars and fighting, so neither ought we to
contribute thereto… though some part of the money be raised… is said to be
for such benevolent purposes, as supporting our friendship with our Indian
neighbors, and relieving the distresses of our fellow-subjects… we could most
cheerfully contribute to those purposes, if they were not so mixed, that we
cannot in the manner proposed, show our hearty concurrence therewith, without
at the same time assenting to… practices, which we apprehend contrary to the
testimony which the Lord hath given us to bear…
Indeed, the Friends’ clear apprehension of the connection of money and war was
reflected in the Constitutional debates (about whether to include a
conscientious objector amendment) with regard to the conscription of men and
money. Roger Sherman of Connecticut remarked that “It is well know that those
who are religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, are equally scrupulous of
getting substitutes or paying an equivalent. Many of them would rather die
then do either one or the other.” How much are we now ready to do for our
scruples about conscription?
If we were all to be subject to the military draft in the next war, we would
not pay a fee to hire someone in our place. However, we seem to have forgotten
that with the payment of taxes we are hiring substitutes. We are paying to
have someone go in our place. In being unable to say “No!” to the payment of
taxes used to register and conscript others, we nullify our ability to say
“No!” in other ways. After all, the government cares little if we leaflet post
offices, learn draft counseling, or even advocate draft resistance as long as
we continue to pay our taxes. Simply put, when we pay our taxes, we enable the
government to conscript.
If other Friends are concerned enough about conscription to contemplate saying
“No!” to the drafting of our tax dollars, please write me at 27122 Cipres,
Mission Viejo, CA
92692 to let me know [sic] about the many ways we can protest and
resist paying war taxes. Also, please feel free to ask those Friendly
questions about justifying suffering for such a witness!
Joshua Evans reflected my feelings long ago when he said: “I found it best for
me to refuse paying demands on my estate which went to paying the expenses of
war, and although my part might appear at best a drop in the ocean, yet the
ocean, I considered, was made of many drops.” Are there other Friends who are
willing to be drops in this ocean?
[Lonnie Valentine has travelled in the ministry among Friends in Pacific
Yearly Meeting this past year under the auspices of the Fund for Concerns to
share with Friends his concerns about paying taxes for war.]
A letter from Harold Waterhouse
in the same issue warned Quakers against making their war tax resistance “an
act so private in nature that sometimes its sole impact falls on some harassed
IRS clerk
[and, a]s an act of witness… is chiefly between us and God.” While such an act
“relieves our conscience… if it reduces our drive for peace to the point that
we fail to act in more effective ways, then war-tax-withholding, on balance, is
counter-productive.”
A letter from David & Janet Hartsough to the
IRS,
reprinted in the issue, explained why
the Hartsoughs were refusing outright to pay $10.40 of their federal taxes
(redirecting that to the Oakland Catholic Worker “to feed the hungry and house
the homeless”), and paying the remaining $747.60 but in the form of a check
made out to the Department of Health and Human Services instead of to the
U.S. Treasury, in
the hopes of thereby keeping the money out of the hands of the Defense
Department.
A letter from Elinor Gene Hoffman to the
IRS,
reprinted in the issue, explained why
she was withholding 33⅓% of her taxes (“approximately the amount we are
spending for future wars and present armaments”), redirecting them “to
organizations I believe are dedicated to peace and to furthering life on this
planet,” and declaring this on her tax return as a “Quaker Peace Witness” tax
credit. She wrote, in part:
Please observe that by withholding only one-third of my taxes, I demonstrate
my willingness to pay for past wars and veterans’ benefits. I believe we
should honor past debts and that veterans of all wars should receive our
cherishing care.…
I take this stand in full recognition of the many benefits we all derive from
our representative form of government and the freedoms it enables me to enjoy.
But I firmly believe nothing good my government has done or will do can endure
if we do not halt our military pollution of the planet.
A reprinted letter from DeAnne Butterfield and John Huyler,
Jr. of Boulder Meeting to
the IRS
explained why they were withholding 39% of their taxes and declaring a
credit in a similar manner to Hoffman’s action explained above. Excerpt:
We hope most fervently that legal options (such as the proposed World
Peace Tax Fund) may be available in the future and would gladly pay into
such a fund. Until then we see war tax refusal as the only avenue which
allows us to follow our religious principles.
We welcome your scrutiny of this return. You will find that we have been
forthright and complete to the best of our ability. Furthermore, we hope
that this commitment on our parts can be a useful catalyst for dialogue.
We will welcome you our your agents into our home in hopes that,
together, in a spirit of mutual concern and respect, we may discover
better ways to bring about an end to all wars.
A note appended to this letter added: “Through the efforts of DeAnne
Butterfield, John Huyler, and others, Boulder Meeting adopted a one-year
trial program of reducing war taxes and diverting them to peaceful uses
through hiring a part-time Peace Secretary who will help stimulate activity
in the Meeting and in the community.” (See
♇ 7 June 2018 for more information
about this.)
A reprinted letter from Gerald Morsello of Eugene Meeting to the
IRS
explained his tax refusal, which involved redirecting “a portion of my
Federal Income Tax” to “the Oregon Urban Rural Credit Union for use by
people most affected by recent Federal domestic budget cuts.” He said he
was doing this although he would prefer “to be able to place the money I
owe the Federal government in a legally recognized alternative, such as the
World Peace Tax Fund.”
An letter from Constance Jolly of the Berkeley Meeting to the
IRS,
excerpted from the newsletter of the National Council for a World Peace Tax
Fund, explained her redirection of 35% of her taxes to “an organization
that works for peaceful reconciliation, for human rights, and for
disarmament.” Excerpt:
I am not one who breaks the law lightly, but for me the law that commands
its citizens to do evil is less binding than the higher law that commands
that “Thou shalt not kill.”
An announcement for an upcoming conference on “A Religious Response to
Growing Militarism” sponsored by College Park Quarterly Meeting said that
it “will be a nurturing and supportive gathering for those Friends and
others who are facing issues related to draft and tax resistance,
[etc.]”
A note read:
The 1981 Tax Resistance issue of Newsletter is
available (40¢ each) from 331 17th
Ave.
E., Seattle
WA 94112. Contents
include information about forms of tax resistance or refusal, possible
penalties, resources for decision-making, a national listing of
counselors, Centers, and Alternative Funds.
Those contents sound like the sort of stuff
NWTRCC
puts out nowadays. But
NWTRCC
wasn’t founded until , so I don’t know
who was putting out such a newsletter in
.
An article concerning statements by Episcopalian and Catholic bishops on
nuclear weapons included this section:
[I]n Archbishop Raymond G.
Hunthausen of Seattle proposed that “a sizable number of people in the
state” undertake a taxpayers revolt to protest the buildup in nuclear
arms. He argued that refusing to pay fifty per cent of income taxes “in
resistance to nuclear murder and suicide” would be “a definite step
toward total disarmament… Our paralyzed political process needs that
catalyst of nonviolent action based on faith. We have to refuse to give
incense — in our day tax dollars — to our nuclear idol.”
Brief summaries of the activities of various meetings included such notices
as these:
“Conscience and Military Tax Campaign [and] Consequences of Tax Refusal”
were among topics on the agenda of University Meeting’s “study
hour.”
“Eugene friends held a threshing session on tax resistance: ‘No consensus
was sought, and the Meeting was clearly divided on this difficult
issue.’ ”
“Conscription of Taxes” was discussed by the Phoenix Meeting in the
context of “discussions growing out of the New Call to Peacemaking
statement.”
The Friends Committee on War Tax Concerns is well on the way to working itself
out of a job. The committee was established early in
to accomplish three tasks: (1) to publish a
guidebook on war tax concerns; (2) to encourage consultation on war tax issues
throughout the Society of Friends; and (3) to develop queries and advices for
Quaker employers.
The proposed guidebook has become a series of pamphlets and a bibliography.
Three of the pamphlets, the ones on Quaker history and recent statements of
Friends, on the Biblical basis for conscientious objection to war taxes, and
on the spiritual and rational bases for war tax concerns, should be in print
by , along with the bibliography.
In mid-continent and mid- there will be
a conference for employers. Invitations will be sent to schools and religious
organizations operated by all the groups participating in the New Call to
Peacemaking. About 100 people are expected to gather and explore the positions
that can be adopted vis à vis the Internal Revenue Service
and the range of possible solutions to problems which may arise.
Two regional conferences, “Money and Conscience” and “Paying for War/Paying
for Peace,” were held in . Both were very
successful. Several more are planned for .
FCWTC
will provide resource material and assistance with program planning for
conferences wherever there are Friends who recognize the importance of war tax
issues and are willing to do the basic planning and arrangements. I hope this
means some of us.
Each of us on the committee represents a different Friends organization. Most
of us refuse to pay some or all of the taxes that pay for war. However, the
committee is concerned with “concerns,” not just resistance. We believe that
all Friends should go as far as they can, but not all are called to go in the
same direction. What aspect of this explosive issue do you most want to learn
more about, discuss with other Friends, make the subject of a conference? If
you can’t give time, can you give money? The basic program of the committee is
to prepare resource materials, distribute them where they are needed, help
people with similar problems and concerns to get in touch with each other and
then to lay the committee down, probably about .
I will try to get to any meeting in Southern California (maybe further) and
hope to get to Intermountain Yearly Meeting in
(Anne Friend, 836
N. Beaudry, № 5, Los
Angeles, CA 90012).
Lon Fendall at the Center for Peace Learning, Newberg,
OR 97132, is willing to
visit some meetings in North Pacific Yearly Meeting, as way opens, and/or to
help plan a conference. Linda Coffin is the staff at FCWTC,
P.O. Box 6441,
Washington,
D.C. 20009.
Any of us would like to hear from you.
If April 15 is getting to you more every year, think about what you can do
about it. And while you’re thinking about it, do something to get others
thinking about it, too.
