Tax resistance in the “Peace Churches” → Brethren → Joy & Ralph Dull

What happened between the time when Peacemakers was leading the war tax resistance charge and 1982, when the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee was founded? There was another group, simply called “National War Tax Resistance,” that took the reins during the Vietnam War.

Here are some more excerpts from Robert Cooney’s and Helen Michalowski’s The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States about this transition period:

1965 was, as the CNVA Bulletin declared, “The Year of Vietnam.” Picketing and sit-downs across the country marked the announcement of the first US bombing of North Vietnam on February 7. These continued throughout the month and much effort was expended gathering signatures for a new appeal, the Declaration of Conscience, circulated by radical pacifist groups, urging civil disobedience. The Peacemakers group in Cincinnati organized a “No Tax for War in Vietnam Committee” calling for tax resistance. In December 1969 a separate group — War Tax Resistance, coordinated by Bob Calvert — was established and at the time included some 200 local tax resistance centers across the country.

From the 4 March 1965 newsletter of the Syracuse Peace Council

Nonpayment of war taxes, practiced by Quakers and others, disappeared as a pacifist testimony soon after the Civil War and Thoreau’s famous stand against the U.S. foray in Mexico. It first reappeared in World War Ⅱ when a few widely scattered individuals refused to pay federal taxes on the grounds that there was no way to prevent a significant part of their money from being used for military purposes. One resister, Ernest Bromley, was prosecuted and imprisoned for his refusal. Many others began to inform the Internal Revenue Service that payment violated their principles.

The enactment during World War Ⅱ of a measure which required employers to withhold taxes from their employees caused particular difficulties for pacifists and led to the formation of Peacemakers in 1948. A Peacemaker committee promoted tax refusal and provided research, literature, action suggestions, and publicity for those in the tax resistance movement. Although many hundreds of people were refusing to pay income taxes during the 15 years following 1948, the government prosecuted and imprisoned only six: James Otsuka of Indiana, Maurice McCrackin of Ohio, Eroseanna Robinson of Illinois, Walter Gormly of Iowa, Arthur Evans of Colorado, and Neil Haworth of Connecticut. These imprisonments and the seizure of a few cars and houses by the IRS, served to highlight the tax refusal testimony and establish it as a major nonviolent principle and tactic.

Tax resistance, like other forms of opposition to the military, increased dramatically during the Vietnam War. In 1966 the federal government levied an additional tax on every private telephone, and in a rare moment of candor, admitted that the money would help subsidize the war in Indochina. Peacemakers, the War Resisters League, and other nonviolent groups urged refusal of this tax and in the following years countless thousands heeded their call. Under the leadership of Bob and Angie Calvert, War Tax Resistance was formed in 1969 as a separate organization to investigate all aspects and ramifications of conscientious tax refusal. During the war there were over 200 local war tax resistance centers, as well as a number of “alternative life funds” which rechanneled refused tax money back into the local community for constructive purposes. Many of these continued after the end of the war.

The tactic of claiming enough dependents so that no income tax would be withheld became more widespread as the Vietnam war continued. Often the tax refuser would make clear the moral grounds for the protest by listing, for example, “all the Vietnamese” as dependents. Refusing to pay for war by claiming excessive exemptions brought particularly strong response from the government. A number of people were prosecuted and imprisoned: Jim Shea, Karl Meyer, William Himmelbauer, Mark Riley, Ellis Rece, Carole Nelson, John Leininger, and Martha Tranquilli (a 64-year-old grandmother and nurse). The tax resistance movement continued after the war and grew to include both pacifists and non-pacifists who could no longer in conscience support the military priorities of the government.

From the 4 March 1965 newsletter of the Syracuse Peace Council

As more and more tax money was directed toward the [Reagan era] military buildup, many activists revived interest in war tax resistance. Protests were organized each year, and individual resisters tried a variety of means to deny the government money for war. In April 1981, demonstrations were held in Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities and 24 people were arrested at IRS offices in New York City. The following year, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee was formed by the Center on Law and Pacifism, Conscience and Military Tax Campaign, WRL, Peacemakers and eighty local groups. Nineteen eighty-three featured the largest show of war tax resistance actions in ten years, including Ralph Dull, an Ohio farmer and tax resister since 1951, who drove a truckload of grain to the IRS office as payment for his taxes. The IRS instituted a “frivolous returns” penalty to discourage the filing of returns with any but the requested information, and some resisters began an insurance fund, pooling their resources to pay fines and interest charges levied against fellow tax resisters.

From the 11 April 1982 St. Joseph [Missouri] News-Press:

Corn refused for taxes

Brookville, Ohio (AP) — Farmer Ralph Dull offered to pay part of his 1981 tax bill in corn, but the Internal Revenue Service declined.

Dull, 53, offered 300 bushels of corn, worth about $2.50 a bushel, as a symbol of “the need for the United States government to balance the budget by not cutting human services but by reducing military spending by at least $100 billion.”

Tom King, assistant chief of the IRS taxpayer service division in Cincinnati, told Dull the corn payment wasn’t acceptable.

“I can appreciate his feeling, [but] we’re going to ask for payment in cash or check — in legal tender,” King said. “We will not accept a truckload of grain as payment for his taxes.”

Dull, who farms about 1,000 acres, is a member of the Brethern [sic] Peacemakers of Southern Ohio, a subcommittee of the Church of the Brethern [sic].

Around the middle of April as the federal income tax filing deadline approaches, tax resistance articles hit the media frequently. Here are some examples from past years:

“Tax Deadline Brings Protest And Ice Cream” The [Sumter, South Carolina] Daily Item 16 April 1981

A post-tax-day wrap-up quotes war tax resister Ed Hedemann, and also Jack O’Malley, one of three Catholic priests in Pittsburgh who were refusing to pay war taxes.

“Farmer tries to pay his taxes with grain” 16 April 1982

A news report on tax day protests includes a mention of “Seven Pittsburgh priests [who] will refuse to pay about a third of their federal income taxes in a protest against the nuclear arms race” and of war tax resister Ralph Dull, who “drove a truck filled with 325 bushels of corn to the IRS office in Dayton” in lieu of cash payment.

“Protesters resist military taxes” The [Pennsylvania State University] Daily Collegian 16 April 1987

Rita Snyder, Kathy Levine, and Donald Ealy quoted about the war tax resistance movement.

“War tax resisters refuse to pay Uncle Sam” The Nevada Daily Mail 16 April 2003

Bill Ramsey, Jenny Truax, Rebekah Hassler, Tom & Suzanne Makarewicz, and Mary Loehr mentioned and/or quoted.

The time has come, and that time was 14 April 1966.

350 Balk at Taxes in a War Protest

Ad in Capital Paper Urges Others to Bar Payment

Washington, April 14 — Some 350 persons who disapprove of the war in Vietnam announced today that they would not voluntarily pay their Federal income taxes, due tomorrow. They urged others to join them in this protest.

The Internal Revenue Service immediately made clear that it would take whatever steps were necessary to collect the taxes.

The group announced its plans this morning in an advertisement in The Washington Post.

“We will refuse to pay our Federal income taxes voluntarily,” the advertisement said. “Some of us will leave the money we owe the Government in our bank accounts, where the Internal Revenue Service may seize it if they wish. Some will contribute the money to CARE, UNICEF or similar organizations. Some of us will continue to pay that percentage of our taxes which is not used for military purposes.”

Joan Baez, Lynd, Muste

The first signature on the advertisement was that of Joan Baez, the folk singer. Others who signed it were Staughton Lynd, the Yale professor who traveled to North Vietnam last year in violation of State Department regulations, and the Rev. A.J. Muste, the pacifist leader.

The advertisement contained a coupon soliciting contributions for the protest. The ad said that further information could be obtained from Mr. Muste at Room 1003, 5 Beekman Street, New York City.

Those who placed the advertisement — which bore the heading “The Time Has Come” — said that those who sponsored it “recognize the gravity of this step. However, we prefer to risk violating the Internal Revenue Code, rather than to participate, by voluntarily paying our taxes, in the serious crimes against humanity being committed by our Government.”

The advertisement mentioned not only the war in Vietnam “against hungry, scantily armed Vietnamese guerrillas and civilians” but also “the spectacle of the United States invasion of the Dominican Republic,” an event the sponsors said “will go down in history alongside Russia’s criminal intervention in Hungary.”

Cohen Is Determined

The determination of Internal Revenue to collect the taxes the Government is owed was expressed in a formal statement by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Sheldon S. Cohen.

He said Internal Revenue would take “appropriate action” to collect the taxes “in fairness to the many millions of taxpayers who do fulfill their obligations.”

The Government has been upheld in court on all occasions when individuals have refused to pay taxes because of disapproval with the uses to which their money was being put, revenue officials said.

Ad Prepared Here

The headquarters of the Committee for Nonviolent Action, 5 Beekman Street, said yesterday that it had prepared the advertisement carried in the Washington newspaper after receiving 350 responses to invitations it had sent out soliciting participation in “an act of civil disobedience.”

A spokesman for the committee said that Mr. Muste, the chairman, was out of town and would return in about a week. The spokesman said that although monetary contributions in response to the advertisement had not yet begun to come in, the committee was prepared to mail literature explaining its program to those who responded to the advertisement.

The spokesman said that the tax protest had been intended to represent “a more radical and meaningful protest against the Vietnam War.”

The committee announced that members would appear at 2:15 P.M. today in front of the Internal Revenue Service office, 120 Church Street, to distribute leaflets concerning the tax protest.

It also said that a rally and picketing would be staged from 11 A.M. to 3:30 P.M., in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco under the sponsorship of the War Resisters League. The league also has offices at 5 Beekman Street.

With press coverage like this, including even the address to write to for more information, Muste hardly needed to pay for ad space in the Times (assuming they would have printed the ad — many papers rejected ads like this).

Some other names I recognize from the ad are Noam Chomsky, Dorothy Day, Dave Dellinger, Barbara Deming, Diane di Prima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Milton Mayer, David McReynolds, Grace Paley, Eroseanna Robinson, Ira Sandperl, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Ralph Templin, Marion Bromley, Horace Champney, Ralph Dull, Walter Gormly, Richard Groff, Irwin Hogenauer, Roy Kepler, Ken Knudson, Bradford Lyttle, Karl Meyer, Ed Rosenthal, Maris Cakars, Gordon Christiansen, William Davidon, Johan Eliot, Carroll Pratt, Helen Merrell Lynd, E. Russell Stabler, Lyle Stuart, John M. Vickers, and Eric Weinberger.

The text of the ad (without the signatures and “coupon”) is as follows:

The Time Has Come

The spectacle of the United States — with its jet bombers, helicopters, fragmentation and napalm bombs and disabling gas — carrying on an endless war against the hungry, scantily armed Vietnamese guerrillas and civilians… this spectacle will go down in history alongside the unforgivable atrocities of Italy in Ethiopia.

The spectacle of the United States invasion of the Dominican Republic — again pitting our terrifying weaponry mainly against civilians armed with rifles… this spectacle will go down in history alongside Russia’s criminal intervention in Hungary.

But the spectacle of the indifference of so many Americans to the crimes being committed in their names, by their brothers, and with their tax money… this spectacle reminds us more and more of the indifference of the majority of the German people to the killing of six million Jews.

The United States government has not reacted constructively to legitimate criticism, protests and appeals:

• by world leaders including the Pope, U Thant and President De Gaulle —
• by United States leaders including Senators Morse, Gruening, Church, Fulbright, Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and Stephen Young —
• by hundreds of thousands of citizens including 2,500 clergymen and countless professors who placed protest advertisements in leading newspapers —
• by innumerable students, many tens of thousands of whom have taken their protest to Washington on several occasions —
• by celebrated individuals such as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Robert Lowell, Arthur Miller and Dr. Benjamin Spock —
• and by leading newspapers, including the New York Times.

We believe that the ordinary channels of protest have been exhausted and that the time has come for Americans of conscience to take more radical action in the hope of averting nuclear war.

Therefore, the undersigned hereby declare that at least as long as U.S. Forces are clearly being used in violation of the U.S. Constitution, International Law and the United Nations Charter…

We will refuse to pay our federal income taxes voluntarily

Some of us will leave the money we owe the government in our bank accounts, where the Internal Revenue Service may seize it if they wish. Others will contribute the money to CARE, UNICEF or similar organizations. Some of us will continue to pay that percentage of our taxes which is not used for military purposes.

We recognize the gravity of this step. However, we prefer to risk violating the Internal Revenue Code, rather than to participate, by voluntarily paying our taxes, in the serious crimes against humanity being committed by our Government.

One way of spreading the tax resistance message and of targeting potential tax resisters when they may be most receptive to that message is to propagandize them at the time and place when they make their tax payments.

This tactic is prominent in the modern war tax resistance movement, which often conducts demonstrations and other outreach activities on the day when income tax forms are due (for instance, around April 15^th in the U.S. nowadays).

Here are some examples from the modern U.S. war tax resistance movement:

• “pickets paraded before the internal revenue offices during the lunch hour today, carrying signs which read ‘Don’t pay your income tax. Refuse to finance World War Ⅲ.’ and ‘Your taxes pay for the H-bomb.’ ” (1950)
• “demonstrators picketed the office of the Third Internal Revenue District… [and] distributed leaflets saying that the ‘real crime in connection with the Bureau of Internal Revenue’ is not corruption but collection of money for ‘preparations for mass murder — for a third world war.’ ” (1952)

• 

• “vigiling with banners and leafletting will take place in addition to an alternative peace tax counseling table being set up on the fifth floor office of the IRS. …the protesters will be vigilling and distributing war tax resistance literature at the mobile IRS tax unit… They will be accompanied by ‘Little Boy,’ a replica of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The presence… will conclude with a short religious service inside the office.” (1977)
• “Farmer [Ralph] Dull drove a truck filled with 325 bushels of corn to the IRS office in Dayton, trying to pay his taxes with this harvest. ‘I didn’t think they would take it and they didn’t,’ said Dull, who was protesting the large percentage of tax dollars that is used for the U.S. military buildup.” (1982)
• “volunteers of the Centre County Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze distributed leaflets against military spending in front of the U.S. Post Office” (1987)
• “The Makarewiczs, along with about two dozen other people, protested outside a federal building in downtown St. Louis during Tax Day. They superimposed the photo of an Iraqi child they said was wounded by an American bomb over 1040 tax forms, which they placed in area libraries near the official tax forms and handed out on the street with literature explaining war tax resistance. ¶ They also attempted to deliver medical supplies for wounded Iraqi people in lieu of taxes, which they said the IRS politely refused. The group sang a song about Tax Day, with lyrics including, ‘For the cost of cluster bombs that maim and leave to bleed, our kids could have more teachers helping them to read.’ ” (2003)
• “I got to play the part of a suit-and-tied IRS agent, coming to the lectern to bring balance to the otherwise anti-government proceedings. I told the crowd: ‘You seem like politically-savvy people. But do you realize that you wouldn’t have anything to protest here today if it weren’t for the things the government funds with your money. Your taxes make protests like this possible! You should thank us! …cluster bombs don’t grow on trees, barbed wire doesn’t grow on trees! It takes your money to make all this possible. We can’t do it without you! We can’t do it without you! We can’t do it without you!’ (2004)
• “demonstrators will be hanging signs demanding No Money for War from the Burnside Bridge during the morning rush in Portland, OR; while others will be out in the evening until the midnight sharing coffee with last-minute filers at post offices in White Plains, NY, and Manchester, NH, and handing out flyers showing where income tax money goes.” (2005)
• “taxpayers at the main Baltimore City post office will find mailboxes labeled Halliburton, Bechtel, and Lockheed Martin to mail their checks straight to the [military contracting] corporations.” (2005)
• “In Portland, Oregon, war tax resisters braved the morning chill to hold up ‘Burma Shave’ style signs along the roadside for people to read as they passed by on tax day:

  “$ SIX BILLION A MONTH
  AND DEATH EVERY DAY
  DON’T LIKE THE WAR?
  THEN REFUSE TO PAY

  “INSTEAD OF BOMBS
  LET’S USE THE TAX
  TO FEED MORE KIDS
  OURS & IRAQ’S.”

  (2005)
• “Thirty activists from Eugene-Springfield forcefully protested the war in front of the main mail drop-off point for last minute Lane County tax filers. About five thousand cars with eight thousand people passed by our group at an average of 5 mph as we stood lined up for nearly six hours along their path, holding graphic images of the injured casualties of the war: children, men, women, and soldiers, bearing messages like, ‘Your tax dollars paid for this,’ or ‘It’s our money, stop the war.’ ” (2005)
• “from Chico, California, to Fort Collins, Colorado, and Louisville, Kentucky, to Cambridge Massachusetts, members of the public will be asked to take a ‘penny poll,’ by dropping coins into jars representing budget categories to show how they would like their tax money disbursed.” (2006)
• “Northern California War Tax Resistance went to the nearby post office to hold up banners, hand out flyers, and project a slide show of war tax resistance info for the traffic jam of last-minute tax filers. We were joined by… members of the National Treasury Employees Union who came to the post office fresh from a union meeting to protest the IRS’s plans to use private debt collection agencies to pursue delinquent taxes. ¶ At first it seemed a little awkward to be protesting alongside IRS agents who today were fighting to keep their jobs from being outsourced but tomorrow might be trying to seize our assets. But the ones who had no signs of their own to wave took extra ones from us and, to our delight, we had employees of the U.S. Treasury and their families protesting war taxes right along with us! (2006)
• “We really mis-calculated on the number of pie chart flyers we could have given out today. We had ordered 500 from the War Resisters League… They were all gone at both P.O.’s by 11 AM!” (2007)
• The Occupation Project in St. Louis, Missouri held up large orange “Caution Signs” at the post office on Tax Day: “The first sign will say: ‘Caution, War Tax Payment Zone’ The next will read ‘Pause before you Pay for’ And the then the following signs will read, ‘House to House Searches’ ‘Torture’ ‘Hundreds of Thousand of Refugees’ ‘Over 3200 U.S. Military Dead’ ‘Over 600,000 Iraqi Dead’ ” (2007)
• “Donning sackcloth and ashes, they entered the federal building shortly after it opened for the day. All acted in remembrance of the death and destruction wrought upon Iraq by the United States. They sang the names of Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers who’ve been killed during the war in and occupation of Iraq.” (2007)
• “About a half-dozen war tax protesters handed out $3,400 to community groups Saturday: It was their way of observing the federal tax day. … The noontime protest, in front of the U.S. Courthouse on Main Street, which also houses the post office, drew onlookers as well as representatives from the groups that received the money.” (2007)
• “Kevin Flaherty, a postal employee who ducked out in the afternoon for a smoke break, said it was encouraging to see the war tax resisters give away their money. ‘It’s great,’ he said, pointing out that it was Kevin Flaherty the citizen — not Kevin Flaherty the postal worker — who was supporting the group. ‘Sometimes when people are paying their taxes, I joke that somebody has to pay for the Iraq War. Maybe this will make them pay attention.’ ” (2008)
• “A large display board with options for people to place pennies in the categories they think tax money should be spent was available, and information on how the government actually spends it accompanied the poll. Amy Antonucci, member of SPR, helped provide the pennies to those wishing to weigh in, and said the goal of the event was to educate people on how their taxes are being spent. ‘It’s always interesting to find out what’s important to people,’ said Antonucci. Antonucci said it’s amazing how different the perspective is from residents as opposed to where the money is actually going.” (2008)
• “Protesters gathered at the IRS office… Banners, pie charts graphically depicting how tax monies are spent and hand painted ‘bibs’ that read ‘1 day of the Iraq War = 1 Yr Salaries For 12,478 teachers’ delivered the demonstrators’ message as they leafleted outside at the IRS. Overhead an electronic sign gave the current figures for the national debt — some 9 trillion dollars — and each family’s share, over $78,000.” (2008)
• “All I kept thinking about was just how many people oppose the war, wish the war wasn’t happening and don’t really see a clear way of doing anything about it. On tax day, everybody’s scrambling to pay the government and feeling like their hard earned dollars are being sopped up and wishing that that money went to roads and to schools and to healthcare. We were able to interject some information about where that money really goes — and to offer some alternatives… about how people can withdraw their own complicity.” (2008)
• “Eye-catching banners from Bread and Puppet Theater declared ‘Whose $,’ ‘In Whose Name?’ War tax resisters carried an oversize ‘check’ for $29,886, representing money they were refusing to pay to the IRS but giving to soup kitchens, youth programs, and to help Iraq war refugees and victims of [Hurricane] Katrina.” (2008)
• A group grabbed hundreds of 1040 forms from public places where such things are found (libraries, post offices, and the like), then printed ghostly images of coffins and of children wounded in war over the forms, and then replaced them where they had originally found them. (2009)
• “We pitched canopies, set up our casket replete with name of corporations that profit from arms production, and, undeterred by the pouring rain, bravely paraded through Saturday and Farmers Markets. We were led by mourners for the wars and war expenses that continue, followed by some in Fashion Resistance to Militarism costumes, signs and flags. We chanted, ‘We’d rather pay for schools!’ ‘We’d rather pay for farmers!’ and were cheered by bystanders.” (2011)
• “It was blessedly sunny on Tax Day. We set up in front of our downtown post office, where we think there have been tax day actions since the late 1960s. … We had our traditional penny poll and WRL flyers. Several local nonprofit groups sent representatives to accept some of our tax redirected money and promote their groups. … Labor singer Mark Ross regaled us with some great songs, we had an effective pitch for labor, and an open mike to an attentive if modest audience. At least four TV, radio stations, and newspapers interviewed us, so we were well-covered that evening and the next day.” (2011)

And here are a couple of additional examples:

• “Instances have been brought to the attention of officials,” said a New York Times article about “pro-German agents in the United States” in October, 1917, “where buyers [of World War Ⅰ ‘Liberty Bonds’] have been approached, apparently in a spirit of great friendship, and advised not to buy the bonds.”
• War tax resisters in Spain held a “chorizada,” or barbecue, in front of the Palacio Foral in Biscay, to protest the “chorizada,” or swindle, of military spending, passing out pieces of “chorizo” (sausage) to passers by while promoting war tax resistance and redirection.

Here are a handful of artifacts relating to the American war tax resistance movement circa 1967.

First, some relics that were filed alongside a letter from Herbert Sonthoff to W. Walter Boyd (though I think this filing may be arbitrary and that the letters are not related to each other):

An Open Letter ^*

At this late date it is pointless to muster the evidence which shows that the war we are waging in Vietnam is wrong. By now you have decided for yourself where you stand. In all probability, if you share our feelings about it, you have expressed your objections both privately and publicly. You have witnessed the small effect these protests have had on our government.

By April 15^th, every American citizen must decide whether he will make a voluntary contribution to the continuation of this war. After grave consideration, we have decided that we can no longer do so, and that we will therefore withhold all or part of the taxes due. The purpose of this letter is to call your attention to the fact that a nationwide tax refusal campaign is in progress, as stated in the accompanying announcement, and to urge you to consider refusing to contribute voluntarily to this barbaric war.

Signed:

Prof. Warren Ambrose	Mathematics, M.I.T.
Dr. Donnell Boardman	Physician, Acton, Mass.
Mrs. Elizabeth Boardman	Acton, Mass.
Prof. Noam Chomsky	Linguistics, M.I.T.
Miss Barbara Deming	Writer, Wellfleet, Mass.
Prof. John Dolan	Philosophy, Chicago University
Prof. John Ek	Anthropology, Long Island University
Martha Bentley Hall	Musician, Brookline, Mass.
Dr. Thomas C. Hall	Physician, Brookline, Mass.
Rev. Arthur B. Jellis	First Parish in Concord, Unitarian-Universalist, Concord, Mass.
Prof. Donald Kalish	Philosophy, U.C.L.A.
Prof. Louis Kampf	Humanities, M.I.T.
Prof. Staughton Lynd	History, Yale University
Milton Mayer	Writer, Mass.
Prof. Jonathan Mirsky	Chinese Language and Literature, Dartmouth College
Prof. Sidney Morgenbesser	Philosophy, Columbia University
Prof. Wayne A. O’Neill	Graduate School of Education, Harvard University
Prof. Anatol Rapoport	Mental Health Research Institute, University of Michigan
Prof. Franz Schurmann	Center for Chinese Studies, University of Calif., Berkeley
Dr. Albert Szent Gyorgy	Institute for Muscle Research, Woods Hole, Mass.
Harold Tovish	Sculptor, Brookline, Mass.
Prof. Howard Zinn	Government, Boston University

^* Institutions listed for informational purposes only

P.S. The No Tax for War Committee intends to make public the names of signers, hence if you wish to add your signature, early return is desirable. Contributions are needed, and checks should be made payable to the Committee.

The following page, dated 11 March 1967, shows a mock-up of the intended public advertisement showing the signers’ names:

The committee will publish the above statement with names of signers at tax deadline — April 15.

Send signed statements to: NO TAX FOR WAR COMMITTEE, c/o Rev. Maurice McCrackin, 932 Dayton St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45214.

For additional copies of this form, put number you will distribute and name and address on the following lines:
No. _____ Name ____________________
Address _________________________

Signers So Far

• Meldon and Amy Acheson
• Michael J. Ames
• Alfred F. Andersen
• Ross Anderson
• Beulah K. Arndt
• Joan Baez
• Richard Baker
• Bruce & Pam Beck
• Ruth T. Best
• Robert & Margaret Blood
• Karel F. Botermans
• Marion & Ernest Bromley
• Edwin Brooks
• A. Dale Brothington
• Mrs. Lydia Bruns
• Wendal Bull
• Mrs. Dorothy Bucknell
• John Burslem
• Lindley J. Burton
• Catharine J. Cadbury
• Maris Cakars
• Robert and Phyllis Calese
• William N. Calloway
• Betty Camp
• Daryle V. Carter
• Jared & Susan Carter
• Horace & Beulah Champney
• Ken & Peggy Champney
• Hank & Henry Chapin
• Holly Chenery
• Richard A. Chinn
• Naom [sic] Chomsky
• John & Judy Christian
• Gordon & Mary Christiansen
• Peter Christiansen
• Donald F. Cole
• John Augustine Cook
• Helen Marr Cook
• Jack Coolidge, Jr.
• Allen Cooper
• Martin J. Corbin
• Tom & Monica Cornell
• Dorothy J. Cunningham
• Jean DaCosta
• Ann & William Davidon
• Stanley F. Davis
• Dorothy Day
• Dave Dellinger
• Barbara Deming
• Robert Dewart
• Ruth Dodd
• John M. Dolan
• Orin Doty
• Allen Duberstein
• Ralph Dull
• Malcolm Dundas
• Margaret E. Dungan
• Henry Dyer
• Susan Eanet
• Bob Eaton
• Marc Paul Edelman
• Johan & Francis Eliot
• Jerry Engelbach
• George J. Etu, Jr.
• Mary C. Eubanks
• Arthur Evans
• Jonathan Evans
• William E. Evans
• Pearl Ewald
• Franklin Farmer
• Bertha Faust
• Dianne M. Feeley
• Rice A. Felder
• Henry A. Felisone
• Mildred Fellin
• Glenn Fisher
• John Forbes
• Don & Ann Fortenberry
• Marion C. Frenyear
• Ruth Gage-Colby
• Lawrence H. Geller
• Richard Ghelli
• Charles Gibadlo
• Bruce Glushakow
• Walter Gormly
• Arthur Goulston
• Thomas Grabell
• Steven Green
• Walter Grengg
• Joseph Gribbins
• Kenneth Gross
• John M. Grzywacz, Jr.
• Catherine Guertin
• David Hartsough
• David Hartsough
• Arthur Harvey
• Janet Hawksley
• James P. Hayes, Jr.
• R.F. Helstern
• Ammon Hennacy
• Norman Henry
• Robert Hickey
• Dick & Heide Hiler
• William Himelhoch
• C.J. Hinke
• Anthony Hinrichs
• William M. Hodsdon
• Irwin R. Hogenauer
• Florence Howe
• Donald & Mary Huck
• Philip Isely
• Michael Itkin
• Charles T. Jackson
• Paul Jacobs
• Martin & Nancy Jezer
• F. Robert Johnson
• Woodbridge O. Johnson
• Ashton & Marie Jones
• Paul Jordan
• Paul Keiser
• Joel C. Kent
• Roy C. Kepler
• Paul & Pauline Kermiet
• Peter Kiger
• Richard King
• H.A. Kreinkamp
• Arthur & Margaret Landes
• Paul Lauter
• Peter and Marolyn Leach
• Gertrud & George A. Lear, Jr.
• Alan and Elin Learnard
• Titus Lehman
• Richard A. Lema
• Florence Levinsohn
• Elliot Linzer
• David C. Lorenz
• Preston B. Luitweiler
• Bradford Lyttle
• Adriann van L. Maas
• Ben & Sue Mann
• Paul and Salome Mann
• Howard E. Marston, Sr.
• Milton and Jane Mayer
• Martin & Helen Mayfield
• Maurice McCrackin
• Lilian McFarland
• Maureen & Felix McGowan
• Maryann McNaughton
• Gelston McNeil
• Guy W. Meyer
• Karl Meyer
• David & Catherine Miller
• James Missey
• Mark Morris
• Janet Murphy
• Thomas P. Murray
• Rosemary Nagy
• Wally & Juanita Nelson
• Marilyn Neuhauser
• Neal D. Newby, Jr.
• Miriam Nicholas
• Robert B. Nichols
• David Nolan
• Raymond S. Olds
• Wayne A. O’Neil
• Michael O’Quin
• Ruth Orcutt
• Eleanor Ostroff
• Doug Palmer
• Malcolm & Margaret Parker
• Jim Peck
• Michael E. Pettie
• John Pettigrew
• Lydia H. Philips
• Dean W. Plagowski
• Jefferson Poland
• A.J. Porth
• Ralph Powell
• Charles F. Purvis
• Jean Putnam
• Harriet Putterman
• Robert Reitz
• Ben & Helen Reyes
• Elsa G. Richmond
• Eroseanna Robinson
• Pat Rusk
• Joe & Helen Ryan
• Paul Salstrom
• Ira J. Sandperl
• Jerry & Rae Schwartz
• Martin Shepard
• Richard T. Sherman
• Louis Silverstein
• T.W. Simer
• Ann B. Sims
• Jane Beverly Smith
• Linda Smith
• Thomas W. Smuda
• Bob Speck
• Elizabeth P. Steiner
• Lee D. Stern
• Beverly Sterner
• Michael Stocker
• Charles H. Straut, Jr.
• Stephen Suffet
• Albert & Joyce Sunderland, Jr.
• Mr. & Mrs. Michael R. Sutter
• Marjorie & Robert Swann
• Oliver & Katherine Tatum
• Gary G. Taylor
• Harold Tovish
• Joe & Cele Tuchinsky
• Lloyd & Phyllis Tyler
• Samuel R. Tyson
• Ingegerd Uppman
• Margaret von Selle
• Mrs. Evelyn Wallace
• Wilbur & Joan Ann Wallis
• William & Mary Webb
• Barbara Webster
• John K. White
• Willson Whitman
• Denny & Ida Wilcher
• Huw Williams
• George & Lillian Willoughby
• Bob Wilson
• Emily T. Wilson
• Jim & Raona Wilson
• W.W. Wittkamper
• Sylvia Woog
• Wilmer & Mildred Young
• Franklin Zahn
• Betty & Louis Zemel
• Vicki Jo Zilinkas

Following this was a page explaining how to go about resisting:

Some Methods of Nonpayment

1. For those owing nothing because of the Withholding Tax.
   
   Such persons write a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, to be filed with the tax return, stating that the writer cannot in good conscience help support the war in Vietnam, voluntarily. The writer therefore requests a return of a percentage of the money collected from his salary.
   
   Note: Of course, the IRS will not return the money. However, the writer has refused to pay for the war voluntarily and has put it in writing. This symbolic action is not to be belittled since anybody who does this allies himself with those who will withhold money due the IRS.
2. For those self-employed or owing money beyond what has been withheld from salary.
   
   Such persons write a letter to be filed with the tax return, stating that the writer does not object to the income tax in principle, but will not, as a matter of conscience, help pay for the war in Vietnam. The writer is therefore withholding some or all of the tax due.

Note: In all cases, we recommend that copies of these letters be sent to the President and to your Senators.

Remarks:

The Internal Revenue Service has the legal power to confiscate money due it. They will get that money, one way or another. However, to obstruct the IRS from collecting money due (by not filing a return at all, for example) seems less important to us than the fact that each is refusing to pay his tax voluntarily. With this in mind, many of us are placing the taxes owed in special accounts and we will so inform the IRS in our letters.

Willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and up to a year in jail, together with the costs of prosecution. So far, the IRS has prosecuted only those who have obstructed collection (by refusing to file a return, by refusing to answer a summons, etc.). Usually, the IRS has collected the tax due plus 6% interest and possibly an added fine of 5% for “negligence”. The fact that the IRS has rarely, if at all, prosecuted tax-refusers to the full extent of the law does not mean they will not do so in the future.

Finally, an article from the December 1967 edition of The Capitol East Gazette:

Tax Refusal Urged by Group

Two thousand anti-war leaflets on telephone tax refusal were distributed in Capitol East on Saturday, Nov. 18, by members of CHOICE, a group of local residents who are withdrawing their support for the Vietnam war.

The leaflet explains that the 10% phone tax was enacted in April 1966 specifically to raise money for the Vietnam war.

According to CHOICE, the phone company will not remove a person’s telephone if he refuses to pay the tax. The company asks refusers to state why they are withholding the tax and then turns the matter over to the Internal Revenue Service.

According to CHOICE, there are presently 25 known tax refusers in the Capitol Hill area.

Those desiring CHOICE’s leaflet are asked to call LI 6‒9836.

In 1970 the debate over the proper response by Christians to government demands that they pay for war spilled over into the more conservative branches of American Brethren.

In 1970 the General Board of the Church of the Brethren met. Among the items on the agenda was an invitation for them to stop paying the phone tax as an institution (source):

In still another action, a review of the federal excise tax on telephone service, the General Board by a 2 to 1 ratio voted down a motion that would have discontinued the voluntary payment of the tax. Proponents of the motion alleged that the tax was instituted by the government to help cover costs of the Vietnam war.

Dorothy and Paul Brumbaugh shared their letter to President Nixon in the 4 June issue (source):

Preparing our income tax form and realizing that about sixty-six percent of our tax will go for purposes of war, past, present, and future, force us to examine our values.

For the past two years we have refused voluntary payment of our U.S. income tax. We wish this year to reaffirm our previous stance and to emphasize even more emphatically (1) our abhorrence of mass murders in Vietnam and other places in the world in the name of freedom; (2) our opposition to the widespread fear generated by promotion of the ABM system; and (3) our disappointment in the neglect of hunger, housing, and education.

We also wish to affirm that governmental authority is within the will and plan of God. We regret that our government refuses to accept the God-given authority and chooses instead the authority of power and the “almighty” dollar.

We urge you to help our government to place more emphasis on humanizing efforts and much less on the dehumanization of the war effort. We desire that our funds be used for human development. It is possible to choose not to participate in the Social Security program, a program helpful to many persons. Why not also the opportunity of choice in supporting the military?

The 19 November issue featured Ralph Dull, a member of the Church of the Brethren and also a long-shot peace candidate for Congress (source). The article noted:

For the last eleven years, the Dulls [Ralph & Joy] have refused to pay the percentage of their income tax that would be allocated to military spending, an amount of one half to two thirds of a tax figure. The government has attached his bank account for that amount plus interest.

The Brethren Missionary Herald reported on the Annual Conference of the National Fellowship of Brethren Churches (source). This is a more conservative group than those organized under the Church of the Brethren, and this is reflected in what its Selective Service Committee had to say about paying war taxes. That said, the statement was sincerely searching about Brethren economic entanglement with war:

The presence of the military establishment in American life embraces much more than the problem of whether our sons accept military duty or claim conscientious objection. The believer should realistically recognize the extent to which the military has invaded the whole of our lives and the probability that it will assume in the future an even more critical influence. Let us carefully consider several grim realities and possibilities.

To begin with, our American system of taxation is so structured that every adult member of our society, from the oldest retiree to the youngest wage earner makes his contribution to the local, state or national government. Huge chunks of these taxes are earmarked for the military. Whether we like it or not we are involuntary contributors to the support of the military and are therefore participants. Indeed, as law abiding citizens we believe we have an obligation to support our rulers (Romans 13). Thus we are involved.

Furthermore, we must think fairly and logically about the very financial structure of our country and thus face a very disturbing reality. Our economy is based upon the foundation of the investment of capital. Each of us has been taught to save our money, to bank it, to invest it wisely. Central in our economy is the building loan deposit, the government bond, the insurance policy, stocks and bonds and even the lowly savings account. These monies, trustfully placed by us in the hands of financial experts, are reinvested for our benefit. The returns are then paid to our accounts. It is common knowledge that tremendous amounts of investors’ money are spent to develop defense businesses. Again we are involved.

Again, let us be reminded that a large segment of America’s work force supports the military. The day is long gone when we can say that a few munitions makers supply the powder and ball for the military or that the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot has purchased a supply of clothing and food for the soldiers. Government contracts are eagerly sought by nearly every industry. The sophisticated weaponry, communications systems and transportation systems consume material far removed from the conventional concept of war items. The huge maw of the military gulps down huge quantities of goods of every description. Thus from the farm, the mine, the forest, the ocean and from every type of manufacturing and assembly plants unnumbered items flow into the channels marked military. How does one know whether or not he has been a part of this nationwide effort?

In 1979 readers of the Messenger learned the legal how-tos of war tax resistance, while even the conservative Brethren Evangelist was willing to publish “New Call to Peacekeeping”’s summons to war tax resistance.

As had become common at this point, discussion of the World Peace Tax Fund bill often overshadowed war tax resistance when war taxes were discussed. The bill was boosted in February (source), July (source), and August (source). Here’s another example mention, from an October profile of Charles Anderson (source):

Charles admits some pangs of conscience over his life-style. His own affluence is difficult for him to reconcile with peacemaking, since he believes that the gap between the prosperous and the poor breeds violence. His payment of tax, more than half of which is used for military purposes, is also stressful. Support of the World Peace Tax Fund is an effort to resolve this personal conflict.

In April the magazine reported that the Mennonites seemed to out in front of the Brethren on the war tax issue (source):

Church as tax collector protested by Mennonites

Delegates attending a special meeting of the General Conference Mennonite Church in Minneapolis in February voted to launch a vigorous campaign to exempt the church from acting as a tax collector for the state. The 500 delegates at the conference, called to discern the Christian response to militarism, passed the resolution by a nine to one margin.

A central focus of discussion was tax resistance already being practiced among Mennonites and the request of one such person, a General Conference employee, that the church stop withholding war taxes from her wages. The General Board denied her request because it is illegal for an employer not to act as a tax collector for the Internal Revenue Service.

Delegates affirmed that decision but instructed the General Board to vigorously search for legal avenues to exempt the church from collecting taxes so individuals employed by the church would be free to follow their own conscience.

The May issue profiled Ralph Dull, and noted that “throughout the past 25 years… the Dulls have withheld from their taxes the portion allotted to the military.” (source)

“Sometimes you get so frustrated, you just have to do something,” Ralph said. For the past two years Ralph and others have taken food to the IRS as a witness that taxes should be used for feeding the hungry instead of supporting the military.

“I’m not sure it does any good, but it raises the issue.”

Phil Rieman wrote in to the July issue, urging Brethren to stick together in order to overcome the fear of government reprisals when considering war tax resistance (source).

The November issue reprinted a lengthy article by William Durland, a lawyer who founded the Center on Law and Pacifism (and later helped found NWTRCC), on the practical and legal aspects of war tax resistance:

Praying for peace: Guidelines on military tax refusal

When President Carter’s military tax budget for fiscal year 1979 was criticized, he replied that he would not apologize for it. While recommending cutbacks in health, education and human needs, he increased the portion of the budget allocated to bombs and bullets.

Many Christians are beginning to realize that they cannot use mammon for murder and expect a welcome at the millennium. So they are looking for advice on ways to refuse complicity with the war machine.

Recently the Center on Law and Pacifism was organized in Philadelphia to serve people who need advice and support in the relationship of their radical religious, pacifist convictions to the laws which attempt to obstruct their conscientious objection to violence. One of the main projects of the Center has been to aid people in their quest for information on how to be military tax refusers. The Center is in the process of publishing such a study and the following is an overview of that report.

People want to know how to withhold their taxes, what happens if they do so and what legal remedies exist for them to witness to their conscientious objection in the courts of this land. Usually people who are in this position are employees. So we will talk about them first, then the employer, the corporation, the income tax refuser and the telephone tax refuser. Employees receive their income in the form of wages which are subject to withholding before they see their check. Employees must fill out a W4 form with their employer. The W4 form determines the amount of money to be withheld from each paycheck. The more allowances you claim the less money is withheld.

You are allowed a number of allowances on your W4 form depending upon how many dependents you have and what your anticipated itemized deductions are. The employer determines how much money to withhold from your weekly paycheck on the basis of your W4 form. Therefore, in order to reduce or eliminate withholding, you can file a new W4 form claiming more allowances. There is nothing fraudulent about this procedure as long as you inform the IRS when you file your income tax return as to why you took the allowances on your W4 form. When it comes time for your income tax, it is important that it be consistent with this claim. This is done by taking a war tax deduction on your income tax form under “miscellaneous deductions.”

This is one of four methods to avoid withholding. The second method is by working in an occupation exempt from the withholding law. A third method is by becoming self-employed as a consultant or independent contractor. Fourth, by earning less than a taxable income you can avoid not only withholding, but also any income tax liability whatsoever.

If you are successful in computing the sufficient number of allowances — which will constitute rendering your withholding to a point where you can take your deduction on your income tax — then no further problem remains until that time for the employee. However, should the employee choose not to use the allowance method, but rather to ask the employer not to withhold any of the withholding tax, then there is a problem for both employer and employee.

The Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, requires employers making payment of wages to deduct and withhold from such wages a tax determined in accordance with IRS tables. The employer is liable for the amount required to be deducted and withheld. Any employer who fails is liable to the IRS for that amount plus a civil penalty equal to the tax amount. There is also a criminal penalty of $10,000 fine and/or five years imprisonment for willful failure to pay or collect the amount due.

Some employers have wanted to protect the right of their employees to exercise their rights of conscience even though the employer does not share the same viewpoint. In this event, employers have refused to withhold and have been taken to court. Eventually they wind up paying and requiring the employee to reimburse them.

But what if the whole corporation becomes a war tax refuser, rather than just one of its employees? In that event the corporation will not withhold any tax at all because they are conscientiously opposed to paying military taxes.

Recently we have seen some organizations which were created on radical religious, pacifist principles beginning to refuse to pay military taxes as a corporation rather than simply to support the conscience of one or more of their employees. They see this as their own witness to the immorality of war taxes. There is a possibility of losing tax-exempt status and other rights, but they are willing to witness in this way and suffer for conscience’s sake.

Everyone who makes a minimum amount of money a year is required by law to file an income tax return. Whether you made your money as an employee, an employer or are self-employed, you must file form 1040 and complete Schedule A (“Itemized Deductions”) in order to take an income tax deduction for war. Those who are self-employed can write in a “war tax credit” instead of a deduction, and simply withhold a percentage of the tax owed and send a letter to the IRS explaining what they are doing.

Another popular way of resisting military taxes has been refusal to pay the tax on the telephone bill. In times past, the IRS took quite a bit of time tracing down telephone tax refusers. Since the end of the Vietnam War, this has not been the case, although we have heard of one case recently where the telephone company closed down the service of a telephone tax refuser.

Whatever category you are in, you must decide how much to refuse and what you are going to do with that money. Many organizations, such as the World Peace Tax Fund and the various chapters of War Resisters League, are equipped to advise you on the breakdown of the national budget. But generally, from year to year, the military portion of the budget is calculated anywhere from 35 percent to 53 percent, depending upon whether current military expenditures for past wars are included.

For those who wish to put their money to good use while it is being withheld, there are various alternative funds which invest in human resources and use your money for that purpose. Many people hope that the World Peace Tax Fund Act — designed to allow the taxpayer to earmark a specific amount of tax money to go into a federal fund to be used only for peaceful purposes — will be approved by Congress soon.

What happens when you take these steps? How do you cope with the IRS? No matter what category of refuser you are, what generally is going to happen to you is something like this: If a tax is owed, a notice of tax will be sent to you. The IRS is required to issue this bill which is a demand for payment. You are then required by law to make payment within 10 days of the date of this bill. If the tax remains unpaid after the 10-day period, a statutory lien is automatically attached to your property. The law also provides for interest and penalty for late payment at this time.

Once this notice of tax lien has been filed at your courthouse, it becomes a matter of public record and may adversely affect your business transactions or other financial interests. It could impair your credit rating; therefore, it is normally filed only after the IRS has sent you a second notice of deficiency and tried to contact you personally, giving you the opportunity to pay.

After the lien has been filed, a levy may be taken. A levy is the taking of property to satisfy tax liability. The tax may be collected by a levy on any property belonging to you. In the case of levies being made on salaries or wages, you will usually be given written notice, in addition to the notice of demand, at least 10 days before the levy is served.

Generally, court authorization is not required before a levy action is taken, unless collection personnel must enter private premises to accomplish their levy action. The only legal requirements are that the taxes are owed and that the notice and demand for payment have been sent to your last known address. In taking a levy action, the IRS first considers levying on such property as wages, salaries and bank accounts. Levying on this type of property is referred to as a seizure.

Willful failure to file or pay income tax can result in a criminal sentence of one year and/or $10,000 fine. However, we know of no cases which have ever resulted in criminal penalties, except where there is a total failure to file any income tax form at all.

When you receive your notice of deficiency from the IRS, you will also be notified that you may elect to appeal your case to the US Tax Court; if you decide to do so within 90 days of that time, the IRS process against you is halted for the duration of the case. Several people have gone to Tax Court following this procedure, although in no case has anyone “won” there.

The Center on Law and Pacifism has advised and supported people filing cases in Tax Court and on the Appellate and US Supreme Court levels also. If you lose your case in Tax Court, you may appeal to higher courts, and ultimately to the Supreme Court. These appeals are based on the First Amendment free exercise of religion and other constitutional provisions.

Many of us are presently refusing 35 to 50 percent or more of our income taxes. For others just beginning to consider war tax refusal, or those reluctant to refuse taxes in those quantities, a new project called People Pay for Peace, under the auspices of the Center on Law and Pacifism, offers an opportunity to participate.

The Center is coordinating this symbolic tax refusal movement by new reformers who withheld from their 1978 tax returns a few dollars, symbolizing their witness against military armament. The amount is so small that it is unlikely the IRS will try to levy it. Multiplied by thousands of people, this small amount will constitute a significant conscientious objection to payment for war.

There is still time to build the kingdom, time to protest armaments, time to create a spiritual community for those who turn from the idols of fear.

If I were to say to you, “I will not kill my neighbor, but I will pay someone else to do it,” would you not hold me accountable? If we refuse to kill our neighbor but allow our government to do it with our money, are we not to be held accountable?

But then we must witness and suffer the consequences of our military tax refusal for conscience’s sake. This is the price some Christians are paying for peace in 1979.

According to another article in that issue, of 200 people who responded to a “Survey on Life-Style Changes” in an earlier issue of the magazine, 20% had taken the step of “keeping income down in order not to pay taxes.” Another 25% wanted nothing to do with such a step. (source)

I was a little surprised to see the fairly conservative Brethren Evangelist devote several pages of its January 1979 issue to reprinting part of the Statement of the Findings Committee of the “New Call to Peacekeeping” conference (source). The Brethren Church was not (as the Church of the Brethren was) a partner to this conference, but they did send an observer.

The magazine was careful in its preface to say: “The printing of this Statement does not mean that either the Peace Coordinator [Doc Shank of the Brethren Church, who attended the conference] or the Brethren Publishing Company endorses it in its entirety. It is our hope that it will be read carefully and with an open mind.” Mention of tax resistance was brief in the published excerpt (“We urge the development of support groups within congregations and meetings for those individuals who are working at peace issues such as war tax resistance, simple lifestyles, and nonviolent action.”) but this makes for a rare positive mention in this usually more stodgy magazine.

In February the magazine followed up with a second excerpt from the Statement (source). This one was more explicit and direct:

1. We call upon members of the Historic Peace Churches to seriously consider refusal to pay the military portion of their federal taxes, as a response to Christ’s call to radical discipleship.
2. We challenge ourselves and also our congregations and meetings to uphold war tax resisters with spiritual, emotional, legal, and material support.
3. We call on our church and conference agencies to enter into dialogue with employees who ask, for reasons of moral conviction, that their taxes not be withheld.
4. We suggest that alternative “tax” payments be channeled into a peace fund initiated by the New Call to Peacemaking or into existing peace funds of constituent groups.
5. We call on our denominations, congregations and meetings to give high priority to the study of war tax resistance in our own circles and beyond.

Another element of the statement gave a thumbs-up to the World Peace Tax Fund legislation.

There were a couple of horrified letters to the editor that followed, from Brethren who didn’t want to see their church tangled up with the anti-war movement, but otherwise not much discussion.

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.