I’ve written on this blog that I think that accepting tax money that was stolen is a sin. I was surprised to see what Bojidar Marinov had to say on that:
“I am not so hard-core as many people: I don’t believe USING tax money is sin per se, and I don’t believe we should excommunicate people for being on government payroll. It’s not because I am lax on the Law of God but because an ethical/judicial view of the Law requires that I focus on where the REAL CRIME is: The process of TAKING the money, not the process of their distribution. Thus, you won’t hear me criticizing government schools for the fact that they use tax money: the money is already stolen, and the secondary use of stolen money is not declared a crime in the Bible. In fact, short of returning that money to the tax-payers – which we don’t have the power to accomplish, yet – distributing it to areas where Christians will make use of it is a sort of “common-grace” remedy which mitigates against the worst aspects of the crime of taxation. Declaring the use of that money sin would guarantee that the money is forever lost for any good cause.”
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I can see his argument, but I think the following comment from Paul Dorr closes the deal for me.
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“…the process of distributing it” is not a real crime? Not sure I understand your position on this Bojidar Marinov. Consider Prov. 29:24 which says, “Whoever is a partner with a thief hates his own life; He swears to tell the truth,[a] but reveals nothing.” Government school administrators and teachers lie every day (in my work) about how they spend the stolen money. They clearly mark themselves as partners with the state/thief.
Psalm 50:18 says, “When you saw a thief, you consented with him…” School administrators and staff consent to spend the stolen money every day.
Even man’s law has a crime on the books called “receiving stolen property”. Not quite as serious as the original thievery, but a crime none-the-less.
Some of the greatest opposition my clients receive daily, is from fellow evangelical Christians with their children in the public school. I believe there is no greater temple to our statist idolatry than government stools….err, schools! We need to remove our children and rip our money out of their hands. God will bring them to an end….and I believe sooner than we think.
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Bojidar goes on to say:
I agree with you, Paul, about government school administrators and teachers who lie about the use of the money. And of course, your argument about “consenting with thieves” is perfectly correct.
Here’s an application of the problem, though, where I am afraid, I can’t see a solution within the more purely perfectionist position you take on it: A communist state where all property is government property, and all business is government business, and thus all jobs are on the government’s payroll. The land is stolen from its original owners, the capital was confiscated from private owners, the industrial facilities are stolen, the technology for production is stolen, the children in the schools and the kindergartens are stolen from their parents, the capital infrastructure was built on the compulsory labor of political prisoners, etc., etc.
A Christian with a family finds himself in such a situation. He has certain gifts and skills, and he knows he has to bide his time instead of going full-scale revolutionary resistance against the government. He has to feed his kids as well. But any gainful employment he can take is on government payroll, receiving stolen money for work, using stolen capital goods, on infrastructure built on the labor of political prisoners.
He has the choice, of course, to refuse to work and thus starve his family. But I somehow can’t see this as the Biblical solution. After all, Joseph could have refused to serve Pharaoh and could have stayed in jail. Therefore, the only judicial solution I see to the issue is that he is free to take a job – which will by necessity be a government job – and that being on government payroll is not sin per se. (Although, I agree with you that school administrators who lie WITH THE PURPOSE OF STEALING more of their constituents’ money ARE in sin.) Therefore, the sin is not in being on government payroll, it is in being on the robbing side of government – which is the case of your school administrators, but not necessarily of everyone who in one way or another receives a pay from the school.
I relate this issue to the much misunderstood issue of Ron Paul’s support for ear-marking funds. It was used by his enemies to create an image of a politician who is in favor of more taxes whereas his position was perfectly logical: “If I can’t stop the increase of the government budget, I need to at least make sure the money is not just given as general spoils to the bureaucrats but its purpose is specifically declared.”
I am willing to hear where I am wrong in this.
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Here’s what I say. Bojidar is correct in his example of a communist country. Americans are in the same boat as a citizen of a communist country in some areas. I have no choice but to drive on roads that were built with stolen money. There is no alternative other then flying a helicopter, which is not a viable alternative due to financial constraints. But, where we have a choice, we ought not accept stolen money. And, where we have a choice, but choose to accept stolen money it is a sin.
