From Handbook on Military Taxes and Conscience

Chapter 4 “What the Churches Say”

1988 Friends Committee on War Tax Concerns

MULTI‑DENOMINATIONAL STATEMENTS

Fellowship of Reconciliation

Most of us have accepted the conventional attitude that taxes are inevitable. We have usually contributed our share with the painful knowledge that tax money is equally useful in the funding of war whether it is paid willingly or under protest .... The FOR National Council now feels that the threat of a nuclear holocaust has become so grave that we must add our call to that of others for a significant act of civil disobedience precisely at that point where the preparation for war most directly intersects our own lives. We encourage all FOR members and friends to consider withholding at least a portion of their own federal taxes in protest against military spending and to redirect that money to some life‑enhancing use .... For some, this will be primarily a personal act of faithfulness before God, a refusal to help finance global holocaust ‑ or the murder of even one person. For others, it will be important as a step toward greater personal integrity, healing the psychic and moral wounds caused by paying for violence while working for reconciliation. For some, the most important consideration will be that war tax refusal will be a concrete act of personal witness, a way of giving substance and credibility to words about peacemaking .... We urge all FOR members and friends to consider carefully and prayerfully making war tax resistance a part of their peace witness. (Fellowship magazine, June, 1982)

National Council of Churches of Christ

It is clear that there is widespread concern in the NCCC for the unprecedented threat of global war and, at the same time, for the unmet needs of the poor and for the injustices that are implicit in an international environment where war and threat of war play a major role.

It is equally clear that the vast majority of members of NCCC communions do not contemplate war tax resistance at present. In the words of one respondent, "A programmatic emphasis on tax resistance would seem extreme to a majority of our constituents." Yet many people ‑ and several denominations, officially ‑ acknowledge conscientious war tax resistance as a valid Christian testimony. Several other denominations recognize explicitly the obligation of Christians to follow their consciences, even if this leads them into conflict with existing law.

Thus while in general most member communions do not endorse or advocate war tax resistance, all of those that responded seem to offer a supportive environment, at least at an interpersonal level, for people who clearly are led to this form of witness. ("The Churches and War Tax Resistance," 1983)

New Call to Peacemaking

We reaffirm the 1978 ... call "upon members of the Historic Peace Churches seriously to consider refusal to pay the military portion of their federal taxes as a response to Christ's call to radical discipleship . .... If we believe that fighting war is wrong, does it not follow that paying for war is wrong? If we urge resistance to the draft, should we not also resist the conscription of our material resources? (Second National Conference, 1980)

Sojourners Fellowship (Evangelical)

Reviving our capacity to love has become an urgent political necessity, as the superpowers come to regard millions of their neighbors as nothing more than expendable enemy populations in a nuclear exchange. We face unimaginable destruction unless our hearts are enlarged to recognize a neighbor in the face of our enemy. The possibility of nuclear annihilation shows Jesus' simple, but long ignored, exhortation to love our enemies to be a politically relevant and necessary position .... Refusing the call to arms is based on the fundamental moral reality that there is no longer any threat greater than war itself. The members of Sojourners Fellowship have determined to refuse the call to arms at every point .... Further, we advocate that others likewise refuse .... For those above draft age, the present situation should occasion a fresh look at the contradiction of paying for war with our tax dollars at the risks we are taking for peace .... In ignoring Jesus' words, we in the church have sacrificed our vocation of being an obstacle to war. We must reclaim that vocation now. ("Refusing the Call to Arms," Jim Wallis, March 1980)

Non‑payment of war taxes has been a vital concern for Sojourners for it ....

.... We could not oppose war in every other way and then help pay

The payment of taxes is the most basic, and from the government's point of view, most important way that we support the policies of the state. With hardly an afterthought, American Christians in recent times have given more money to underwrite military destruction and help build the most massive arsenal in human history than we have given to pay for relief, service, evangelism, missions, social action, and all the programs of the churches combined.

The state's demand for war taxes puts many Christians in a dilemma in which peace claims their commitment but war claims their money. Personal and corporate response to the payment of war taxes is a thorny and serious question, one which must become a matter of much more public discussion and discernment in the Christian community.

With the heightening nuclear arms race and the widening conflict in Central America, our stand on war tax resistance has remained resolute: we cannot with good conscience provide our government, through our tax dollars, with the necessary means for its nuclear threats and ideological military exploits. (Revive Us Again: A Sojourner's Story, by Jim Wallis, Abingdon Press, 1983)

INDIVIDUAL DENOMINATIONS

American Baptist Churches

All persons are created in the image of God and owe their first allegiance to God. All persons have the responsibility to read and interpret the scriptures and to reflect on their religious experience in order to understand God's will for them and the world, and they are called in conscience to live out that understanding. The supreme responsibility of every person is to obey God's will above all human laws and directives. ("Resolution of Conscience and Military Service," 1979)

American Lutheran Church

ALC members choosing to make a witness as military tax resisters in good conscience, who also accept any penalty the law requires, may legitimately look for counsel, prayers, and pastoral care from their fellow believers, even when others in the faith community disagree with the action taken. Points for Consideration of Protest to Military Policies:

Individuals and congregations may wish to reflect on these considerations: ....

b. Consider lawful means of protesting payment of taxes for military purposes, including voluntary reduction of income and increase in charitable contributions, sending letters of protest to the President and to members of Congress, and working for legislative changes such as the [U.S.] Peace Tax Fund Act.

c. Pursue lawful kinds of witness against military preparations, including political advocacy, dialogue with leaders of companies holding weapons contracts, efforts to change public attitudes, and (if appropriate) organizing legal economic pressures such as giving consumer patronage to companies whose priorities one favors.

The American Lutheran Church promises to remain in ministry* with persons who struggle with other decisions of conscience in the war‑peace arena, based on their understanding of biblical ethics, without implying corporate agreement with particular stands taken. Examples would be behavior with regard to payment of taxes for weapons of mass destruction or nonviolent protests against production and deployment of such weapons.

* To "remain in ministry" implies: 1) no breaking of the fellowship of the faith community because of disagreement over particular acts of civil disobedience; 2) support through prayer, counsel, pastoral care, and acts of love on behalf of those who may be in violation of law; 3) no commitment on the part of the ALC to provide financial or legal support for persons who engage in acts of civil disobedience.

("Human Law and the Conscience of Believers," Twelfth General Convention of the ALC, Oct. 20, 1984)

Brethren in Christ

Our call to follow Christ is a call to serve Him by using our material possessions to demonstrate His Spirit and compassion in the world.

Even though it may be impossible to be completely separated from the prosperity of war economy, we would be deeply concerned about profiteering because of war. Since we believe participation in war is not in keeping with our Christian commitment, we also believe that vocational activity which creates and produces weapons of destruction should be avoided. Neither can those who believe that participation in war is wrong support war by the payment of taxes without earnest searchings of conscience. We encourage the avoidance of war tax payment by giving maximum charitable contributions to reduce tax liability. ("Position Paper on Church, War, and Respect for Human Life," adopted by the General Conference, 1976)

Christian Refortned Church in America

1 . Pertaining to the Individual Christian

God establishes government. The Christian's duty is to obey even when unsure of the morality of government action. This duty to obey pertains to taxes.

The Christian ought to object to specific government policy or decision that he finds incompatible with biblical teaching.

The means and strategy of the Christian objector must be compatible with biblical teaching on government. To bring change, the Christian should exhaust honorable, legal, and discreet means. He should consider civil disobedience as a last resort.

If his conscience leads him to the extremity of disobeying government, the Christian ought to submit to government's authority by accepting the penalty for his disobedience.

The Christian may ask for and expect sympathetic concern from fellow Christians, members of the church as body or organism.

f. It is ordinarily inappropriate for the Christian conscientious objector to ask the church as institute to join him in his individual strategy. The instituted church cannot assume, as its own, individual methods of resistance; it has neither the competence nor the authority from the Lord to do so.

g. The Christian may, however, expect the church to give him what it does have the authority and competence to give: prophetic proclamation of the Word, pastoral care, and diaconal support. The nature of the church's "necessary support" for him is to help him endure his hardship, not to join him in the individual methods of objection he chooses.

2. Pertaining to the church

a. As a community of believers, the church is called upon to give spiritual care and love to conscientious tax resisters and to assure them that they are fully honored as Christians in spite of differences of opinion with fellow church members.

b. As agent of proclamation, the church is called upon concerning the issues raised by our mandate:

(1) to expose the demonic influences in society and government;

(2) to proclaim that our ultimate earthly protection is not to be found in any earthly power but in God's almighty and loving care; and

(3) to challenge its members to exercise their responsibilities to oppose evil by appropriate means or strategy.

c. As provider of pastoral care, the church is called upon, through its elders and ministers, to give counsel and guidance to believers as they weigh specific methods of strategy seeking to follow dictates of a biblically informed conscience.

d. As instrument of diaconal care' the church is called upon to provide benevolent relief to conscientious tax resisters whose stand brings them material hardship. This is particularly the responsibility of the local congregation.

(Synod Position, 1985)

Church of the Brethren

While the Church of the Brethren recognizes the responsibility of all citizens to pay taxes for the constructive purposes of government, [the church] opposes the use of taxes by the government for war purposes and military expenditures. For those who are conscientiously opposed to paying taxes for these purposes, the church seeks government provision for alternative use of such tax money for peaceful, non‑military purposes. We call upon all of our members ... to study seriously the problems of paying taxes for war purposes and ... to act in response to their study, to the leading of conscience, and to their understanding of the Christian faith. (Annual Conference, 1968, and in The Church of the Brethren on War, 1970)

Although the Brethren cannot agree as to whether tax withholding is proper, they all can recognize the propriety of using the

means of dissent which the social order itself recognizes and provides. We recommend, therefore, that all who feel the concern be encouraged to express their protest and testimonies through letters accompanying their tax returns, whether accompanied by payment or not, in correspondence with appropriate legislators and officials, and in other such ways. (The Christian's Response on Taxation for War, Annual Conference, 1973)

In 1977, the Annual Conference encouraged congregations to study the issue of payment of taxes for war and asked that congregations and other church structures provide aid and support for those who feel they cannot conscientiously pay taxes.

In response to current military expenditures, the Annual Conference appointed a committee to study and recommend how Brethren should respond to the dilemma of paying for war through taxes. The Church of the Brethren, a historic peace church, last did a comprehensive study of the issue of war taxes in 1973. This new study is an effort to struggle again with what the church's responsibility is in light of the government's current direction. (News of the Church of the Brethren General Board, June 30, 1984)

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In 1987, the Internal Revenue Service issued a tax levy on funds the General Board holds for Phil and Louise Rieman, co‑pastors of the Ivester Church of the Brethren, Grundy Center, Iowa. The action was a response to the Riemans' tax withholding as conscientious objectors to the payment of taxes used for military purposes. The levy required the General Board to forward to the IRS money held on behalf of the Riemans in the Pastor's Housing Fund. The IRS also announced that, if the Board failed to comply with the levy, the IRS would levy the Board's bank accounts for the amount due plus a 50% penalty. On November 11, 1987, the Executive Committee of the Board voted not to send the required amount and to file a protest letter supporting the Riemans' right to engage in tax resistance. The Committee also stated to the IRS that the Pastor's Housing Fund is of such a nature that the government does not have the right to levy against it. No further action has been taken by the IRS at this time.

Episcopal General Convention

Resolved, the House of Bishop concurring, that this 67th General Conference of the Episcopal Church reaffirms the statement calling Christian people everywhere ... to engage themselves in nonviolent action for justice and peace and to support others so engaged, recogniz[ing] that such action will be controversial and may be personally very costly; and be it further.

Resolved, that this General Convention calls upon all members of this Church seriously to consider the implications for their own lives of this call to resist war and work for peace ....

Resolved [that] this Conference ... declares its belief that nonviolent refusal to participate in or prepare for war can be a faithful response of a member of this Church and a decision to support or participate in war should be made only after careful and prayerful consideration. (Resolutions, 1982)

Episcopal Peace Fellowship

The Episcopal Peace Fellowship "supports war tax resistance as a witness for peace." (1987)

Jewish Peace Fellowship

it is understandable ... that Judaism, which has always warned against war, should now oppose nuclear war as an impermissible horror. The two largest rabbinical organizations in the United States are on record that conscientious objection to war and military service is in accord with the highest ideals of Judaism. (Rabbi Isidor Hoffman, Honorary Chairman)

New Jewish Agenda

[The New Jewish] Agenda will promote public endorsement by Jewish organizations of economic conversion efforts and legislation supporting conversion to a peace‑based economy. In order to promote social conversion and provide support for conscientious objectors, we endorse the [U.S.] Peace Tax Fund Bill and urge its passage into law.

The Lutheran Church in America

[Christians may choose to disobey] a law that clearly involves the violation of their obligations as Christians, so long as they are (a) willing to accept the penalty for their action; (b) willing to limit and direct their protest as precisely as possible against a specific grievance or injustice; (c) willing to carry out their protest in a nonviolent, responsible manner, after earnestly seeking the counsel of fellow Christians and the will of God in prayer. ("Statement on Race Relations, " 1964)

Lutheran Peace Fellowship

We will not qualify our condemnation: There is no moral justification for the existence of nuclear weapons. They are an abomination in the sight of God .... And yet they exist. They spread like a wild cancer. They exist and they spread largely because of our complicit silence, our nod of reluctant approval .... In return for "security" from our enemies that is in reality an obscene terror, we willfully offer the sacrifice of our tax dollars to a deadly idol. We Christians pay for the design and production of nuclear weapons, and, God forgive us, we have done so willingly. But no more. We will do so no more. And we call upon you to do so no more .... It is not that we choose civil disobedience but that by God's grace we choose divine obedience. We will no longer offer our tax dollars for a nuclear military that affronts the Lordship of Jesus .... Instead, we choose to redirect resisted tax dollars to the poor of our country and our world. ("A Call to Tax Resistance for Lutherans," 1981)

General Conference, Mennonite Church

The levying of war taxes is another form of conscription which, along with the conscription of manpower, makes war possible. We are accountable to God for the use of our financial resources and should protest the use of our taxes in the promotion and waging of war. We stand by those who feel called to resist the portion of taxes being used for military purposes. ("Way of Peace," Fresno, California, August 1971)

As Mennonite Christians we seek to be biblically obedient, submitting to such injunctions as Romans 13:7 ("pay taxes to whom taxes are due"), but also Romans 13:8 and 13:10 ("Owe no one anything except to love one another ... love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law"). We accept our subordination to government and our obligation to pay taxes. However, we must witness to governments our conviction that war and preparation for war do wrong to our neighbors and are contrary to the will of God as revealed in the teachings of Jesus Christ and his death, resurrection, and ascension to Lordship. Thus we urge our governments to sharply reduce military spending and use our resources for life‑affirming purposes. Furthermore, just as conscientious objectors have received exemption from military service, we also seek legislation exempting conscientious objectors from paying taxes for military purposes. Thus we continue to work in the U.S. for passage of the [U.S.] Peace Tax Fund Act and in Canada for the Peace Tax Fund, which would allow individuals to designate all of their federal taxes for peaceful purposes.

Both the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Revenue Canada require the General Conference Mennonite Church to violate the consciences of its employees who are conscientious objectors to paying taxes for military purposes.

In the United States, we have thoroughly explored all legislative, administrative and judicial avenues for obtaining a conscientious objector exemption to these withholding requirements, as resolved at the 1979 Minneapolis mid‑triennium conference. Our. explorations have convinced us there is no likelihood of relief in the near future for conscientious objectors to military taxes. The time has come when, like Peter and the apostles, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

... [W]e therefore:

1. Authorize the conference officers to test the constitutionality of the withholding requirements in the United States and to assert the higher claim of Christ's law of love, by refusing to serve as tax collectors in cases where individual employees have asked that their federal income taxes not be withheld from their wages, in order that they may conscientiously refuse to pay for war preparations. These employees will be treated similarly to the way General Conference treats ordained ministers, i.e. as self‑employed persons, in that their earnings will be reported to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, but no federal income tax withheld.

3. We shall inform the U.S. government of this act of conscientious objection to their withholding requirements. We shall again urge them to provide exemption from these requirements and also exemption for people of peacemaking conscience from military use of their tax money.

(GCMC Triennial Sessions, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, August 1983)

Mennonite Central Committee

1. Recognizing the diverse constituency of MCC and their responses to our inquiries, as well as the bi‑national character of MCC, we recommend that MCC continue to withhold and forward taxes to the government.

We affirm the integrity and conviction of the individuals who request non‑withholding. We recommend that MCC explore legal alternate employment arrangements which would enable them to resist the payment of taxes for military purposes.

We recommend that MCC support individuals who choose tax resistance as an expression of individual Christian conscience.

4. We encourage MCC to increase its efforts in understanding the relationship between militarism and hunger, development and refugees, and in consciousness of these issues with our brothers and sisters in the church.

a. We request the conference bodies represented in MCC to place before their annual conferences the question of the church's response to the growing militarization of our society and world.

b. We instruct the Executive Committee to appoint a task group to facilitate these conference efforts through the provision of resource materials and continuing listening/exploration meetings.

We invite reports from the MCC conference representatives at the 1988 MCC Annual Meeting on new steps taken by the conference bodies to bear witness to our Christian conscience on the matter of peace and war preparations. (MCC Annual Meeting, January 31 ‑ February 1, 1986)

7he Mennonite Church

We recognize that today's militarism expresses itself more and more through expensive and highly technical weaponry and that such equipment is dependent upon financial resources conscripted from citizens through taxation. Therefore,

1 . We encourage our members to pursue a lifestyle which minimizes such tax liability through reduction of taxable income and/or increase of tax deductible contributions for the advancement of the gospel and the relief of human suffering.

2. We endorse efforts in support of legislation which would provide alternative uses for taxes, paid by conscientious o jectors to war, which would otherwise be devoted to military purposes.

We encourage our congregations to engage in careful biblical study regarding Christian responsibility to civil authorities, including issues of conscience in relation to payment of taxes.

4. We recognize as a valid witness the conscientious refusal to pay a portion of taxes required for war and military efforts. Such refusal, however, may not be pursued in a spirit of lawlessness nor for personal advantage, but may be an occasion for constructive response to human need.

5. We encourage our congregations and institutions to seek relief from the current legal requirement of collecting taxes through the withholding of income taxes of employees, especially those taxes which may be used for war purposes. In this effort we endorse cooperation with the General Conference Mennonite Church in the current search for judicial, legislative, and administrative alternatives to the collection of military‑related taxes. In the meantime, if congregational or institutional employers are led to noncompliance with the requirement to withhold such taxes, we pledge our support for those representatives of the church who may be called to account for such a witness.

(Mennonite General Assembly, Waterloo, Ontario, August 16, 1979)

Assumptions

1. The Mennonite Church has repeatedly attempted to witness to the way of peace through Christ. The urge to lift up Jesus as the key to peace with God and between persons brought the General Assembly at Purdue to adopt a statement on militarism. "Growing in Stewardship and Witness in a Militaristic World" is recommended for further study by congregations.

2. We recognize the differences of opinion on this issue and the necessity to work toward consensus in ways that respect this diversity and encourage its expression.

3. We recognize the difference between Canada and the United States in the relations between the church and the government and expect conferences to work at this issue in ways appropriate to each national situation.

Proposed Actions

1. The General Board recommends that the Normal '89 General

Assembly delegates:

(a) support the Mennonite Church General Board in establishing a policy that will honor the request of any of its employees that the portion of income tax that supports war and preparations for war not be forwarded to the IRS or Revenue Canada;

(b) that the General Assembly express full support for other church boards and agencies that may adopt similar policies.

In the course of study of this issue the General Board has become increasingly aware of a more fundamental problem of the church functioning as an agent of the state in collecting taxes for war. Therefore, the General Assembly recommends that the church give serious attention to this question, including the historical background for the collection of taxes by churches and the theological issues related to it.

3. To implement our repeated affirmation for the Peace Tax Fund as a solution to this dilemma of conscience, by providing legal recognition of conscientious objection to military taxes, the General Assembly delegates urge each conference to provide financial and other support for this proposed legal alternative in each of our countries.

We recommend that the General Board staff make arrangements for resources for conferences to process this military tax question.

(Approved by the Mennonite Church General Board, KitchenerWaterloo, Ontario, April 8, 1988. The resolution will be considered and responded to by the 20 regional conferences of the church between May 1988 and March 1989. Final decision on the recommendations will rest with the representative General Assembly at Normal, IL, in August 1989.)

The Moravian Church, Northern Provincial Synod

[Resolved to] reaffirm the right and status of each member to follow the dictates of his own conscience and to lend spiritual support, ministerial guidance, and moral compassion to each Christian who arrives at a conviction which was based on sincere Christian conscience. (1970)

RESOLVED: that the Moravian Church, Northern Province, declare its support for those who seek ' by education and other appropriate means, to influence those people and agencies who shape nuclear policy to refrain from the development and deployment of nuclear weapons; and be it further

RESOLVED: that the Moravian Church, Northern Province, enter into and support cooperative programs with other churches, religious groups, and ecumenical agencies which seek to promote peace and nuclear disarmament, and be it further

RESOLVED: that this Synod, as an expression of its commitment to work for peace following adjournment, place itself on record as calling for an immediate world‑wide freeze on the development and deployment of nuclear weapons, in which the United States and Canada should take the initiative. (1982)

Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

[The 195th General Assembly] recognizes that some individual United Presbyterians will be led by conscience to make their witness in public places, refusal to cooperate with the Selective Service System, refusal to pay certain federal taxes voluntarily, and that some such acts may entail peaceful civil disobedience. We therefore:

1 .Urge the prayerful support of the whole church for persons who engage in such individual acts of conscience.

2. Authorize the Office of the General Assembly and encourage synods, presbyteries, and sessions to develop appropriate legal and ecclesiastical support for those persons who engage in such acts, provided that these acts are nonviolent and are taken with readiness to accept the legal consequences of conscientious refusal to obey laws considered unjust.

With such [persons], the church affirms that God is Lord of their conscience also, and hence along with those who make other response to war, the church offers them her ministries of compassion and pastoral care without necessarily approving or encouraging such responses. (195thGeneral Assembly, 1983)

An advisory council of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. has prepared a preliminary study paper proposing active resistance to the military in the United States. The document, entitled "Presbyterians and -Peacemaking: Are We Now Called to Resistance?" suggests that U.S. defense and nuclear policies should be declared "demonic" and opposed by nonviolent resistance.

The document states that a government loses legitimacy when it does not protect a nation's security but becomes a threat to peace. In such an instance, resistance "becomes morally compelling."

The document is non-binding. Recommendations stemming from its study will be presented at the 200th General Assembly in June, 1988.

Presbytery of Chicago

WHEREAS, our General Assembly has repeatedly affirmed the right of conscientious objection to war as a position consistent with our Confessions; and WHEREAS, responsible stewardship involves ... our responsible use of our votes and our taxes; and WHEREAS, many Presbyterians are concerned about the high proportion, over half, of their income taxes which are spent by our government on ... military activities; and WHEREAS, many Presbyterians under the guidance of Scriptures and Holy Spirit cannot in conscience participate in military pursuits including the paying of taxes for military purposes; ... THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church prepare a study of resistance to defense policy through the withholding of taxes to guide persons struggling with this decision .... (Overture acted upon by the Presbyterian General Assembly, 1983)

National Conference of Catholic Bishops

To Catholics as Citizens:

All papal teaching on peace has stressed the crucial role of public opinion. Pope John Paul 11 specified the tasks before us: "There is no justification for not raising the question of the responsibility of each nation and each individual in the face of possible wars and of the nuclear threat." In a democracy, the responsibility of the nation and that of its citizens coincide. Nuclear weapons pose especially acute questions of conscience for American Catholics. As citizens we wish to affirm our loyalty to our country and its ideals, yet we are also citizens of the world who must be faithful to the universal principles proclaimed by the Church .... Americans share responsibility for the current situation and cannot evade responsibility for trying to resolve it. ("The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response, " Pastoral Letter on War and Peace, May 3, 1983)

Pax Christi USA (Catholic)

Pax Christi USA recognizes tax resistance as an important and valid Christian witness at this time. Many Pax Christi members are considering refusing to pay a symbolic portion of their income tax as a response to the continuing expansion of the arms race and giving the amount withheld to peace-building activities. (National Council Proposal, 1983)

Pax Christi USA, Center on Conscience and War

As Christians we share responsibility for how our tax dollars are spent. Though it is true that no one is totally pure of social sin, some feel compelled to take action to reduce their culpability. The choices are many and often difficult. Tax resistance, or some form of tax protest, is one option many have chosen. For many that is just a starting point.

Though it is not the policy of Pax Christi USA and the Pax Christi USA Center on Conscience and War to promote tax resistance as such, we do feel it deserves consideration, respect, and support as a very important form of opposition to modern war. Certainly those who have taken their stand against participation in the armed forces will want to consider this additional form of conscientious objection. (Conscience and Tax Resistance, Reflection Guide Series #4, January 1985)

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle

As followers of Christ, we need to take up our cross in the nuclear age .... Our security as people of faith lies not in demonic weapons which threaten all life on earth. Our security is in a loving, caring God .... A choice has been put before us: anyone who wants to save one's life by nuclear arms will lose it; but anyone who loses one's life by giving up those arms for Jesus' sake, and for the sake of the Gospel of love, will save it .... How can such a process, of taking up the cross of nonviolence, happen in a country where our government seems paralyzed by arms corporations? In a country where many of the citizens, perhaps most of the citizens, are numbed into passivity by the very magnitude and complexity of the issue while being horrified by the prospect of nuclear holocaust? .... We have to refuse to give incense ‑ in our day, tax dollars ‑ to our nuclear idol .... Form 1040 is the place where the Pentagon enters all of our lives, and asks our unthinking cooperation with the idol of nuclear destruction. I think the teaching of Jesus tells us to render to a nuclear‑armed Caesar that which Caesar deserves ‑ tax resistance. And to begin to render to God alone that complete trust which we now give, through our tax dollars, to a demonic form of power. Some would call what I am urging "civil disobedience." I prefer to see it as obedience to God. (Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen, 1981)

Unitarian Universalist Association

The Assembly challenges ourselves and our congregations to uphold war tax resisters with spiritual, emotional, legal, and material support .... In keeping with our past support of alternative service provisions for conscientious objectors to the draft, the Assembly urges support for congressional enactment of a [U.S. I Peace Tax Fund as an alternative to compulsory financial support of war and preparation for war. (General Assembly Resolutions, 1979)

United Church of Canada

Conscientious Objection to War and Tax Redirection

WHEREAS the right to conscientious objection to war is a component of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion in order that people who are conscientious objectors to war on religious or humanist grounds may be able to practice their beliefs;

WHEREAS the development of nuclear strike capability eliminates the distinction between "war" and "preparation for war";

WHEREAS the taxation system within Canada requires the majority of citizens to help fund this security system, regardless of their personal conscience;

WHEREAS the current taxation regulations in Canada require all courts of the Church with paid staff to act as collectors of the portion of Canadian taxes that support Canadian participation in the global arms race;

WHEREAS the current taxation regulations require employers to deny the right of freedom of conscience to those employees who are conscientious objectors to war;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 31st General Council:

1. affirm the right of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, including the right to conscientious objection to war; and

2. request the Secretary of the Division of Finance, in consultation with the Division of Mission in Canada, to:

(a) press the federal government to adopt legislation that will give effect to the expression of the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion to all Canadian citizens through establishment of a legal Peace Tax Fund to which citizens would have the legal option of redirecting the portion of their taxes that would go into the production of and trade in offensive military goods and repression technology; and

(b) press the federal government for a change in tax legislation to allow employers to extend to their employees the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion through tax redirection at point of payment; and forward notice of this action to the appropriate bodies of other Churches which would appreciate this encouragement for their struggle to implement the right to conscientious objection to war in their own countries. (National Conference, 1986)

United Methodist Church

We affirm the historic statements: "What the Christian citizen may not do is to obey persons rather than God, or overlook the degree of compromise in even our best acts, or gloss over the sinfulness of war. The church must hold within its fellowship persons who sincerely differ at this point of critical decision, call all to repentance, mediate to all God's mercy, minister to all in Christ's name .... Christian teaching supports conscientious objection to all war as an ethically valid position .... We therefore support all who conscientiously object: to preparation for or participation 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." (General Conference Statementsf "The United Methodist & Peace," 1968f 1980, 1984)

United Church of Christ

WHEREAS, past General Synods of the United Church of Christ consistently have supported Christians who conscientiously opposed actions of the state that would force them to disobey the will of God as they understand it in Jesus Christ our Lord; and WHEREAS, many of our own people are deeply troubled by the large numbers of tax revenues spent for military expenditures, particularly nuclear weapons and their potential for destruction of human life on earth created by God; and WHEREAS, an increasing number of Christians find it unconscionable to pay taxes that might lead to such destruction; THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that [this Synod] recognizes such agonies of conscience, supports and wishes to hold in communion those who, for reasons of conscience, refuse to pay taxes they believe will lead to war and to human deStruction; and ... requests the Office for Church in Society to develop a network of support for such persons who conscientiously resist war tax payments. (Fourteenth General Synod, 1983)

(The United Church of Christ includes some churches still called "Congregational" or "Evangelical and Reformed," ‑ their names before a merger formed the United Church of Christ.)