Churches United in Ministry and the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition think it’s the proper exercise of their faith to exhort the government to take from everybody in order to help the poor (see my earlier post). Setting aside for the moment the question of – if their efforts are successful – how much of this money will survive the legislative process and ever end up in the hands of those its supposedly aimed at, I have realized that maybe these groups and I aren’t really so far apart.
I mean, what if these groups, representing mainline churches and synagogues, were to put their philosophy into practice within their own congregations? That is, what if they said that they could no longer rely on freewill offerings, but in order to support social and economic justice they were morally obliged to assess a mandatory tax on every one of their members, based on a fixed rate they had prayerfully considered? To make it all appear legal they could let their members vote on it.
I wonder how many would vote with their feet?
