Today's correspondence with a Friend fro Atlanta Quaker Meeting

Dear XXXXXX,

I cannot understand the cowardice embodied in this letter. He is paying to help murder others but under protest. Is that what Christ did? Is He not his guide, his role model? Or is it the Sanhedrin, those dissemblers/enablers of the Roman occupation? The latter, I think. It is the "we", the "us" that is the root, here. To identify with the 'nation', rather than with God, puts lost souls in the position of worshiping gods other than God. That is mortal sin regardless of the 'under protest'. Earthly nations will ALWAYS commit bloody sin in everything they do. Godly people (remember the narrow way?) will not be associated with it and will, in fact, sacrifice their lives to stop it. Writing letters of "protest", asking for mercy from the anti-Christ, licking the hands of the enslavers is all being "Almost Persuaded" (P. Bliss) but wholly lost. If Ned Netterville didn't impress you (obviously he didn't), try this: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/barr-j1.1.1.html.
Thanks for again sticking your head into the hornet's nest.

Peace,

John

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From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
To: afmdiscussion@yahoogroups.com
Cc: John Redman
Sent: Fri, March 19, 2010 6:15:44 AM
Subject: Fw: Taxes for War or Peace?

----- Original Message -----

From: Every Church A Peace Church

To: XXXXXXXX

Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 3:06 AM

Subject: Taxes for War or Peace?

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What are you going to say to the government on April 15 about the way it spends your tax dollars?

My wife and I said this when we mailed our tax return today.

728 Fulton St.
Akron PA 17501
March 18, 2010


Mr. Douglas Shulman, The Commissioner
Internal Revenue Service Center
Kansas City MO 64999



Dear Commissioner Shulman,

We pay these income taxes under protest, because of the unconscionable way they are spent. You, the federal government, are spending about half of every tax dollar on the cost of past and present wars (48% in the 2011 budget).

With sadness we say, This is really no way to run a government.

Killing people is not a workable way to make the world a better place, nor the United States a more secure place.

We are concerned in particular that a future court may find us in violation of international laws pertaining to war crimes perpetrated by the U. S. Government (in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc).

Or, who knows, given the terrorist nature of warfare itself, we may be guilty of donating for the support of a terrorist organization as defined by U.S. laws in recent years.

As Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, we find our conscience offended, and the exercise of our religious belief infringed by coercion to pay for war--believing as we do that people are forbidden by God, and the teachings of Jesus which reveal the will of God, to kill people. By clear implication, paying people to kill people cannot be an innocent action.

As a free expression of our religion we are withholding $10.40 from payment of the tax which the enclosed form shows that we owe. This is less than one thin penny for every billion dollars devoted to military spending in the 2011 federal budget http://www.warresisters.org/node/642 We are donating this to the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, the legislative effort to democratize taxation http://www.peacetaxfund.org. This is a symbolic action, of the sort on which this country was founded. We are asking you, the government, to engage us, the citizens, in an honest discussion of federal spending priories. This would be an exercise in democracy (an exercise sadly becoming rare in this country.)

We ask the legislature to pass a law recognizing the right of conscientious objection to paying for war (The Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill) and the executive branch to cease and desist from limiting the free exercise of our religion by forcing us to pay for war.

Sincerely,