Letter to Radio Station

 

Yesterday on your show you had a women on the air claiming religious conviction as her means to not paying her taxes.  Her direct argument was based on the Sixth Commandment of the Bible, that being: Thou shall not murder.  Then to further add to her argument, she claimed that Christianity told her that killing was wrong (through the teaching of the improperly translated Jesus {here in referred to by his Hebrew name: Yesu Ben Mary}) and since said taxes paid for the military then paying taxes was against her moral conviction.

There are two basic errors with this argument.  One was pointed out by John, that is, that the commandment strictly argues against murder, and not killing.  The obvious difference in the meaning of these two words is clear.  But it might help this obviously lost young lady to realize that the distinct difference between murder and killing is a western ideal, and not at all privy to those that wrote the commandments to begin with.  It is important to remember that the culture that birthed the bible was tribal in nature.  That they believed (and still do to this day) that there is something distinctly different about groups of people.  It doesn’t take a Harvard education to look in the direction of the Middle East and see that groups of people who seem to share similar beliefs can not stand the presence of each other.  In the Muslim world alone, there are two major interpretations of the Koran, and they are bitter enemies.  It can hardly be fathomed then the ever widening gulf between those cultural tribes that do not even share the same religious book. 

Owing to the tribal mentality we must recognize that the sixth commandment does not mean do not take life, but should be reinterpreted with a western slant, so as to recognize the obvious tribal meaning behind the text.  That is it should read:  Thou shall not murder one of the tribe.  This can be stressed in the actual texts of the bible where it was okay for the Israelites to utterly destroy all of the peoples in the promised lands (Deut 3:6, or the entire book of Joshua as examples). 

 

As a side note within the rules laid down by Jewish law an Israelite who murdered (that is killed another Israelite) was free to run away and hide in a city of refuge (Numbers 35:6).  Also realize that breaking one of the laws required two witnesses.

 

As for not paying taxes, Yesu himself told his followers to pay their taxes (NIV Mark 12:13-17)

 

¹³Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. ¹⁴They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ¹⁵Should we pay or shouldn't we?"
¹⁶But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
"Caesar's," they replied.
¹⁷Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

 

I am reminded that belief systems require some ignorance and general folly to maintain themselves.