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OK- I admit it…

13 November 2009 5 Comments

cavewoman

(There is no reason at all for this image apart from I googled ‘Methodist Recorder’ on images and this was the top search. Even my surreal brain cannot work this out.)

I’ll be honest….. I’m willing to come out of the closet and finally admit it: ‘My name is Graham, I’m 43 and I read the Methodist Recorder…. but I have it under control and it is not messing my life up…honest’.

It is too expensive, even writing part of it off against tax, but it is occasionally useful and I find out stuff. Occasionally, if I’m feeling really strong, I read the letters page. The letters page in most denominational newsletters is where one’s belief in Grace is most severly tested.

I read the letters page a couple of weeks ago and one letter really got me- in a good way. It was about politics and taxes. I don’t really do party politics on this blog- not because I’m agin it (even as a student, I used to have a Demond Tutu poster on my wall that said something like ‘People who say politics and religion should not mix; well I wonder which Bible they are reading’)- just because there are legions of others who do it better.

This letter felt that churches should take a lead basically in saying ‘taxes are good for you’:-

‘This is that paying our fairly assessed taxes is seen as a privilege that comes with being part of the community, rather than something to be avoided, if not evaded.’

It was if the scales fell from my eyes- sometimes, when the public discourse is all about cutting taxes and putting money back in ‘your’ pocket that becomes an unquestioned assumption of life. I wonder if a Christian view is closer to the above quote?

The guy also said that the Methodist Church should refuse gift aid as a sign that it was willing to do this and make up the difference by increased giving. Careful Mr R. Southgate of Harrow…. people have been crucified for less. It’s fine to believe in it all, but we are not meant to take it seriously you know…


5 Comments »

  • dave perry said:

    Graham, as a former reader of said newspaper who has been in remission for over a decade I am concerned for you, my friend. You read the letters page and yet you think that you have your habit under control? Most worrying. Say three Hail Mary’s as a penance, take a couple of pints of Guinness as therapy, and to bring you to your senses do the dance to Madness ‘One Step beyond’ all the way through without stopping. You will thank me….
    But seriously the point about tax is spot on and well worth making. Thanks for flagging it up, and all credit to the Recorder for printing it.

    - 13 November 2009 at 11:11
  • Dyfed said:

    Some serious prayer ministry needed, Graham, or maybe a couple of weeks on the north Wales coast. You’d feel better in no time!

    But to the substance (rather than the substance misuse) of your post. I’m not sure how much I agree with you. Certainly it is good that society through the state takes care of the weakest and that taxes are required. Good too that society organises itself to provide certain services (police, health etc. etc.) and again taxes are needed. And no one should be avoiding paying these taxes – be they the super rich in their tax havens or the poor working on the black market.

    However, there is an issue about how much the state can do for us and even how much the state should do for us. In many large estates up and own the country there are two and three generations who have been dependant on the state – to the extent that they now are unable to take care of themselves and even unwilling to do so, believing the state should do it for them.

    There was a fascinating programme on BBC Wales some time back from an estate in the valleys somewhere. They focused on one family – three generations. Good people but by now dependant on the state for everything. And the state does need to help in some circumstances – but some of family were even unwilling to take care of their own health – making poor choices on issues like smoking and alcohol consumption, but still expecting the state to pick up the pieces when health problems occur.

    After 11 years of a Labour government (I do politics on my blog!) and having spent millions on various schemes on estate like this there is still an underlying high level of unemplyment, poor health etc. The taxes have been spent (sometimes well spent) but the benefits have not always been apparent.

    And then there is the waste of money – with taxes badly spent on poor projects.

    I don’t want the state to stop supporting people in their time of need – but neither do I believe it has all the answers and spends taxes accordingly.

    - 13 November 2009 at 11:27
  • graham (author) said:

    Dyfed…I could do with that (prayer and Wales)!

    I think you are right…from time spent in the housing estates of Oldham before I was ordained I noticed the same thing: at worst dependency and infantalising the poor. As a Labour voter (at present disollusioned!) I would have some of the same questions and I think you draw attention to these on one of your own blog postings from this week.

    I valued the polemic of the letter though, challenging the public discourse in the USA and here as we run up to election- your money is yours and we aim to put more back in your pocket. I’m thinking Grace… to those whom much is given much is expected…. I wonder if the ‘much is expected’ also extends to living alongside the poor and working with; on the rare occasions I have seen ‘The Secret Millionaire’ I have noted the two way transforming effect of those encounters, bringing dignity to both sides.

    What a crazy idea for a programme though… taking on the form of the poor, becoming like us/them and being as nothing, risking everything and then pouring out yourself to exalt others…. thank goodness these things only happen in TV land…

    - 13 November 2009 at 12:31
  • Eric Morris said:

    Render unto Caesar…

    Jesus recovered Peter’s tax payment from the mouth of a fish. I assume that Peter used the coin to pay his taxes.

    Peter’s coin supported a corrupt tax collection system, a repressive occupation army, the very royalty and clergy who participated in Jesus’ trial and execution.

    The coin probably contained a “graven image” of a ruler who considered himself to be a god.

    Yet Jesus did not call for political reform, condemn a regressive taxation system, or call for “conscientious objection” and refusal to pay taxes.

    He just gave Peter the coin and the statement “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.”

    So what do all of you clerics and theologians think about this incident? What have we to learn from it?

    - 13 November 2009 at 17:49
  • graham (author) said:

    Perhaps… that God seems far less picky and choosy than we are. He seems to have far more force and Grace than I do.

    - 13 November 2009 at 23:16

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