When it comes to taxes, I’ve noticed that the thing most Fundamentalist Christians tend to resent most is the whole giving money to the poor deal. It’s not fair, they tend to say, for us to take money from a rich person and give it to a poor person. It’s stealing.

I’m not a Christian now, but I’d be lying if I said that this attitude (and its obvious inconsistencies with scripture) wasn’t one of the things that made me an ex-Christian. These same Fundamentalist Christians often have absolutely no qualms about taking billions of dollars from the rich for national security to fund expensive wars — in spite of “turn the other cheek” maxims from their supposed leader.

But spend a dollar of that money to help a poor single mother with kids (especially, it seems, if she happens to be non-white) and those Christians are all up in arms, talking about the immorality of the decision.

It’s not, they say, that they don’t think the poor need help.

They just don’t want to be forced to do it. It’s unbiblical, they claim. Rather, they want to give money to charity.

I have my skepticism about charity. And not just as an ex-Christian — I was skeptical as a Christian, too. It seemed as if churches were competing with each other as a public relations scheme. Yes, the people caring for the poor did care about them — I’m not saying they didn’t. But the way they did so seemed to resemble the attitude of, “Hey, look at us! We’re amazing — look at how much we’re giving grace to the poor!” And because it was about them and their image — that image often influenced who they would help, and who they wouldn’t.

Now, Fundamentalist Christians will insist that this isn’t the case — that they’re helping people in order to genuinely help them out. But their insistence that this has to be choice as opposed to something they’re forced to do via taxes speaks to a disturbing narrative of control — they want the church, it seems, to be in charge of which poor people get to eat, and which don’t. And even if that’s not explicitly said, many times poor people recognize this and see that going to church will get them more help than not going to church.

As an atheist, I do not think it is a good idea for the question of whether the poor are fed to depend on whether or not they believe in God or follow the decrees of the Bible. And several times, in real life, this discrimination has happened and does happen. I mean, on the issue of same-sex marriage alone, there are several well known examples of religious discrimination in charities — here, for example. The Salvation Army has a well-documented history of discriminating against same-sex couples. The Illinois branch of Catholic Charities, which “provides foster care and adoption services for roughly one out of five children in the state of Illinois” even sued for the right to discriminate against same-sex couples.

But do I really need to go on? We all have heard religious organizations insist that “religious freedom” means doing with their organizations as they please, so that their insistence that religious charities take over for government services seems to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing for them to have authority over those least fortunate. And I’m not saying this just because I’m an atheist. As the last paragraph showed, there are many instances in which the church has actually done this. It’s not theory. It’s happened.

Add to all this that, regardless of what the Fundamentalist Christian tells you, the Bible nowhere says that taxes to help the poor are somehow unjust. It says just the opposite. Like here, in Romans 13 (emphasis added):

The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.

So yeah — this seems pretty clear. Rulers are there to help people do the right thing. They are there to punish people who do bad things. That’s why you pay taxes.

That seems pretty basic. But I think some Christians might need it spelled out, so I’ll do it.

First, read this:

Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Luke 6:30 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Matthew 5:42 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Matthew 19:21 [Jesus speaking]: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:31-46

Now, based on this (and several similar scriptures) here are a couple reading comprehension questions:

Is helping the poor the right thing to do?

Is not helping the poor the wrong thing to do?

If you didn’t answer “yes” to both questions, it seems to me you need to go back and do some more reading.

So taxes aren’t unjust if they help people do the right thing and keep people from doing the wrong thing, according to the Bible. Which means that if helping the poor is the right thing, and not helping the poor is the wrong thing, then laws that force you to help the poor through taxes are no more immoral than laws that that force you not to murder. I mean…if you weren’t murdering/were helping the poor without condition already, why would you get pissed off when someone makes a law forcing people not to murder/forcing people to help the poor?

Doesn’t make logical sense.

Now, this isn’t my book. I’m an atheist. I don’t have a stake in this.

It’s yours, Fundamentalist Christians. And the way so many of you ignore it here is part of why I suspect the whole thing isn’t as serious as you pretend it is. It’s time to stop trying to hide behind your Bible to avoid giving no-religious-strings-attached help to poor people.

If you’re going to be a Christian who doesn’t want to pay taxes to help the poor then, to borrow from Stephen Colbert, you have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as you are, or acknowledge that he commanded you to pay taxes in order to good things — like making sure that the poor are helped without condition.

And then admit that you just don’t want to do it.

Be an honest hypocrite.

Thanks for reading.

[Image via Quinn Dombrowski under CCL 2.0]