Spreading the Wealth -- or -- EeK! Socialism!

I grow tired of the word “socialist.”  I particularly grow weary of it in connection with the presidential election and will be very happy when November 5 rolls around because the word is being thrown around wildly, maliciously and innacurately.

Ever since “Joe the Plumber” became a campaign slogan, the word “socialism” has accompanied it.  As in, “The Joe the Plumbers of the country want to keep their hard-earned money and don’t want the government to take it away in order to ‘spread the wealth.’  After all, spreading the wealth is socialism.”

This is all about taxes, of course.  Joe the Plumber feels that Barack Obama’s tax plan will take away his money.  He doesn’t like the idea of anybody’s taxes being increased because it’s unfair to the folks who earn it.  In fact, he (and John McCain) argue that it’s socialist.  Obama responded with an unfortunate phrase: that it’s not bad to spread the wealth a bit.  But even though he might have chosen his words more carefully, he’s right, and there are problems with Joe’s (and McCain’s) argument.

One, it’s not a tax increase.  Most of what Obama’s increase in revenue will come not from a new tax but from allowing a Bush-era tax give-away to the richest Americans to expire.  In other words, it’s a tax that existed before George W. Bush took power.  One that existed when his very much not-socialist father was president.  

Two, even if it were a new tax, it is not socialism.  Although dictionaries have a hard time defining socialism and note that the word is used to mean anything from anarchy to communism, at its most basic level, it means the community owns and regulates the “means of production, distribution, and exchange.”  Dropping a tax break is not socialism.

Three, while Obama’s health plan (another target for the charge of socialism) does make it easier for people to have and afford health care, it is not state owned and operated.  Too bad.  Those countries (like every other industrialized nation) that have socialized medicing enjoy much better health.

Four, we already “spread the wealth” inasmuch as we have taxes and have for more than a hundred years.  That’s what taxes are meant to do.  We Americans did not object to taxes even in our earliest years.  The Boston Tea Party was not about taxes in general but about a particular tax that was levied in a particular way that made the colonists feel they had been disenfranchised.  They did not object to taxes per se.

Nor should we.  Because paying taxes makes you part of a community.  Communities have always pooled their resources so we could afford to do things that we could never afford to do as individuals.  This is crucial to being human beings.

That’s why Christians do not object to taxes.  Christianity is a WE religion, not an I religion.  Our very nature is to be in community.  We are relational as evidenced by Jesus’ great commandment:  “You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Look at the 10 commandments.  After the first four, they are all about being a good neighbor.  That’s community.

I write this as a Christian, and look with dismay at those other supposed Christians who claim we should not spread the wealth.  Jesus taught us to care for each other, to pay our taxes, to live together and seek the best for all.  Taking care of “number 1” is not a Christian value.  Jesus said that even the “gentiles” took care of their families.  To be a Christian means to take care of those who have nothing to offer us.

In short, spreading the wealth is what all taxes are all about, and it sure beats the unChristian practice of concentrating the wealth in the hands of a few, which is what we’ve been doing for the last decade.  Spreading the wealth is also what Christianity is all about, despite those who would make a mockery of Christ by focusing on marginal issues such as homosexuality (about which Jesus said nothing).  So call me a socialist if you will -- I will pay my taxes happily.  But if you want to be more accurate, just call me a Christian.

 

Joe the Plumber - A Sermon

You know who Joe the Plumber is.  He’s the guy who stopped to talk with Barack Obama while he was campaigning in the neighborhood and told him he’d be paying too much tax under Obama.  Joe then hit the big time during the final presidential debate when he was evoked 26 times.  Then, of course, we couldn’t get enough of him and had to discover his real status as a plumber, his real name and his own tax issues.

Poor Joe.

But his fifteen minutes of fame are just about up, and I suspect he’ll be relieved.  What won’t be over is our grousing over taxes.  It’s never over.  Think Boston Tea Party.  Or think today’s Gospel story.

Now, the issue Joe the Plumber brought up in his question to Barack Obama and in subsequent interviews was the fact that he had to pay taxes at all.  This wasn’t the same issue for the Boston Tea Party where they were upset about a particular tax and how it was instituted.  And it wasn’t the issue that started off our Gospel story.

Here, we have Jesus teaching in the temple when he is confronted by a group of people but not just any group.  The Pharisees and the Herodians hate each other.  The Herodians were Jews who felt that the Romans had run Israel for five centuries and weren’t doing a bad job, so they thought they just paid their taxes and get on with their daily lives.

The Pharisees hated the Romans as occupiers, and although they paid their taxes reluctantly, they complained about it.  But both groups hated Jesus even more, so they banded together to trap him.  The way they did was with a lose-lose question.  By asking Jesus if it was right to pay the Roman tax, they were trying to force him into YES or NO answer.  If Jesus said, “No, don’t pay the tax,” the Herodians would go to Roman officials and have Jesus arrested.

If Jesus said, “Yes, pay the tax,” the Pharisees could say, “He’s an appeaser!  He’s for Rome and not for Israel.”  His credibility would be shot.

Only thing is, they didn’t know Jesus.  He gave neither a yes nor a no.  You might say during this political season, “That’s just like a politician, never answering the question.”  But Jesus saw the trap, and he was not going to fall for it.  So he asked a question of his own.  “Whose image is on the coin?”  Caesars.  

You know, of course, that graven images are idolotry to Jews, so to use such coinage was a bitter pill for them.  You should also know that these coins were important to Caesar.  They were his sign of kingship.  AND, by putting his image on the coin, Caesar was claiming ownership of all his coinage.  By law, it all belonged to him.

Jesus takes all this information and wraps it up neatly into one small statement.  “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”  His opponents left, confounded.

Actually, this statement still confounds people.  For example, it raises the question:  “What belongs to God?”  or “What belongs to Caesar / the state / my community?”  In other words, how do I divide up my duties?

In a sense, it’s easy.  What belongs to God is everything.  Nothing exists without God, and nothing can survive without God.  Simple.

Or not.  Because Jesus reminds us that we do not live in a vacuum.  We are not loners.  We are meant to work together, and that means combining our resources to create community.  Back in the 50s, famed biblical scholar William Barclay wrote, “Failure in citizenship is also a failure in Christian duty. … The Christian has a duty to Caesar in return for the priveleges which the rule of Caesar brings to him.”

He talks about roads, schools, police, sewage (I was going to say plumbing but that’s pushing Joe too far).

So the simple point is that we are part of a community -- we are not lone rangers.  Paying our taxes is part of being in the very community that our faith values.  Those who grouse about taxes -- about it being “My Money that THEY are taking from me” are not listening to Jesus.  He says, pay the taxes to be an active participant in your community.  If you’re a citizen, then act like it.

But, he adds, remember your ultimate citizenship.  While the coins may belong to Caesar, and while you belong to an earthly community, in the end, your heart belongs to God.  Joe the Plumber will disappear from the news next week, but the constant struggle over what we owe God goes on.  Jesus doesn’t answer but he trusts us to know.  What we owe to God is our very selves.  Amen.