Taxes! If ever there was a word in any human language that could immediately command an audience’s attention, that is the word guaranteed to waken even the most dullard sleepyhead.
The Rev. Johnny A. Phillips
School students are familiar with the history of the Boston Tea Party and the hate Americans have for “taxation without representation,†but its extensive history is even more curious.
In Kansas, a tethered hot air balloon can be taxed, while in South Carolina one can receive a tax deduction for contributing a deer carcass.
In Denmark, citizens must pay a tax of $110 for each cow they own, and until 2002 bribery was actually legal in Germany, where its amount could be charged off as a business expense. In Sweden, new parents who fail to obtain governmental approval for their baby’s name must pay a tax. Step across our northern border and you will find that Canadian companies packaging cereal are given a tax break if they include a toy in the cereal box.
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Peter the Great (Tsar Peter I of Russia) in 1698 introduced a tax for men sporting beards. It seems that Peter viewed his own nation as culturally and economically backward and desired to bring them into the Industrial Age. He was not wrong! Russians, sociologically speaking, were the descendants of the Vikings and had for generations reveled in their caveman mentality as well as continued an economic system based upon the European feudal social structure that was being quickly surpassed by the Industrial Age.
As large and populated as it was, Russia was not a world power.
Peter wanted to change that. To do so, he discouraged every outward display of the old culture and encouraged the Russian population to accept the appearance of the prevailing European model. Beards had to go. However, as all who attempt to alter human behavior learn quickly, humans resist change. His police roamed the streets forcefully shaving the non-adherents and levied an extravagant tax upon those who were willing to pay. Eventually, under Catherine the Great, the tax was lifted.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Russian Orthodox Church, who normally are among the most fervent supporters of the Kremlin, was his most ardent detractor, and its position was based upon tradition and scripture. In the church’s religious culture, beards were emblematic of masculinity whereas a clean-shaven face indicated arrogance (similar to the beard necessity of Amish men where it is a sign of humility, but the inclusion of a mustache is equated with flaunting one’s attractiveness). Church leaders interpreted the Tsar’s action as a deterrent to their religious expression.
We Americans have long toyed with the concept of religious toleration. Long before the United States Constitution was written, various faiths arrived here because they could not worship in Europe as they believed. Continuing to this day, we have dealt with issues of Sunday blue laws, the inclusion of “one nation under God†in the Pledge of Allegiance, the election of a Catholic president and the words “One nation under God†on our coinage.
We have yet to discover a solution to the conundrum that virtually any legal action taken to allow one person’s religious expression will almost certainly to be seen by another as forcing unwanted religion upon them.
We are all familiar to some degree with some who would impose conformity of their religious values or behaviors on others — what days of the week to conduct business, in which political party to register, what language to speak — but it seems that such an attitude is, using the words of Jesus, “omitting the weightier matters of the law.†The true evidence of Godliness is not found in any outward token of religiosity, but, as Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control†are the fruits of the spirit.
