If My Government Funds Abortions, Why Pay Taxes?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - We are back again with John Piper
00:00:07.400 | and a podcast listener named Kevin writes in to ask this.
00:00:10.400 | Pastor John, in light of everything happening
00:00:12.120 | with Planned Parenthood,
00:00:13.840 | how do I faithfully give to Caesar what is Caesar's
00:00:16.720 | when that money is clearly being used to kill babies?
00:00:20.800 | We make our disapproval known by speaking out
00:00:23.120 | and calling for the end of abortion,
00:00:25.040 | but what about our tax dollars
00:00:26.520 | that continue to fund abortion?
00:00:29.480 | Pastor John, how would you guide Kevin
00:00:31.000 | in thinking through this?
00:00:32.240 | - Let me mention a principle that guides me
00:00:36.800 | and then secondly, my practice and why
00:00:41.760 | and third, an uncertainty that I have.
00:00:45.960 | The principle is that responsibility
00:00:49.040 | for sharing in another person's sin, like the government,
00:00:54.040 | rises and falls with how much we know
00:01:00.120 | and intend to be part of the cause of that sin.
00:01:05.040 | So if you're a janitor in a giant corporation
00:01:09.520 | of 10,000 employees and the CEO
00:01:12.560 | in the upper level management team have been found
00:01:15.560 | to have cheated customers for the last five years
00:01:19.160 | in an elaborate scheme of deception,
00:01:21.720 | then you in your role as janitor would, I think,
00:01:26.200 | not bear any guilt for that action,
00:01:30.080 | even though you are contributing
00:01:32.560 | to the existence of that company.
00:01:35.920 | But if you're an administrative assistant
00:01:37.920 | to one of those upper level managers
00:01:41.360 | and you figured out what they were doing along the way
00:01:45.200 | and said nothing, you'd be guilty.
00:01:47.880 | The Bible makes a distinction, I think,
00:01:51.040 | between intentional evil and accidental
00:01:55.720 | or unknowing participation in evil.
00:02:00.240 | For example, Moses writes about these refugee cities,
00:02:05.240 | the cities of refuge.
00:02:06.600 | He says, "If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally
00:02:10.600 | "without having hated him in the past,
00:02:13.960 | "as when someone goes into the forest
00:02:15.800 | "with his neighbor to cut wood,
00:02:17.480 | "then his hand swings the ax to cut down a tree
00:02:19.960 | "and the head slips from the handle
00:02:21.480 | "and strikes his neighbor so that he dies,
00:02:24.160 | "he may flee to one of these cities and live."
00:02:29.160 | So the innocent man was not intending to kill his friend.
00:02:34.200 | In fact, he had no intention to sin at all.
00:02:38.680 | And in that sense, he had no plan
00:02:41.920 | and was ignorant of the harm that was about to happen.
00:02:46.080 | And that lack of knowledge and lack of intention
00:02:49.600 | is morally significant.
00:02:51.600 | That's my principle.
00:02:53.800 | So my principle is not identical to that,
00:02:56.040 | but it's built on that.
00:02:58.440 | If you have no intention to participate in a sin
00:03:01.520 | and if your part in causing it is so remote,
00:03:06.720 | like this janitor, and so distant as to be negligible,
00:03:10.640 | then you're not guilty.
00:03:12.320 | So there's the principle.
00:03:13.640 | Now here's my practice and why.
00:03:18.400 | I pay my taxes to the American government,
00:03:20.800 | have for 50 years, no, 45 years.
00:03:25.120 | And my reason is first,
00:03:27.360 | the Bible says that this is one of the rights of the state
00:03:31.320 | to collect taxes to fund its duties.
00:03:34.120 | So Romans 13,
00:03:36.040 | "Let every person be subject to governing authorities,
00:03:39.200 | "for there is no authority except from God
00:03:41.280 | "and those that exist have been instituted by God.
00:03:44.200 | "He is God's servant for your good,
00:03:47.680 | "for because of this, you also pay taxes," verse six,
00:03:52.680 | "for the authorities are ministers of God
00:03:54.720 | "attending to this very thing.
00:03:56.160 | "Pay to all what is owed them,
00:03:58.560 | "taxes to whom taxes are owed,
00:04:00.600 | "revenue to whom revenue is owed,
00:04:02.920 | "respect to whom respect is owed,
00:04:04.880 | "honor to whom honor is owed."
00:04:07.200 | So I think it's fair to say that when this was written,
00:04:10.360 | the Roman Caesar did not use all of that money
00:04:15.240 | for actions Christians would have approved of.
00:04:18.280 | So that's my first reason for why I pay taxes
00:04:21.760 | to a government that has lots of policies
00:04:24.240 | that I would probably change.
00:04:26.480 | A second reason is I think we should keep on paying taxes,
00:04:31.480 | whether we approve of all of the expenditures or not,
00:04:35.720 | because we're giving to a general fund
00:04:38.800 | and we're not able to put our taxes
00:04:43.040 | into specific purposes or funds.
00:04:46.080 | If we were, if that were the situation in which we lived,
00:04:49.400 | I can give an abortion tax
00:04:51.160 | and I can give a social security tax
00:04:53.280 | and I can give a military tax
00:04:54.800 | and I can give a welfare tax and so on,
00:04:56.900 | then I think we would be bound to withhold the money
00:05:00.960 | from the abortion tax, but we don't.
00:05:03.800 | It's not operated like that.
00:05:06.800 | Tax dollars are spent according to how the government wishes
00:05:10.760 | and we don't get to determine that directly.
00:05:13.880 | So we would pursue, and I think God would hold us
00:05:16.720 | accountable to pursue other ways
00:05:19.440 | to change the government's decisions
00:05:21.640 | about where to spend the money.
00:05:23.840 | So my practice is, yes, I keep on giving money to government
00:05:28.840 | that is funding abortion.
00:05:32.600 | Now here's my uncertainty.
00:05:34.160 | When does a government forfeit its rightful claim
00:05:39.860 | to fulfill what God says is his purpose for government,
00:05:44.860 | namely to punish those who do evil
00:05:47.980 | and reward those who do good, 1 Peter 2.14.
00:05:51.020 | There are two issues here.
00:05:54.800 | One is when it might be right
00:05:57.120 | to simply withhold your support
00:05:59.640 | and the other more aggressively,
00:06:01.520 | when might it be right to overthrow the government
00:06:03.920 | like America did with the tyranny of Britain?
00:06:07.520 | And that's my uncertainty.
00:06:09.000 | I'm not sure where that line is.
00:06:12.180 | In fact, I tremble at the possible necessity
00:06:16.100 | of making that decision some day.
00:06:18.880 | There are so many factors, it seems to me,
00:06:21.120 | that would go into such a choice,
00:06:23.920 | just as there are a lot of factors
00:06:25.720 | that go into determining what a just war is.
00:06:28.840 | So I would encourage Kevin and all of us
00:06:31.800 | to immerse ourselves in God's word
00:06:35.000 | and think about these things
00:06:36.340 | and pray earnestly for our nation and for ourselves.
00:06:40.080 | We don't know what's coming.
00:06:41.760 | - No, we sure don't.
00:06:42.780 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:06:43.740 | And thank you for the excellent question, Kevin.
00:06:46.480 | To send John Piper a question
00:06:48.060 | or to download the podcast apps
00:06:49.960 | or for really anything you might need to know
00:06:51.780 | related to this podcast,
00:06:53.160 | go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:06:57.900 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:06:58.740 | I'll see you tomorrow.
00:06:59.800 | (whooshing)
00:07:02.140 | (upbeat music)
00:07:04.720 | [BLANK_AUDIO]