Tao te Ching V

When Taxes are too high,
people go hungry.
When the government is too intrusive,
people lose their spirit.

Act for the people's benefit.
Trust them; leave them alone. -Tao te Ching

Romans 13:6 "Therefore you must be subject not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor."

We know, and we're experiencing, what every government, every time, does. They violate this principle of the Tao. Governments take and take not matter what ideology they espouse. St Paul says we should pay anyway, for two reasons. Wrath: if we don't, we get punished. For conscience sake: God created government like everything else. Christians should pay their taxes even if there's no punishment. I have to wonder what to do when government gets too intrusive. No matter, in this country, what your income level is, after all your fuel, point of sale, property, fees, and hidden taxes, forty to fifty percent of what we make goes to government. Then they spend and spend and spend and force us to pay more and more and more. When does it stop? Could you give more to charity if you had to give less to government? Could you take better care of your family? Would it be less of a struggle to tithe? Easier to give offerings? (For those not familiar with the difference between tithing and offering, an offering is what we give beyond our 10% tithe.) Paul and Jesus both, said give it to them, even if there's no punishment for not doing so. Where's the breaking point? Historically, rebellions begin when taxation is in the twenty - thirty percent range. This country is way beyond that. Even this isn't as bad as what they had to put up with from the Romans. Being a slave, and taxed? That's serious. Peter, in the Acts, said "We ought to obey God rather than men." That then must be the breaking point for Christians, when the government starts forcing us to disobey God, then we start denying them money, and become disobedient. That will take a lot of discernment.