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I’ve been thinking more about this tension between Freedom of Speech and Separation of Church and State. We can toss about our ideals for Total World Domination by the Church or Elimination of Every Last Vestige of Unnessary Government Beaurocracy, but the fact is that we have a government, and it taxes us, and we have to fit churches into that framework. Tomorrow may bring a new day, but this story is about what do to today when the IRS’s hired thugs show up in the church narthex asking for a tithe rather than giving it.

It seems important to first establish the fact that church and politics can never be entirely separated. We vote our consciences, and church informs those same consciences - often profoundly. That a church might think that abortion is murder should come as no surprise. That a church might want to discourage its members from voting for a proponent of abortion should also come as no surprise. Voting is not an amoral act, and what with all the talk of “duty” and this being an historic period in America, is it proposterous to even pretend that it could be. No: voting is moral, and Christians believe that God will judge their votes on the last day. Nor is voting an individual act that occurs in a vacuum. It is an act of community that influences community, and as such should be informed by community as well. And my pastor, as the head of that community and a dispenser of wisdom, should be allowed to shape the political sphere of my life as he does any other.

So what do we do? The government believes that freedom from taxation is a privilege, not a right. So do our churches surrender their moneys to Uncle Sam? Does a tithe of my tithe fund Planned Parenthood?

The answer, I think, can be found all the way back at the Boston Tea Party. What we were worked up over then, and what we should be worked up over now, isn’t taxation. It’s taxation without representation. The argument from privilege presumes that the government has a right to tax, and to tax everybody, but that isn’t true. The State’s ability to tax us is a privilege - with an onus of representation - and it is a privilege very much misunderstood in our society today. If I’m forking money over to the government, I’d better have a say. The argument that lesbians would not want to subsidize a church that might stone them cuts both ways.

One might argue that if a church chooses representation - by voting from its pulpit - then the government may tax it, and no charge of “taxation without representation” applies. If they exercise the privilege to avoid taxation, they must forfeit their representation. But therein lies the problem. The right for the government to tax is assumed, and suddenly eclipses a more basic right to representation. We are told that we must forfeit certain rights - representation - to avoid the penalties of a more basic right - that of the State to tax. The assumptions are all mixed up.

This is difficult because “representation” is easy to equivocate, but that is a product of the system itself. We don’t even know what representation means anymore. The nuance in the word “Republic” has been forgotten. How, in a system where church and state are to be separate, do we propose that a church is to be represented? How, in a system where the government collects our moneys to be distributed as it pleases, can differing religions make sure their money talks the way they want it to? How can a church be “represented” when it is silenced at schools, or when its 10 most basic beliefs are removed from the walls of courthouses throughout the nation? Does each denomination get a Senator? Does the Speaker of the House have to wear a Mitre now? It seems that the government, in order to protect our right to representation, shouldn’t tax our churches at all. Nor should it give money to them. Separate means separate. Taxation and coercion ultimately restrict our freedoms of speech and religion, two of the rights held most dear in this nation.

So we return to the very basic premise from the episode, this time from a different direction. If Church and State really are to be separate, why is money changing hands? If the government can’t represent us, why are they charging us? Hey! Politicians! Leave those churches alone.

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