By Alan F.H. Wisdom
“The issue of the time is how much [economic] inequality is tolerable.” So declared the Rev. Christian Iosso, Coordinator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP), at the conclusion of a workshop on “Raising Taxes and Raising Crops.” The workshop, part of the April 5 “Food Justice” conference, was also billed as a report from an ACSWP team commissioned by the 2012 PCUSA General Assembly to study the U.S. tax system.
Iosso’s take on the issue was that, at minimum, current levels of inequality were intolerable. “We’re all experiencing, like the frog in the hot pot, this crazy imbalance of where the money is going in society,” he asserted. “The culture of greed has gone too far.”
The ACSWP coordinator was grim about the state of the U.S. economy and society. “We see the young who have no clear career paths open anymore,” he said. “In a society where there’s no hope of economic mobility for many people, then there becomes a lot of corruption, a lot of cheating.”
In the face of such economic and moral crises, the solution favored throughout the workshop was to raise taxes on the rich. To make this argument, Iosso introduced Dr. Edith Rasell, an economist who holds the position of Minister for Economic Justice in the United Church of Christ (UCC). Rasell, who is also a member of the PCUSA team studying tax policy, asked and answered the question, “Why is progressivity [higher tax rates on higher incomes] better?”
Read more at http://juicyecumenism.com/2013/05/01/pcusa-workshop-study-point-toward-higher-taxes/
2 Comments. Leave new
“The culture of greed has gone too far,” is a very interesting quote in the context of this article, especially since you have stated before that taxing higher levels of income more is basically okay. To me, I see going after wealthy/successful people because of their wealth is in and of itself, the same “culture of greed” of which you refer. Even Christ knew and said that we would always have the poor among us, and in the same breath said to focus on Him. So my question is, do we? Jesus leveled the playing field spiritually, not monetarily, and with the constant barrage of mean-spirited talk toward and about those that are wealthy, I really feel the PCUSA has closed the ears of that demographic and have no voice in matters of faith, which is necessary to change any sinners heart.
Maybe it’s time for the PCUSA to look at where their first love is and closely examine what they do that sends a great mixed message by alienating people of classes that they disagree with. Why would a flat tax, the same rate paid by all individuals, not be something to consider? Maybe even take a good look at the bureaucracy in place in the PCUSA and become an example. As our churches and denominations die, you swallow the camel on morality and strain a gnat on this.
As a long-time Student Pastor, I see the students that are graduating from college that have no clear career paths and can’t find employment, but they aren’t the students I work with. As the Church, we have missed it in the past by supporting degree tracks that lead to zero job skills and zero marketable assets. When I work with graduates we sit and talk about trends in society and where employment is headed according to those trends and then discuss degree paths, something Guidance Counselors no longer have the time to do because of being stretched far too thin.
My charge is that the PCUSA is that proverbial frog that you bring up and has become so much “of” the world that they would rather be on a bandwagon than at the foot of the cross serving ALL people of every ethnicity, background, and income status.
Here is your challenge…How can you serve Donald Trump? If you are truly Christ-honoring, how can you serve the richest among us? It’s not by relieving them of the weight of their money. So how do you represent Christ to all?
I remember such a discussion in a seminary class 30 years ago at Columbia Theological Seminary. When it was suggested the seminaries and the denomination could set the example for all to follow by putting ALL of their salary, housing, etc., into a common fund to be divided equally among all church pastors so all received the exact same dollars, the discussion came to a screeching halt. As a small church pastor on presbytery minimum salary for many years, I’d willingly add my benefits with Rev. Iosso’s benefits and divide the amount equally between us. Wonder how willing she would be??? She could serve as a witness to balance the intolerable level of economic inequality she is concerned about. However, I’m not holding my breath.