Posted on behalf of and with the permission of Jim Burklo (Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California)

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The Blessing Of Our Taxes

By Jim Burklo

Every Sunday in worship, we offer a blessing for our pledges and offerings we make to our church.  It's a prayer of hope that what we give will be well-spent for the mission of our congregation, within and beyond the walls of our sanctuary.  It's a prayer that expresses our covenant with each other, and with the Spirit that unites us, to work for the common good to which we are divinely called.

As strong as our love for each other may be, as warm and close as relationships are among our people, there is probably no single person in the congregation who would agree with the way that every last dollar of our offerings is spent.  Nonetheless, at the end of the offertory prayer spoken by the lay leader in worship, the "amen" speaks for us all.  Our church (Mt Hollywood UCC in Los Angeles) is a little democracy.  We trust that the collective will of our people is striving to align with the divine as we make our financial decisions.  We know we're far from perfect in that quest.  All the more reason for us to pray a blessing on our gifts to the church, and celebrate the blessing that follows from them.

Likewise, in the much bigger democracy of our nation, we are blessed to have representation in the process of our taxation.  We are blessed with the freedom to be citizen activists pushing for the best use of the taxes we pay.  We are blessed also by the benefits funded by our taxes: schools, roads, sewers, public health services, income support for elderly and disabled and vulnerable people, national defense.  Taxes make civilization possible.  We pay tax to the government, but in a democracy, we are the government.  So we're really paying ourselves to take care of our shared tasks.  To be sure, we often disagree with exactly how taxes should be spent, or how much tax should be paid and by whom.  But given the many blessings that flow from them, it is good that we offer a blessing in return.

Over the past thirty years, there has been a well-organized, brilliantly-executed political media campaign by conservatives to demonize taxes.  One need look no further than the presidential State of the Union address to see how successful it has been.  Our President felt compelled to brag about how he had accomplished so much without raising taxes on anybody by "a single dime".  This was after he outlined the disastrous consequences of deficit spending over the last decade.  Not raising taxes has become a dogma adopted by both major political parties in this country, and few have the nerve to challenge it.  Want to go to war?  Go deep into hock, but don't breathe the idea of raising taxes to pay for it.  Want to bail out the banks?  Go ahead and mortgage your grandchildren's future to fund it.  To suggest that it be paid for with increased taxes on anyone, even on those who could easily afford a tax increase, would be considered political suicide.  Conservative leaders have made a breathtakingly cynical effort to bankrupt the government so that it will be forced to withdraw from providing a basic social safety net for our people.  The strategy has worked all too well. 

It's far past time to "re-frame" the political discourse in this country.  It's time to change the way we think about taxes. It's time to do for taxes exactly what we do for our offerings to the church, and bless them while praying for guidance about how best to spend them. 

A few years ago, I wrote such a blessing – this prayer is reproduced at the end of this article. It is a prayer for use by faith community leaders to give thanks for the blessings that come through our taxes.  It also prays for wisdom and for citizen action to see to it that our taxes are spent best for the common good.  In 2005, I proposed to churches that they invite their members to bring their tax forms to worship, lay them on the altar, and have the pastor offer this kind of blessing on them.  This event happened at a small number of congregations around the U.S., including the one I served at the time.

If taxes are being blessed in churches, temples, and other houses of worship all over America, it demonstrates that people of faith consider taxes to be fundamentally good, even if we might differ respectfully about exactly how they are spent.  Such a ceremony, conducted all over the country, would do much to re-unite Americans around our divine calling to take care and protect each other, especially those most vulnerable, through our democratic process.

National Tax-Blessing Event: On April 11 this year, the Sunday before our IRS forms are due, let's see if we can get this to spread around the country in a much bigger way.  Progressive Christians Uniting - www.pcu-la.org - is planning to organize a national tax-blessing event on that weekend, mobilizing congregations to participate and getting media attention for what they are doing.  (I now serve on PCU's board of directors.)  If your congregation plans to do a "blessing of the taxes", let me know, and let me know how you plan to do it.  If you have suggestions about how to make this a meaningful and significant event, please let me know, also, so I can pass along your suggestions to PCU.  You may reach me at my website – http://www.jimburklo.com/.

***** A Prayer At Tax Time *****

Dear God, bless my taxes! Give me peace of mind as I struggle to fill out the forms and determine the right amounts I should be sending to Washington and Sacramento. Keep me calm, I pray, as I write out those fat checks on April 15. And whisper a reminder to me, Lord, of all the good reasons that I send my money to my government every year.

Remind me of the fact that I could not write this prayer if I had not received an excellent tax-subsidized education - my parents couldn’t have afforded fancy private schools or colleges. Gently show me that the Internet, through which I send this prayer to others, was created with taxpayer dollars. Help me to recall that my freedom to pray as I wish was purchased with the lives of soldiers and the tax payments of other citizens who defended liberty before I was born. Reveal to me, Lord, in my mind’s eye, the roads and the airports, the water systems, the magnificent parks and wilderness areas, the public health workers, the regulators of the environment and of commerce, the scientists, and all the other people and things that my taxes make possible. They provide safety and comfort, protect natural resources, and enable capitalism to flourish for the benefit of all. Remind me of how hard and scary life was for the sick and elderly before citizens paid Social Security taxes and received its benefits. Show me, dear One, just how expensive, difficult, and unpleasant life would be for me and everyone else without all the services and protections that are funded by my tax payments.

Dear Lord, remind me that, in fact, for all the good things that I and others receive back from our government, my tax payments are a bargain. Take me out of my selfishness and give me a spirit of gratitude as I write those tax checks. Inspire me to see that this is a sacred duty, and is a way that I serve others who are vulnerable, poor, or sick, and are especially dependent on public assistance.

O dear One, there are so many ways I wish my taxes could be spent differently. There are many things I don’t like about what my government is doing, there are ways that the tax system could be made more fair, and there are many important things the government leaves undone. I’m willing, O Lord, to pay even more in taxes if it would work for the common good: it could save us all even more money and trouble, in the end.  So, more than ever, dear God, give me the strength and the vision to rise up and take action as a voter, pressing my government to act for peace and justice at home and abroad. My sacred duty as a citizen is only partly fulfilled as I write my tax checks. I ask for your guidance, God, as I join with others to change the priorities and values of our government, so that they reflect more of what we see of your will.

May your blessing rest on my Form 1040 this next week, dear Lord, and may my taxes well serve you and my fellow citizens! Amen.