‘Rendering unto Caesar’ isn’t a sin

In the Sunday letter from a gentleman identifying himself as a Christian and a conservative, the writer confessed that a small increase in the sales tax of his city may be acceptable. (“Small tax hike will benefit all.”) Not being a resident of Snohomish, I don’t have an ax to grind at this wheel, but I did see this statement as a metaphor for a much larger question concerning our entire nation.

Somewhere along the line, starting around the time of President Reagan, I think, paying taxes in this country became almost un-Christian. Seems that Christ’s instruction to “render unto Caesar” doesn’t apply to the politically inspired faithful of today, many of whom have forgotten that even the Gipper was obliged to raise tax revenues when times got tough.

As a conservative Christian — that is to say, a believer conservative on social issues — I wish to distance myself from those “big C” conservatives who espouse a creed of personal and corporate greed and require a fidelity to such, as though it were somehow a measure of piety. And what did Jesus mean about the camel and the eye of a needle anyway?

Ed Armstrong
Mill Creek