“A biblical worldview is not seen in a reluctance to pay high taxes. Rather, a biblical worldview is seen when we understand why there are high taxes.” Douglas Wilson

In October 1999, Canon Press published a book written by Douglas Wilson titled The Paideia of God and Other Essays on Education, which has a chapter titled “A Brief Statement Against Vouchers.”

Lawful taxation occurs when the civil government levies a tax to pay for those things that God requires it to do. The civil magistrate is God’s deacon, as Paul teaches in Romans 13, and is assigned to punish the wrongdoer and reward the righteous. When they are about their assigned business, that costs money, and Christians should be eager to pay their taxes. But when they abandon their assigned duties, and begin to reward the evildoer and punish the righteous, that taxation becomes theft. This essay is not calling for tax revolt — a refusal to pay taxes because I am being stolen from. Rather, the point is that we should stop clamoring for yet another program that would require the government to steal still more. The reason we are stolen from is that we are thievish at heart; God judges us according to how we treat others. The measure we use is measured to us. I pay exorbitant taxes because somewhere, someone else is yelling for a program. If we start yelling for a program, it hardly looks like repentance.

I should not be willing to receive a voucher for the education of my children because it is not right for the magistrate to threaten another man with prison time to make him willing to pay for the education of my children. To this the reply might be made that the recipient of the voucher pays taxes too. Right, but if each taxpayer only received out what he paid in, the system would collapse. The system works because everyone comes to it hoping to get more than what they paid in; that is, they come with theft in their hearts.

When the government is involved in the redistribution of wealth, the government is stealing. When the citizenry calls for the government to redistribute some wealth, the citizenry is aiding and abetting that theft. We see this principle clearly when it comes to food stamps, welfare checks, and so forth. We just do not see it when we might get something. (Douglas Wilson, The Paideia of God and Other Essays on Education [Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 1999] 35)

Douglas Wilson wrote this at the same time he committed tax evasion by claiming a 501(c)(3) exemption for Canon Press, his for-profit enterprise. Three years later the Kirk purchased a new building in downtown Moscow and had to apply for tax exemption. This time the appellants bore false witness under oath to achieve their goal. Doug Wilson did this at the taxpayers’ expense.

And if Douglas Wilson pays “exorbitant taxes,” it’s not because “we are thievish at heart.” It’s because he is a thief at heart.