Who would Jesus tax?

If you’ve never seen Olympic athletes compete in gymnastics, here’s the next best thing: watching preachers twist and turn around the words of Jesus to make it sound like the poor carpenter’s son thinks rich people are awesome. The best one I ever heard was when a minister explained Jesus’ words about how it would be easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. The pastor said there’s a gate in Jerusalem called the Needle’s Eye and while a camel can fit through it, a rich man would first have to remove his possessions from the camel’s back; then after the camel went through the gate, the rich man could carry his possessions through. Yes, that’s what Jesus meant: a rich man can get into heaven; he just has to carry his own possessions with him and not rely on his camel to help. Olympic judges would undoubtedly reward that preacher with scores of 10s.

While some ministers today are like modern-day prospectors, panning the gospels for gold rather than for the Golden Rule, Jesus supported the poor, not the rich. In Luke, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor…But woe to you who are rich.” In Matthew, Jesus describes what it’ll be like when the Son of Man returns. Those who help the poor will be rewarded; those who don’t will be punished. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me,” Jesus says.

As a chaplain who champions the separation of Church and State, I don’t expect our new governor, Rick Snyder, to follow biblical principles. And I like his idea of “shared sacrifice” to fix Michigan’s fiscal troubles. But like Jesus might be, I’m a little confused. The poor are supposed to give up their Earned Income Tax Credit and the middle class are expected to pay taxes on their pensions, but where’s the shared sacrifice from the rich? I doubt that even a blind man, whose sight was reportedly restored by the man from Nazareth, could see it.

While I’m not an accountant (or a nerd), here’s a proposal to balance Michigan’s budget, inspired by Jesus’ concern for “the least of these.” Our state has a flat income tax rate of 4.35%. Why not lower the rate to 2.35% for those making less than $10,000 a year; leave the rate at 4.35% for those making $10,000 to $100,000 annually; and raise the rate to 6.35% for those making more than $100,000 per year? A graduated income tax rate is good enough for America, so why not for Michigan?

Rather than balance the budget on the backs of the poor and the middle class, this proposal would balance it, metaphorically speaking, by taking a few possessions from the backs of the camels of the rich.