Tax reformer cites Christian theology
Susan Hamill charges that poor Americans are taxed unfairly
- and the Bible tells us so
05:31 PM CDT on Friday, April 30, 2004
By JEFFREY WEISS/
The Dallas Morning News
“ Susan Pace Hamill may seem an unlikely populist. ““ Her premise, simply put: A religiously conservative, Christian reading of the Bible and New Testaments mandated a change in the Alabama tax code, because the code disproportionately taxed the poor without raising enough money to provide basic services. ““ She is confident that she succeeded. Many passages in the Bible insist that poor people be treated fairly and that the government should act justly, she said. So if the government is acting unjustly toward the poor through the tax code, that's unbiblical, she said."It's not anywhere near liberation theology or other theologies that are often discounted by evangelicals," she said. "It can't be marginalized as some kind of liberal left-wing nonsense that doesn't apply to us. It does apply to us. If you are a Bible-believing Christian, within a conservative/evangelical kind of thought, you can't argue with what I've done," she said. ““ Charity and beneficence are theologically mandated, she said, but so is justice. And by her reading, the current tax codes – in Alabama, Texas and many other states – are biblically unjust. “" All the theology in the world isn't going to help you if the people feel they're being lied to."
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