This article was originally published by Mennonite World Review

War-tax resisters

I was glad to see the article “MC USA promotes Church Peace Tax Fund” (May 18). But more broadly, I am grateful that there seems to be a renewed emphasis on the historic peace witness of the Mennonite tradition, including war-tax resistance and redirecting of our tax dollars to life-giving activities. The nature of warfare has changed from the past when the military needed our bodies to now needing our dollars to pay for high-tech warfare. So in the same way Mennonites in the past found a way to say no to participating in war through conscientious objection, we now need to do the same with our tax dollars.

We should also note that the War Resisters League estimates that 47 percent of our federal tax dollar is used to finance past, present and future military spending (warresisters.org/resources/pie-chart-flyers-where-your-income-tax-money-really-goes), which is in contrast to the 24 percent estimated by the National Priorities Project quoted in your article.

Richard Yoder
Harrisonburg, Va.

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