Christian views on the ethics of tax evasion

Abstract

One hesitates to make general statements about Christian views on anything, given the fact that Christians of various sects have persecuted and even killed each other (not to mention Jews and Muslims) over the centuries because of doctrinal disputes. Nevertheless, I will attempt to make some general statements regarding Christian doctrine on the ethics of tax evasion. The literature on this topic is scant, or at least was scant until recently (McGee 1998). Therefore, I will necessarily be limited in my discussion to some Biblical passages, a few recent articles (Pennock; Schansberg; Gronbacher; Smith and Kimball; McGee 1994a), the views of some Popes, and a doctoral dissertation that was written in the 1940s (Crowe).