Today I began to understand why the proposed new tax law disturbs me so much.  Simply stated, it is sin enshrined in law and all of us are accountable for it.  I’ll use the bill recommended by the Senate Finance Committee to show you what I mean.  All of the other versions have similar effects.

The politicians and wealthy donors who support the bill will walk away with the money and leave the rest of America holding the new debt that pays for it – about $18,400 for a family of four – in just the first decade of the law.  The tax CUT for the wealthiest Americans will be bigger than the TOTAL INCOME of 80 percent of families.

Passing this bill while corporate profits, stock values and cash balances are at record highs and while middle class Americans are struggling to get by and while the poor can’t properly feed and educate their children…that seems sinful to me.

Sin has lots of definitions and I’ll take the liberty of using my own.  Sin is any conscious action which separates you from that which is good – your own understanding of  “God”, “Creation” or the rest of humanity.  Although we may have differing religious or spiritual beliefs, that understanding of sin seems consistent with all of them.

An important observation about sin – we’re aware that we’re doing something wrong, but we do it anyway.  That’s exactly where we’re headed with this tax law.  It will place an unjust burden of debt on poor and middle-class Americans to benefit the wealthiest among us.  How many of the bill’s supporters know in their consciences that it’s wrong, but will quietly allow it because their donors and political tribe expect that?  This bill is a conscious action that separates us from what is good – the very definition of sin.

As I pondered these troubling thoughts, I looked to values that I’ve known since childhood.  So have most readers.  And if we’ve thought at all deeply about those values we can see them reflected in all Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.  If we expand our awareness to include Buddhist, Native American, other religions – even Atheist teachings, we find similar values and a similar concept of “sin”.  We know that it separates us from what is good and we do it anyway.  I’m going to quote some scripture, because this seems to be a time when we are in particular need that sort of wisdom.

Leviticus 23:22  “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field to its very border, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger:  I am the Lord your God.”

In Matthew, Chapter 25:34-46 Jesus describes the Creator-King welcoming followers with these words, “…for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”  …  “Truly, I say to you, that as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”  Then he proceeded to condemn those who did not help the least of their brethren.

There it is for all to see – what better example of sin than burdening our poorest citizens with debt in order to enrich the wealthiest?  Those who quietly consent to the passage of this law are complicit in the sin.

Mark 12:38-39 “Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and to have salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers.  They will receive the greater condemnations.”

It is necessary to instruct our representatives.  “Don’t do this sinful thing in our names!”