Once a year Americans have a unique opportunity to celebrate together a day that is like no other. It is a day where they can willingly and generously give a portion of the earnings from their very own hard work to somebody else. The night before, they think long and hard about how much they need to give, because they certainly want to do the right thing and serve their fellow man. Long hours of extra time and energy are put into calculating the very minute details of the past year of their lives, simply in order to know how much of it they must give to others as their patriotic duty to mankind. In the morning, after the mathematical hangover and all the forms have been filled out, Americans rush to the Post Office to send in their money to the government, gleefully celebrating the entire way.

Does this scene represent your view of tax day? If it does, you must be a government worker, a hard core progressive, or simply out of touch with reality. Whether you feel good about your contribution of taxes or not, the reality is, you must do so at the metaphorical point of a gun. You are not doing this voluntarily any more than you would voluntarily hand over your wallet to a thief at gunpoint. If you were doing so voluntarily, there would be no consequences for not paying them.

Most people do their taxes out of fear. Some people do it out of patriotic duty (see above description of those people). Others, like myself, do it because it is a peaceful and nonviolent way to resist coercion. Jesus shrugged off Caesar’s property, in effect saying, “If they want to label that as Caesar’s, give it to him.” So paying taxes is not wrong; in fact, it’s a part of life. But it is not the least bit “voluntary.” It is coercive. To believe otherwise is to deny reality.