Chapter 8
Religion and State

"But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." 2 Corinthians 11:12-15

They all look good don't they? Whether you see and hear them on television or in the churches, they all appear righteous. There are many radio stations too that you can hear them on, and you can generously contribute to them all if you wish. I have seen one of them on television, instead of asking for money, asking for a "love gift." What scripture states that love is measured in dollars and cents? They all want money, and the greater the numbers of their flocks, the greater the money. The most successful are quite wealthy. I am speaking of the religious leaders, many of which blend politics with their religion.

"Brother, you say you have not come to get our land or our money, but to enlighten our minds. I will now tell you that I have been at your meetings and saw you collecting money from the meeting. I cannot tell you what the money was intended for, but suppose it was for your minister; and if we should conform to your way of thinking, perhaps you should want some from us."(1) Chief Red Jacket, 1805

Slavery and religion have always been wed to each other. Today is no different. The exceptions to this rule have been rare occurrences. The churches of Medieval times supported slavery.

"The church owned many slaves. Even before the Jesuits began to import Africans to the New World, the church was active in its promotion of slavery. In the fourteenth century Pope Gregory XI thought slavery was justice for those who had struggled against the papacy, and ordered the enslavement of excommunicated Florentines whenever they were captured. And in 1488 Pope Innocent accepted a gift of one hundred Moorish slaves from King Ferdinand of Spain and divided them up among the various cardinals and nobles."(2)

In pre civil war America in the South the churches were one when it came to using scripture to justify slavery. Extensive scriptural arguments were made by highly educated and respected people. In Cotton is King and Pro-Slavery Arguments (1860) - a book of 896 pages - there are 139 pages of Bible arguments in support of slavery by three different men: Albert Taylor Bledsoe, Professor of Mathematics, University of Virginia, 43 pages; The Rev. Dr. Thornton Springfellow, Richmond, Virginia, 60 pages; and the Rev. Dr. Charles Hodge, Princeton, N.J., 36 pages.

Remember, slavery began its development after the first human pair was expelled from the garden. It compliments the imperfection of the human race. The biggest imperfection I would submit is greed for money and power, and slavery satisfies this greed. It has given the disciples of slavery everything they have needed to support their political systems and their wars. Christ's new command to "love one another" was intended to make people think. Even the Rev. Dr. Hodges admitted that "The subject is hardly alluded to by Christ in any of his personal instructions."(3)

Religion today is simply continuing its marriage with the State in conditioning the minds of its flocks to accept all the servitudes the State wants to impose upon the people. As long as the churches condition the minds of their flocks to accept all the servitudes the State wants to impose upon them, then the churches will remain tax exempt, and the religious leaders will live in wealth and comfort. They are one with the media and the press when it comes to conditioning the minds of their flocks to file and pay income tax and pay all other fees that operate upon the people's labor.

Slavery is robbery. It is the denial of the worker of the rights to his or her own labor. It is man's invention under the influence of Satan, who transforms himself into an angel of light so that he and his disciples appear righteous before the people. Money is what was invented to transfer the labor from one person to another. As the Rev. Dr. Springfellow put it, "the slave is the master's money,"(4) and it is the labor of the slave that produces the money. Amen.

When I was in my in my mid-twenty's I began studying the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses. The Witnesses do study the Bible extensively and have three meetings a week. They are also encouraged to participate in the field ministry. I agree that they have proven that some religious doctrines are false, but they are one with the rest of religion when it comes to slavery. They use the same scriptures as the rest of Christendom to justify that Christians should pay all taxes and fees the State demands. But in studying the law I found a Supreme Court case where Jehovah's Witnesses had challenged a certain tax as repugnant to the U.S. Constitution and won in the Supreme Court. But I never knew of this case until I did my own independent legal research. The Witnesses do not encourage you to study the law, but their publications, and none of the publications I have studied of theirs mentions this case.

The case was Murdock v. Pennsylvania, and was decided in the 1942 term of the Supreme Court. Why did the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society challenge this tax when we are supposed to pay Caesar all the taxes he demands? The tax in question was a tax imposed by an ordinance by the city of Jeannette, Pennsylvania that required that "all persons canvassing for or soliciting within said Borough......shall be required to procure a from the Burgess a license to transact said business..." The license fees were: "For one day $1.50, for one week ($7.00), for two weeks ($12.00), for three weeks ($20.00)...." This was a lot of money in 1942. If you made $60 per week you were considered middle class and, because of the Victory Tax of 1942 (which was never repealed after the war), you would have paid around $330 of that in income tax in 1943.(5)

This is a tax that could severely restrict or destroy the door to door activities of the Jehovah's Witnesses if it became widespread, for it would cost the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society a lot of money for the licenses should many cities and towns have such laws or enact them in the future. The lower courts upheld the tax, but the Supreme Court reversed the lower courts by a 5-4 margin. The Witnesses claimed that this tax violated their 1st amendment (freedom of religion) rights under the Constitution. The Court said:

"The power to tax the exercise of a privilege is the power to control or suppress its enjoyment......A state may not impose a charge for the enjoyment of a right granted by the Federal Constitution."

The Constitution still guarantees the right to free labor to all workers by virtue of the 13th amendment, but taxing labor does not effect the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. All of their workers are volunteers. Some full time workers who work in the book factories and on the farms do receive an allowance. It is the common working people who bear the yoke of labor taxation, and conditioning the minds of their flocks to submit to this yoke allows them to maintain their tax exempt status, just like all the rest of Christendom.

This mental conditioning to submit to the yoke has helped destroy many families, and it will no doubt destroy many more until Armageddon puts a stop to it.

"So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24:33-39

1. The Wisdom of the Great Chiefs; New World Library, San Rafael, Ca., 1994, pg. 10
2. Give Me Liberty, by Gerry Spence; St. Martin's Press, N.Y., 1998, pg. 134
3. Cotton is King and Pro-Slavery Arguments; Pritchard, Abbott, & Loomis, Augusta, Ga., 1860, pg. 844
4. Ibid., pg. 476
5. United States News; Oct. 30, 1942 ed., pg. 11

"An inspection of the Brijus sanitarium and later of Zofiowka. I notice in Zofiowka the woman troublemaker who cost us 100,000 zlotys, adult lunatics and children. One child in a straightjacket to prevent self-injury, the face covered with flies. Another one is scratching wounds on his head. A female singer in bed executes some operatic arias: she used to perform in Italy. Other women were playing and singing by the piano; I joined them. Somebody built himself a tombstone in a cemetery with his name carved on it. It is to this address that he would send his creditors." Adam Czerniakow, July 20, 1940 diary entry

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