Taxes is not Charity

This past week I read an article in the Daily Breeze that indicated that religious leaders were backing the "tax the rich" proposition in California, and in general support raising taxes to support "social justice" causes. In addition, just this past month I ran into someone that thought it was Ok to be taxed more. PLEASE stop the insanity. Paying taxes is not the same thing as "social justice" and is not the same thing as giving the poor. It may be true that a portion of taxes go to the poor in the form of welfare benefits, etc. But most of it goes elsewhere to fund the police, fire department, teachers, building projects, the deficit, any the many other government departments that have nothing to do with the poor. Combine the fact that taxes are a forced tithe and I don't know why religious leaders would support it. Forced tithes were never in Jesus' play book. Jesus wanted people to give freely. I know that some religions do require tithing, but forcing all Californians to tithe would be wrong in any religion. Charity on the other hand is given freely and more of the funds given to charity actually goes to the needed. When only a portion of taxes actually go to the poor, it should not be equaled to funding charities and addressing social justice issues. When taxes are forced not given freely it is more like robbery then charity. Please stop the insanity. We need to re-educate our religious leaders that charity is Christ like, taxes are not.