Welcome to the National Campaign
for a Peace Tax Fund

The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund (NCPTF), based in Washington, D.C., is a not-for-profit organization which advocates for passage of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill (currently H.R. 1921). When enacted, this law will restore the rights of citizens whose conscience does not permit physical or financial participation in all war. Federal taxes of designated conscientious objectors will be placed in a non-military trust fund, enabling these citizens to be free from spiritual bondage, increasing federal revenue, and restoring the balance of government between collective security and non-interference in an individual's free exercise of belief. (More on the purpose of NCPTF.)

Write Your Editor

Want your opinions heard about the Peace Tax Fund in your local town? Contact your newspaper editor and encourage him/her to spread the news about NCPTF and the urgency for a Peace Tax Fund in our Federal Tax System! Our "Write a Letter to an Editor" page can help you with this. 

Letters to Editor Published in Texas News

Texans Andy McKenna and Thad Crouch continue to challenge their Congressional Representative, Lloyd Doggett (TX-25), to sign onto the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill. Both PTF supporters sent letters to their local newspaper and were successful in having them published during the month of June. Response from the Congressman is pending.

Austin American-Statesman (statesman.com)
Your View: Letters to the Editor and Reader Comments
June 2, 2008

Religious freedom, peace and taxes

I commend U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, for his letters ("War on cancer," May 12, and "Opposition to Iraq war," May 19). All elected officials should share his outrage that 50 percent of the federal budget is being wasted on war instead of funding human needs, like cancer research.

So why has Doggett not co-sponsored the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill, HR 1921 (www.peacetaxfund.org)?

This bipartisan civil liberties legislation would allow taxpayers profoundly opposed to killing—because of religious, moral or ethical convictions—to redirect their taxes. The money could fund only nonmilitary programs, and the bill would not jeopardize the military budget or open the so-called "floodgates" to other classes of taxpayers.

Since 1940, conscientious objectors have had the right to do alternative service. Why does Congress deny peaceful taxpayers equal protection under the law? When did tax law trump the First Amendment?

ANDREW McKENNA
peacetax_tx[AT]yahoo[DOT]com
Austin

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As a Catholic, I'd like to see my tax money diverted away from violence, death and torture to better contribute to the common good.

It's sad that in a nation founded on religious freedom, it remains illegal to "love your enemies" while earning a living because the tax code forces all to pay for military spending regardless of religious or conscientious belief.

I served in the U.S. Army to protect our freedoms. I ask Doggett and Congress to also respect religious freedom.

THAD W. CROUCH
thadcrouch[AT]gmail[DOT]com
Austin

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Peace Tax Fund Loses Key Board Member

John Little Randall, who served on the Peace Tax Fund Board for ten years and was currently Vice-Chair, died suddenly April 29, 2008. His deep caring, unique humor, candor and leadership will be missed greatly. Since his retirement from teaching math in a community college, John was increasingly active in his support of the Peace Tax Fund and Conscience and Peace Tax International (CPTI) (new window). He helped his wife Nana-Fosu Randall establish a Montessori school in Kumasi, Ghana, and maintained several websites, including the sites of CPTI (new window), John William Montessori School (new window), Friends of John William Education Center (new window), and Voices of African Mothers (new window). A memorial service was held on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, at Scarsdale Friends Meeting (new window) in Scarsdale, New York. 

New Peace Tax Foundation DVD

The new edition of the Peace Tax Foundation's video, Compelled by Conscience, is now available as a DVD. This 12-minute video is an excellent summary intended for both newcomers and activists. It explains the ideal of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund bill in its historical and current context. Leaders and ordinary people from across the religious and political spectrum explain why there is a need to enable citizens to pay their taxes without violating their conscience. Bonus tracks on the Compelled by Conscience DVD include extended interviews, a video from a similar movement in Canada called Conscience Canada, and a moving NCPTF 35th anniversary concert. The DVD is ideal for sharing with a friend or a church group.

Check out a preview clip from our DVD, Compelled by Conscience (pop-up window). Purchase the DVD from our on-line store.

Church Bulletin Insert Available

A 5.5" x 8.5" two-sided, full-color insert is available for use in church bulletins between February 17th and March 16th, 2008. Beginning with a story of two pastors punished by the IRS for practicing their faith, the piece summarizes the rationale and need for the Peace Tax Fund and encourages readers to craft brief statements of conscience. With preparation, some churches may provide space to reflect and write, and collect these expressions of individual conscience along with regular gift offerings. Download the bulletin insert (PDF format).

Statements of Conscience

Read and create personal expressions of conscience about paying for war:

News

Indiana Congresswoman and Peace Tax Fund Cosponsor Julia Carson Dies at 69.

2008–1–8

Rep. Julia Carson (D-Ind.), the first African- American and the first woman to represent Indianapolis, died of lung cancer December 15, 2007. Carson was an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq. She was also a champion of children's issues, women's rights, and efforts to reduce homelessness.

Carson told National Public Radio correspondent Daniel Zwerdling in a 1996 interview, "My mother dropped out of school when she was in the second grade. She lost her own mother when she was only four years of age—and for someone like me to be able to walk life's journey into the halls of the United States Congress, as an elected member of that body, it's most overwhelming...."

Former Congressman and Peace Tax Fund lead sponsor Andy Jacobs told NCPTF Executive Director Alan Gamble in a January 8 phone call that he lost a good friend, a "jewel," last month. He wrote, "The same praise Carl Sandburg gave to Lincoln—'Look where he came from and look where he went; and wasn't he a kind of tough struggler all his life right up to the finish?'—could, and should, be said of our sister, the late Rep. Julia Carson (D-Ind.), who has passed beyond the sound of our voices into the sunset of her temporal life and into a dawn of history."

Representative Carson was an avid and consistent supporter of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund, one of the original sixteen who introduced H.R. 1921 in April 2007. The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund mourns with her family and those inside and outside of Indiana's 7th district whose interests she represented. Gamble encourages Peace Tax Fund supporters to advocate for liberty of conscience and belief with the vigor and courage embodied by Ms. Carson. Nominations for her vacant seat will occur January 12-13, with a special election scheduled for March 12, 2008.

Read and/or listen to more on Rep. Carson by clicking on the National Public Radio (new window) or Wikipedia (new window) story.

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