Editorial

In Indianapolis, in February, a most troubling thing happened. Or was it? Indianapolis Baptist Temple, an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church was taken over by federal agents for back taxes. The taxes amounted to over 6 million dollars and after a 92 day stand-off in which the congregation prayed, the church buildings, properties and were confiscated by the feds. The pastor, Greg Dixon, refused to leave and was carried out on a stretcher, crying " Forgive them , Lord, they know not what they do".

On the surface, it would seem an outrage of religious freedoms betrayed. Neither Church nor Synagogue in this country was ever supposed to be taxed; not in their buildings and properties; not in the wages of pastors or employees, rabbis or sextons, or services. When the social security laws were implemented, it was made clear that religious institutions were to remain free and under their own governance in order to maintain the autonomy and freedom of religion in this country.

That First Amendment freedom though, did not prevail over the years, and now churches are unconstitutionally required to pay taxes and social security benefits and take out federal income tax from its employees if they cannot prove legal exemption. It is indeed a serious encroachment on religious freedom..

Greg Dixon's Church was well-known for its tax protesting stance. What it was less well known for is soul-chilling. Indianapolis Baptist Temple over the past 20 years has become a mainstay and stronghold of the patriot and militia movement. At regularly held meetings, one has only to walk out in the church lobby and see massive amounts of literature espousing raw anti-semitic and white aryan cause. Neo-nazis and White Aryans need not to have felt uncomfortable there. Their causes were championed and even preached from the pulpit.

I cannot help but see an irony here. Their cause of religious freedom is a right one. Our churches and synagogues need to stay free, even from taxation. But there is another tragic coincidence: 6 million dollars for Greg Dixon to pay: 6 million souls who had to pay in the holocaust or shoah for the bitter cost of the distorted doctrine and gospel which he espoused to promote his religious views.

Tables and tables of anti-semitic literature, and years and years of anti-semitic rhetoric in the shadow of a cross where a Jewish Savior died, for his first love, Israel. I am a proponent of religious freedom ; more than most. But if Greg Dixon and the Indianapolis Baptist Temple are troubled over the Lord allowing their Church to be taken, seemingly against his promises, they should be more troubled at the irony of the judgment in a macabre reminder of real Jewish lives lost at the hands of those who held the same philosophies, prejudices and hatred, and tried to use a gospel of love and surrender to God as the vehicle for that hatred.

I am not Jewish nor am I a liberal mainline Christian. I am what most would consider a fundamental Christian; I believe the Bible is the Word of God and I have counted that cost in my own life. I have also seen how many who call themselves fundamentalists are really not: they are fundamental only when it suits their purposes: it takes many forms.

IN looking at the events that happened, now several years ago; I find that there are two opposing issues, adding confusion to the issues of Liberty. One is that Dixon is notable and noble in his stand against the Federal Government's encroachment on the independence of the Church. He is among the few who have rightly stood for non-registration, non-incorporation of the Church or other religious bodies. The intent of the separation Laws were always clear, and they are very difficult to stand up against today. These were the same issues for which John Bunyan [author, Pilgrim's Progress] was imprisoned. To live in a society though, where we have the utter liberty in our Churches not to be taxed, and to recognize the difference in "Kingdoms"¹ we have also the responsibility of giving others that same liberty. True belief in Christ, the "King of the Jews" cannot include the trashy bigotry engendered by a Church which would go to war if they were accused of the things the accuse the Jews of. The Church must be free, the church must be responsible. The Church must have liberty, the church must give liberty. The Church must stand for Freedom, as Dixon and the Indianapolis Baptist Temple did, but the Church must do it in utter Love. The judgment God allowed, was on the one hand, even illegal, and on the other hand, chastisement for a Church that had walked too far away from His first Love: the Jewish Nation.

I have come to love the Jewish People because of a Jewish Messiah; something Jewish folks may find offensive because of the harm done to them in his name. But I know also, that anti-semitic views have no place in the gospel of Jesus Christ when it is understood from the heart; it was meant to redeem from death; it was meant also to change hearts and Jesus died with Israel on his heart; it was primarily them he loved with heart , soul, spirit and his Life. The Scriptures , Greg Dixon refused to yield to were the ones in Romans 9 through 12 where we are admonished never to take the Jews lightly or in disrespect or lack of love; to boast not against the branches.

Real Beliefs have real effects in the world. The Confiscation of the property of Indianapolis Baptist Temple provides a serious confusion of issues. Freedom should stand even to repugnant views such as theirs; but if utter justice is not found in our legal system, it is found indeed in the justice of God.

Elizabeth Kirkley Best, PhD