In Illinois, Tax Increases Become an Article of Faith

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Praise the Lord and pass the new progressive tax that will finance public pensions.

By HEATHER WILHELM
Updated April 25, 2014 7:51 p.m. ET

In Illinois—a state plagued by epic budget woes, a pension crisis, byzantine taxes and the nation's second-highest unemployment rate—politics is rarely associated with godliness. Four of the past seven governors, most recently Rod Blagojevich, have been sent to prison. Locals will tell you that corruption is practically a sport. But on April 8 more than 500 Illinoisans showed that they, at least, were keeping the faith.

Donning orange T-shirts reading "Faith in Action," a coalition of religious groups flooded the state capitol in Springfield, singing hymns, shouting "Hallelujah," and praying for higher taxes on the rich. Their goal: replacing the state's long-standing flat income tax with a new, progressive "Fair Tax."

"The gospel tells us that 'For everyone to whom much is given, much will be required,' " Rev. Jason Coulter, a Chicago pastor and board member of the Community Renewal Society (which organized Faith in Action) told me. "I'm called by my faith tradition to speak truth to power when I see injustice being done. And a flat tax is an injustice."

"This is a moral imperative," said Rev. C.J. Hawking, executive director of Arise Chicago, a workers' rights group. "There are over 400 passages in the Bible that talk about God's special concern for the poor. Our current tax system, which favors the wealthy, is so off kilter, so skewed, and so contrary to the vision God has set before us."

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