Last month, myself and Darryl, as ministers of the Shire Free Church, contributed a check in the amount of over $1,400 to the “City of Keene” for services we value, that are not coercive in nature, such as road maintenance. We specifically left out of the check the amount of money the city was demanding for the government school system.
Instead of sending money to a system based on coercion of our peaceful neighbors, we have chosen to send $1,000 instead to a peaceful school that does business by consent, the Monadnock Waldorf School. People have asked how schools can be funded without the state – it’s easy. One method is to pick the school(s) you like and send them the money the state system would have otherwise taken from you. Let the market decide how money should be distributed, not centralized bureaucracy that gets their funding by threat of stealing homes.
This is not a property tax revolt. Churches and their parsonages are not supposed to pay property tax, even under the state’s system. The city people sent a year-end property tax bill to the home I used to own that I donated this summer to the Shire Free Church, and we used the amount of money demanded on that bill as suggested amounts to calculate what we would actually give for the community services we value.
Whether the people calling themselves “the City of Keene” will recognize the Shire Free Church’s freedom of religion and cease sending property tax bills to the church’s parsonage remains to be seen. We delivered their exemption form (the BTLA-9) to the city assessor this week, as a courtesy, not because we feel the church is in any way obligated to the rules of their coercive system. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.
Yesterday, Darryl W. Perry and I went and paid a visit to the “City of Keene” building and cut them a check for valued services provided, but forbade them from using the money to aggress against peaceful people. Here is a video Darryl shot just after the check was delivered to “the City”:
To our neighbors calling themselves the “City of Keene”:
Greetings! This letter is in response to the letter sent to us on 2013-09-19 by Daniel J. Langille, “City Assessor”. In his letter, Mr. Langille references your society’s statutes (RSAs) and seems to suggest that they somehow apply to the Shire Free Church. The Shire Free Church is not part of your society. Your society is based on coercion, and as a peace church, we cannot be a part of a group that uses coercion against peaceful people. (more…)
I’m a big fan of Dave Ridley‘s work, but he’s got this one wrong. While it’s true that churches aren’t supposed to pay taxes, the Shire Free Church will be making voluntary contributions to the people calling themselves the City of Keene based on which city services the Church ministers find valuable. Nonetheless, Ridley mischaracterizes the Shire Free Church parsonages in Keene as a “tax revolt” in this series of editorial videos from Ridleyreport.com.
Anyone who bothers to read the Shire Free Church page will discover the purpose of the church is to give religious liberty lovers a home, when so many churches today worship “the state” as a god.
Here’s Ridley’s first video critique of the Shire Free Church. In it he initially expresses confusion as to what the house in question is – is it a church or a parsonage? A quick call to me or another minister would have helped clear up his questions. (It’s a parsonage.) Instead, he just editorializes without much in the way of facts or any input from Shire Free Church ministers. He claims that we don’t have the support of neighbors, but he’s never bothered to talk to any of them. I know for a fact that some of the neighbors support liberty activism and others do not.
If you were fortunate enough to catch all of AKPF #1 special protest edition installment Aqua Kommunity Protest Fountain #1, then you had the opportunity to hear a conversation between merry person Garret and AKPF agent Jane regarding free will and predestination. In addition to the privilege of being exposed to complex philosophical positions, this visual piece also offers a window into the state of Robin Hooding and parking enforcement on July 25 2013, when this footage was captured. There’s plenty that could be said on the topic, considering that the concept of determinism was only briefly broached. Keep eyes out for further analysis to be published here. See the 8 1/2 minute illustrated segment embedded below:
Darryl and I delivered the following notice today to the people calling themselves the “City of Keene”. The notice is to inform the city people that 73 and 75 Leverett St. are ministers’ parsonages and that we will no longer participate in their system of coercive taxes. However, we may elect to give them a voluntary contribution to support the city programs (like road repair) that we support:
Notice From the Ministers of the Shire Free Church: Keene
2013-09-02
To our neighbors calling themselves the “City of Keene”:
Greetings!
You are now on notice that as of June 27th, 2013 the property commonly known as 73 and 75 Leverett Street has become ministers’ parsonages for the Shire Free Church.
One of the central tenets of our interfaith ministry is peace. Historically, people calling themselves “The City” or “The State” have engaged in systematic threatening of peaceful people. You have jargon for this, like “taxes,” “statutes,” and “ordinances.” (more…)
This lengthy post is basically a partial biography and tells my story in some detail about my path to liberty and spirituality:
I just can’t do it anymore. I have had enough of paying for this inhumane and insane state system.
It’s more than just a system – “the state” is a belief system and a religion. It is an evil religion that masquerades as though it is good.
Of course, I didn’t always think like this.
I suppose I should start at the beginning. Probably like you, I attended state-run school while growing up. They told me I was “gifted” – a designation that to this day I find ridiculous – so I went to the state school where the other “gifted” students went. School still sucked, but I had no idea how much worse it was at the other schools as I was insulated at the institution that was generally inhabited by the kids of the elite, though there were exceptions, including me. My family were middle class Presbyterians. (more…)
Last month, myself and Darryl, as ministers of the Shire Free Church, contributed a check in the amount of over $1,400 to the “City of Keene” for services we value, that are not coercive in nature, such as road maintenance. We specifically left out of the check the amount of money the city was demanding for the government school system.
