I hate government interference. I hate unjust fees, unjust taxes, and the oppression of the underclasses through bureaucratic fines. I hate auto registration fees. I hate use taxes. I hate the confiscation of private lands by the corporation that is the federal government in the name of 'preservation' for the masses -- and the subsequent charging of fees to those masses to allow them to walk in the forest. It strikes me as arrogant elitism to 'preserve' nature for the masses while making it unaffordable to the lower classes to enjoy it. It confines the poor to crappy housing in crowded places, with no view of the sky. But this isn't about that.
I've had friends and family who've gone as missionaries to less law-abiding countries than our own. I've been thinking about the extra money they are forced to carry with them to pay off corrupt officials. To bribe the police not to unjustly jail them. To pay not to be hassled at airports and traffic stops. As much as this annoys me to think of, I've been thinking about the fact that the missionaries are not citizens of those countries. Many of those 'fees' and 'fines' are not legally owed by the missionaries who pay them. But they are the cost of being in those countries -- on a mission. I am not a citizen of earth. I am a citizen of heaven. And while these unjust taxes at times make me boiling mad, the revolt against fees and fines and blood-sucking regulations are not my purpose here on earth. I can be caught up in the fight against them (and in my opinion, I would be absolutely justified), or I can get on with what I'm here for. I can remember I don't LIVE here. I'm only here for a little while. And the City I get to call home isn't like that.
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