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Untitled Article
tvas likely to be touched with any qualms of conscience . With what face can the clergy of that Church demand the continuance of imposts which even their owri laity declare to be impolitic , unjust , and anti-Christian ! We now place before our readers a copy of the Declaration as printed in the Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier for Saturday , Jan . 7 , when it was still in course of signature .
Declaration for the Voluntary Support of Religion . * We , the Undersigned Parishioners of the Parish of Christ Church , in the City of Cork , thinking it both our duty and interest , voluntarily to support our own several Churches , desire to be unaided , and uninterfered with , by Government ; and also Declare , that no man should be compelled to contribute to religious purposes , under which denomination Tithes , Church Rates , and Minister ' s Money are now imposed on the People of Ireland , which sytem we protest against , as impolitic , unjust , and anti-Christian .
' We consider constrained Taxes for Religion " impolitic , " because Religion itself is charged with the iniquity attending the levy of Church Taxes , and men are offered the ** perfect law of liberty" associated with the tyranny of Church Rate Collectors and Tithe Proctors , which , as far as bad laws can , make Christianity burdensome and grievous to the people .
* We consider constrained Taxes for Religion unnecessary , because whatever ignorant slanderers , or interested Tax-devourers may allege to the contrary , men , if not unreasonably burdened otherwise , will cheerfully maintain the religion of their choice in sufficient affluence for the purposes of utility . History shows that mankind , savage and civilized , in heathen and in Christian lands , have always , when permitted to act freely , voluntarily yielded to a working priesthood a
respectable competency . The accumulation of ecclesiastical property in former times was principally the result of free-will offerings ; but the fact which is of most consequence , in a practical point of view , is the religious affluence of the Republic of America , which proves beyond question , that the multiplication of Churches and Clergy , and all the aids of Religion , are most liberally promoted by leaving the people to their own unembarrassed exertions .
* Having shown , that constrained Taxes , even for a National Religion , are inexpedient , it is manifest , that an impost for the religious expenditure of a favourite sect , is , though legal , grossly unjust . These Taxes , levied without the consent of the people , arbitrarily place a very small minority in the uncontrolled enjoyment and use of the property of the majority of the nation .
4 Even the Sovereign has , perhaps , now , but a nominal title to dictate in matters of religious faith and practice ; consequently , it is an odious infraction of civil and religious liberty—of every man ' s right of conscience and property—to compel him to support a Church he disapproves . Episcopalians of the Church of England would feel it an intolerable grievance to be compelled to support a Roman Catholic Hierarchy , or a Protestant Dissenting Ministry ; neither can the Congregations of these teachers be justly coerced to support the State religion .
Untitled Article
Religion without Taxahon . 117
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1832, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1806/page/45/
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