By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Indeed stand your ground Tialavea. Your duty as a Minister of Revenue is to help make the burdens of life for the people of Samoa a little easier.
You swore before God you will do your work to the best of your ability.
If it means taxing the servants of God then who should you fear most – your oath to God or the wrath of a ‘faifeau’ and his religious fanatical followers with venom oozing from everywhere for your political demise?
God makes the final judgment not the angry, ‘faifeau’ who schemes for your political downfall and your Government.
If God is the determining factor in this ‘faifeau’ income tax kerfuffle then the sins of using God’s name in vain is raging like hell with this crowd.
School children are attending schools free. Why can’t the tax paying ‘faifeau’ be thankful in prayer that his tax money is helping make that possible?
If the sick are being treated with medicine his tax money helped to buy is that not worthy of a thank you Lord for your kindness.
Tax is our contribution to our own care and development as a country. Our donor partners are not going to waste time with our pleads for help unless they see us help ourselves first.
As far as the ‘faifeau’ is concerned the money he gets as ‘alofa’ or donation should be the least of his worries.
He is God’s servant who is valued in our Samoan cultural concept as a ‘human sacrifice to God.”
If that means he is offered to God as a living sacrifice why should he worry about money or paying taxes?
If Heaven is our ultimate destination where we sing with the angels and roll in eternal bliss what is there to worry about if you are a living lamb offered to God?
The Pearly Gates will be flung wide for you and the path into the Kingdom of Heaven laid with red carpet all the way.
Fine mats will be draped everywhere you turn as the angels blow on conch shell horns the same as we do when we greet VIPs in Samoa.
When you die you don’t buy your way into the Pearly Gates from all the untaxed ‘alofa’ money your fanatical flock gave you.
To be honest ‘alofa’ money is an offering by the faithful to God in return for His love and blessings on them and their loved ones.
The money is given to the ‘faifeau’ because he represents God amongst us the living.
Whatever he spends it on the money is subject to the rules of this world we live where he is spending it in.
But is it the money that is important to God or is it the faith and trust in Him that matters the most?
Question? Will God take away any blessings you or your loved ones deserve by the offering you made to the ‘faifeau’ because Tialavea took out some to put the kids in Samoa to school or buy medicine to cure the sick?
Yes tax has already been deducted and it is also a donation. True! But we are living in the Kingdom of Caesar and we obey the rules of Caesar.
Paying income taxes is one of the fundamental rules.
How often are we told by the ‘faifeau’ that God decides Governments?
Is that the same as saying whoever rules as Caesar in our world must be obeyed because he has the blessings of God?
When you condemn Tialavea are you also condemning God who anointed him Minister of Revenue?
What about you the ‘alofa giver’. When the ‘faifeau’ trashed God’s chosen leader are you blindly jumping in to give Tialavea the boots or rake him with your fingernails too?
What would God say about that?
Lord we have some taxing problems to wrestle with. Wouldn’t mind a hand here.