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(Posted by Kirsten) 

What the Bible says on the payment of taxes:

Matthew 22...The Pharisees made plans to trap him with words. They said, "We know you are a man of integrity and you teach the way of God. Tell us then, 'is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?' " Jesus told them to show Him the coin, and when they did, he asked whose picture was on it, and whose name was inscribed. They stated that it was Caesar's. To that, Jesus said to "Give to

Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what it God's".  

Romans 13...Let every person be subject to the governing authorities...For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad, for they are ministers of God. Because of this you also pay taxes. Pay to all what you owe them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, and honor to whom honor is due.

The Historical Aspect of Taxes during the Revolution:

Thomas Fleming (author, historian) stated that, "Due to the French and Indian War that had taken place, records show that England's resources were drained and the nation was 150,000,000 pounds in debt." England was nearly bankrupt because they spent almost all their money protecting the colonists from the French and the Indians.

Since they were so in debt, England thought the colonies should chip in as well. They thought it was fair that the colonists should pay for 1/3 of the troops, while the English would pay for the other 2/3. Because of this agreement, Englishmen's taxes were 25X higher than the American colonists.

The tea tax was rigged in such a way that even with tax it would still be cheper to buy tea from the English company than it would be from the smuggled tea from everywhere else. Since the price of the English tea was lower than the smuggler's, the British expected no difficulty from the colonists. They got what they wanted: cheaper tea. For that reason it was quite a shock when the colonists commited the crimes associated with the Boston Tea party.

Regardless of whether the taxes were too high, the colonists still did not have a right to start a violent revolution against their king.