Taxation, common wealth and faith

A CENTRAL precept of most religious traditions is giving money for the poor, and various kinds of economic sharing within communities.  

In a complex modern society, does taxation serve the same purpose, or distort it?  How should ‘public goods’ such as health, education, security, foreign affairs  - and government itself - be paid for?

The coversation on Taxation and the Commonweal at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival of Spirituality and Peace will feature a dialogue involving Eben Wilson, director of TaxpayerScotland (the name for the TaxPayers’ Alliance in Scotland) and Kathy Galloway, head of Christian Aid Scotland, Bill Jamieson, writer on finance and economics for the Scotsman newspaper and Frank Whaling, Emeritus Professor of the Study of Religion, Edinburgh University.

The meeting takes place on Tuesday 16 August, from 12.30pm – 1.30pm, at St John’s Church, Princes St, Edinburgh.