Marian Franz: Champion of War Tax Resisters

by Robert Macfarlane

Marian Franz, a leader of national and international efforts to gain legal recognition of conscientious objection to paying taxes for war, died November 17, 2006, after a two-year struggle with cancer. She was 76.

For 26 years she was executive director of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund, an ecumenical effort based in Washington , D.C. The Episcopal Peace Fellowship is one of more than 40 endorsing organizations and individuals. Organized in 1972, its purpose is to work with members of the U.S. Congress for the passage of legislation allowing conscientious objectors to pay all of their federal taxes without funding the military. Marian began her work with the NCPTF in 1982 as its first full-time director.

Marian believed that “war taxes” (the portion of individual federal income tax that supports the nation’s military spending) have enormous consequences. “They kill twice,” she said. “First, they directly enable war… particularly paying for weapons. Second, taxes allocated for war represent a distortion of priorities. Money is taken from the important work of healing and spent to destroy and kill.”

Alan Gamble, who succeeded Marian as executive director of the NCPTF, called her a “realistic visionary” who combined a clear sense of what was possible today with the kind of long-term hope that once sustained champions of women’s suffrage and the abolition of slavery.

Marian oversaw the organizational work of the NCPTF, but her chief work was as a lobbyist. She called on representatives and senators in every Congress seeking support for peace tax legislation. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a sponsor of the bill, said of Marian,“ her energy and persistence in advocating for the Religious Freedom Tax Fund” (as the bill was called in the last Congress) “was a reflection of her deep commitment to our democracy and to the cause of peace.”

Her persistence was coupled with a keen pastoral sense enabling her to relate positively with foes of the bill as well as friends. She spoke of a senator who called her a “friendly pest,” which she regarded as a compliment. Although some form of the bill has been introduced in every congress since 1972, it has yet to face a vote in either house.

In 1994 Marian helped found Conscience and Peace Tax International, an organization with a purpose similar to that of the NCPTF but based in Europe and working through international institutions such as the United Nations and the European Union. Until shortly before her death, she chaired CPTI.

Marian Claasen grew up in a Mennonite farm family in Kansas , graduated from college in Newton , KS , and in 1954 married Delton Franz, a young Mennonite pastor. They soon moved to Chicago ’s south side and together began an interracial Mennonite congregation. They moved to Washington , D.C. in 1968. In the next few years Marian helped found Dunamis, a Christian organization that spoke to politicians about issues of national importance, and the Faith and Politics Institute, a non-partisan, interfaith organization that helps public officials relate their religious faith to public policy.

She is author of a book, Questions That Refuse to Go Away, and Of Conscience and the Courts, a study of Supreme Court and other court cases which define conscientious objection to participation in war. The essays she wrote for the quarterly Peace Tax Fund Update newsletter are currently being edited for publication as a book.

Robert Macfarlane, now living in the diocese of Virginia,  retired Priest from the Diocese of Chicago, is an EPF representative on the NCPTF Board http://peacetaxfund.org.