My lead teacher - Ann's mom was recently diagnosed with cancer and passed away Wednesday afternoon. Ann's aunt passed away yesterday. Even a strong Christian family is left reeling with a 1-2 punch like that. Saturday is the funeral, and it is also Ann's birthday. The family needs prayer.
Ann's parents are Christians and her dad requested that memorials be given to their denomination. This is becoming more common and (after a comment by coworker) I have a question.
If the denomination in question is not your own, do you (or would you) not to donate money in the name of a person who loved that denomination?
When my husband passed away, I did ask for donations to my church's youth group, for a specific project. While I didn't have this situation in mind (the not wanting to donate because of denominational differences), and while I realize that nobody would have told me that they were offended by the request, I do wonder, in hindsight, if that was the case.
Obviously, if it's a religion that is not Christian, it becomes a different question.
jswranch
To the individual parish or denomination capital fund? No.
To some worth cause (feeding hungry, send kids to bible camp, clothe naked)
Yes.
Ellen
John, that's what I came up with. I got to the funderal home this afternoon and discovered that (although the obituary said it was the denomination) it was the church that they wanted it to go to.
There is a ministry witnin this denomination that sends Bibles to other countries, I think they'd like that.
I'd want to honor their request for funds to go to the church, but I'd also like it directed.
Tony
I tend to agree with John, but within the general church fund, good things are done. If I donated a certain amount of money to their church, I'd believe that my specific dollars went to the good things I wanted done, and the other people's donations went to fixing the church, etc. 🙂
I know it's kind of "fooling myself", but that's how I'd think.
Ellen
Here are two specific examples of not donating to the church or the general denomination (but giving to a specific ministry.
I have donated in the past to both of these ministries
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee; this is an organization that whose volunteers I worked with long before I joined the Christian Reformed church, when I was doing volunteer disaster services work with the American Red Cross.
Catholic Social Services, which has one of the best pregnancy counseling/abortion alternative centers in our area and facilitates open adoptions.