Paul Wilczynski's Observations

A ritual of giving

ChaliceChick has a good posting that talks about fundraising and giving in general in a UU church.

In it, she touches on Mike Durall's The Almost Church.

This brings to mind several chapters in The Almost Church. CC loves a good masochistic beating as much as the next freaky chick, but even she found the book, from that sucky title on, a little much. That goes double for the author's smarmy "Y'all can't admit this to yourselves, but I know better" tone.

I don't think the title is sucky at all - I think it's exactly on target. (Admission: I'm a Big Fan of Durall). And here's why I believe that: I think that one word you could use to describe all of the people who attend any particular church - except UU churches - is believers. The closest you could come to members of a UU church is affirmers - and I don't think that's got quite the same ring. It's not clear to me what all of the members of my congregation have in common that revolves around religion. To paraphrase one of Durall's sources, a UU congregation is sometimes referred to as a group of people who get together but nobody knows what brought them all there.

I and five other members of my congregation had the opportunity to attend a session with him on Saturday February 12 at Andover Newton Theological School. My take on it was that it brought alive the ideas that he expresses in the book, but didn't break any new ground. Definitely worth going to. That being said, I agree with ChaliceChick that he does have an attitude. I don't have a problem with that, though. He's a consultant. He's supposed to have an attitude.

ChaliceChick comments on Durall's encouraging tithing ...

That having been said, I can seriously get behind the idea of UUs tithing. I've learned a lot about faithful church membership from the Mormons I work with, and the enthusiasm with which they approach giving to their church is really sort of inspiring. It's clear it makes them feel good and like they are a part of something, rather than the approach I see in my UU church of making the whole thing seem like a good financial transaction on the part of the giver.

One of the problems with UUs (problems being defined as "something that prevents the denomination from rapidly growing like many non-denominational Christian churchs are growing") is that we look at everything intellectually. No one tithes for intellectual reasons - they tithe from the heart. That's why trying to get UUs to tithe is a losing battle. Even trying to persuade UU Boards to think about encouraging their congregations to tithe is a losing battle.

(If people have a problem with tithing because it sounds too "Christian", Durall suggests giving 11% of income - because "11%" has absolutely no religious significance.)

posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 9:02 AM