Yes, I understand from an individual’s perspective you can choice other charitable organizations. I do not contribute at all to the fund. I prefer to give directly to most Catholic organizations that do not waste 15+ percent of my funds on overhead.
Not to pick on poor Stan, but I think that this is one of the problems of trying to merge modern US conservatism, which is an odd mix of laise faire capitolism and extreme Evangelical Protestantism with Catholicism. Trying to live such a mish-mash of fundementally incompatible ideas leaves us impotent.
Instead of doing our best to carry Christ’s light into a dark world, we end up wringing our hands and complaining about contamination from the infidels, essentially the world view of the Pharisees.
It is very natural to think of oneself as ‘good’ and be judgemental of the ‘bad’, but what did Jesus teach about the dutiful son? Sure, the prodigal son was far astray, but read the parable. Read what our Pope has to say about it.
Every week at Mass we remind ourselves multiple times that
not one of us is worthy. We are all sinners who are not worthy. We all fail God, every week of our lives. The message I hear again and again in the Gospels is that we are to live the word, not wring our hands at those who
we believe live it less completely than ourselves.
Let’s look at the situation. In a culture which is currently suffering terribly from the consequences of unchecked greed and a failure to honor Chritian obligation to the truth, Stan is trying not to participate in a company event which is attempting to do good and promote social responsibility. Compare that to, say, Enron, which used lies and deception to build a fortune, largely at the expense of others, only to squander it away on still more lies and deception - leaving its retiring workers essentially pensionless in the wake of its bankruptcy.
At all my companies I have always had a charitable contribution matching policy. I have never policed the choices people make. The idea is to promote a fundemental Christian concept of our responsbility to our fellow man. So to me it seems simple, take something which is a good step in the right direction and help build on it. Catholics are a community of Christ with an obligation to be the living word. Did Jesus minister primarily to the Pharisees? Religious ultra conservatives and war heroes to their nation? No, the sinners, the outcasts, the weak, the poor.
If we declare everything not precisely to our own spiritual awareness beneath us and seperate ourselves, how can we fulfill our Catholic Evangelical responsiblities?
Peace
