2001-03-11 (Sunday, 16:48:24)

Once every six weeks or so the little 1st- and 2nd-grade Sunday School class I teach goes downstairs for Children's Chapel. We hold it in a fairly ornate sanctuary: not the main auditorium, but the place where we generally have weddings, funerals, and such. Children's Chapel is just an abbreviated kid-oriented worship service, and part of the ritual is an offering; we ask parents to make sure the kids have a little money to drop in a basket during the service.

Today, when we came back upstairs after Children's Chapel and sat down to talk for a few minutes before snack, I asked the kids what they thought about that: "Why do you think we give money to the church," I asked. Unitarian kids tend to be pretty smart, even at this age, and so there were quite a few hands raised. They offered most of the standard explanations -- so the minister can have food to eat and a place to live, so we can repair the church building, etc. -- but the interesting thing was that one little girl said "So the church can help the poor," and the boy sitting to my right -- Galen Nahas -- said "Well why don't we just give our money to the poor instead?"

It was one of those moments I wish I could go back and do over again, because right there on the spot, I couldn't answer him. I just stammered and said "Well, that's a good question" -- always a legitimate answer in a Unitarian Sunday School -- and somehow we were on to the next thing just a few seconds later. Maybe it was just as well. Smart as these kids are, they probably wouldn't understand the best answer I could probably give to that question. I think, if I had it to do over again, I would say that we need to do both: we do need to give money directly to the poor, but that's not enough, because it doesn't help other people understand that they need to help the poor, too. A church (if it's healthy) helps the poor not just by handing out food baskets, but also by spreading a message.

Maybe next time.