So, I got an interesting letter from one of my cousins yesterday

[LibertyLover]

Last night when I got home from work the mail was waiting for me on the table. The only thing of any interest was an envelope addressed to The "My husband's last name"s with one of my adult cousin's return address in a small town in Minnesota on it. I had a few minutes before dinner was ready, so I picked it up. Even before I opened it, my husband asked me what the hell they wanted. Inside was the most amazing begging letter I have ever gotten from either a friend or relative. It was a form letter from my cousin's oldest girl, 16, telling us how God was moving in wonderful ways in her life, ways that we couldn't even begin to imagine and that He was calling her to go to a Mexican border city, Reynosa, for a week in July with her teen group from church, a fundy church in her hometown in Minnesota, to help bring the Good News to the citizens of Reynosa in several different ways, including evangelical dramas. In order to go, she had to raise between $985 and $999 to cover bus transportation (30 hours one way in a bus), food and living expenses. Her first payment is due April 17th, so if we could send money now it would be really nice, and it was tax deductible, but we couldn't put her name on it - it had to be made out to the church and "Reynosa" on the memo line. And if we couldn't do it by April 17th, her last payment was due on June 6th. Oh and she also needed a Prayer Team to keep her and her group in their prayers both before this short-term missionary trip and during it, so wouldn't we like to sign up to do that as well.

I am torn between conflicting emotions - rage that my cousin would even consider sending her incredibly naive, no street smarts whatsoever kid to a Mexican border city that is having its share of drug violence at the moment to 'spread the Good Word', anger that this church is encouraging kids to hit on relatives for money for this trip and despair that my cousins have fallen prey to fundamentalist Christianity's blandishments.

We are going to send back two notes, one to the mother asking her if she has lost what little functioning intelligence she had and one to the kid telling her that we are pagans and will not bankroll her trip to convert the heathens. But if she wants prayers, I'll be happy to get my coven do a ritual for protection magic, 'cause she is going to need all the help she can get.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. I've done a lot of mission trips with youth groups and churches

and the youth have always worked at projects to earn the money.

And we never did a mission trip for conversion - that pisses me off. We did mission trips to go help people who needed help: fixing homes, painting shelters, serving food. That kind of stuff.

I hate this begging for money kind of thing like your cousin did - but on the other hand, I've also found over the twenty years I've been doing this, it's becoming more and more difficult to get the youth to do fundraising stuff because they're so overprogrammed at school and other activities. So I can very much also understand the kind of fundraiser that is just simply asking for money. And I know a lot of people who also would rather just give the teens $10, instead of buying some shitty spaghetti dinner for $10 out of which the kids get maybe $6 after expenses, or buy some fucking fundraising candy bar that the kids only get 50 cents on the dollar.

So, I don't know - I don't think I'd be offended to receive a letter as you have, but I also don't think I would offer support, given that their sole mission is to go to a place full of violence, despair, drugs, overty, hunger, and homelessness - and stand there idly, doing nothing but some godforsaken skit about why they should become Christian, and then take the bus home.



(as to the check being made out to the church - if you want a tax deduction for the donation, that's what you need to do, then the church (assuming it's on the up and up) will send you a receipt for your taxes; you can't give money to an individual and claim it as a charitable donation)