MSE News: Church of England to accept donations...

shortcrust

I could understand how people who go to church might find this distasteful but I'm baffled that there are atheists who do. I wonder if there are some who have a negative reaction simply to anything and everything the church does.

It seems very sensible and practical to me. Giving money to support the church and its works has always been an important part of membership. Why should making it easier for people to do so annoy anyone?

For the record I'm an atheist and nowt to do with the CofE.

chattychappy

I find the following distasteful:

1) Chuggers and the fee structures involved
2) Charities selling lists to each other so they can bombard well meaning old folk around Christmas with demands for donations they probably can't afford.
3) Regular payments/DDs where people feel they have to make a decision to cancel rather than make a decision to give.
4) The portrayal of people from poor countries/disabled people has sweet/helpless etc etc., just to get the money in despite it's reinforcement of unhelpful, negative stereotypes.
5) The "ends justifies the means" approach to the use of PR, statistics, murky deals with dodgy regimes, covering up scandals etc.

There are probably more. What the CofE are doing is rather benign - wireless payment for people who believe in a wireless g(G)od. I suspect people who object to this are really objecting to the CofE per se.

Paul_DNAP

shortcrust wrote: »

I could understand how people who go to church might find this distasteful but I'm baffled that there are atheists who do. I wonder if there are some who have a negative reaction simply to anything and everything the church does.

It seems very sensible and practical to me. Giving money to support the church and its works has always been an important part of membership. Why should making it easier for people to do so annoy anyone?

For the record I'm an atheist and nowt to do with the CofE.

I think there's just a massive irony that the church is embracing the 21st century with open arms where it means they can get hold of money quicker, but in many other more important areas of people's lives their attitudes are still dating back to the dark ages.

lisyloo

Its just papal indulgences updated to the 21st century.

Paypal aswell ??

:-)

takman

Disregarding the fact that it's the CofE doing this and thinking about this as donations to charity.

From the sounds of it either someone is going to be walking around and asking people how much they want to donate or people will have to queue up at the end and tell the member of the church how much they want to donate (as the terminals have to be manned).

I think that puts more pressure on people to donate when they don't want to and also puts pressure on them to donate more as they have to tell them how much they are donating. I think that is the wrong way to go about any donations and they should always be purely voluntary with no pressure.

Having to publicly state how much your donating is a big issue with the way they are doing it.

A good thing i saw recently was a stand alone unit with a contactless reader on it. You simply touched your card on it and it donated £1 to the charity, quick and efficient. If they were putting something similar to that at the entrances of all churches then it would have been worthy of a news story.

Robisere

Thinking about my earlier post, I made a judgement I should not have made. If the CoE wants to collect contributions, I see no reason why those who wish to contribute should not do so in line with 21st century methods. Providing of course, that the legalities set by the Fundraising Regulator, are complied with. And the Church certainly does not need my criticism, when it already has the Daily Wail on its case:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3316421/Church-makes-money-Starbucks-McDonald-s-Income-1-41bn-tops-fast-food-giant-s-earnings-1-37bn-three-times-higher-coffee-chain.html

For the record, I make regular monthly DD donations to McMmillan Nurses, Guide Dogs and the NSPCC. Please do not inform me of the percentage from each charity's collections, which actually reach the targets. I already know.

lisyloo

For the record, I make regular monthly DD donations to McMmillan Nurses, Guide Dogs and the NSPCC.

I don't think you need to justify yourself at all.
What you spend your money on is your business.

iammumtoone

I don't see the issue with it.

Those that are happy to donate will find it easier, they will no longer have to re-direct via the cashpoint on the way to church. People don't carry much cash these days and have to make a special effort for places it is needed.

I can't see where you are being forced to pay/donate its not as if there will be a vicar at the door charging to get in.

I don't know what its like in other areas but when we would go to our local church gathering were they would feed us, it was free, there was a basket for donations but nobody asked for money. You would be surprised at the number who didn't donate, maybe they didn't have any cash on them as I said above I know whenever we went I would have to make an effort to get cash beforehand, it would have been easier for me to donate via card.