Why are the poor so generous?

[Lincsong]

Even the same religion has skinflints

Well, I'm going to have to digress a little bit on the religion part. Here in this gritty burg I reside, the Roman Catholic Parish I attend have about 5,000 registered parishioners and consists mainly blue collar/lower managerial types. The parish takes in between $15,000 to $18,000 per weekend. On the other side of town the parish that includes the more white collar/professional types and they barely take in $9,000 a weekend. In my parish a man and woman died and they left the house to the parish which they use for the nuns. So cheap people would think; "oh why didn't they leave it to their kids?"[huh]

 

[Lady Day]

I think the poor dont just give more monetarily (if htey can), but also socially. I lived in a working class neighborhood (just a notch above the poverty line) and I remember one night, my brother went missing. He was a bout 13, and the ENTIRE neighborhood, came out in mass on the streets to find him. He had just went to the mass with a frined and his mom and didnt tell my Mama (oh boy wash he in trouble for that), but they all made sure he was alright, and then went home.

I find the poor will be more friendly in greetings, do the 'Oh, are you alright hon?' comments with a smile, and in general be a bit more comfortable with their situation in live, granted wanting improvement, instead of worrying so much about all of it going away and ending up 'poor'!


LD

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Well, I'm going to have to digress a little bit on the religion part. Here in this gritty burg I reside, the Roman Catholic Parish I attend have about 5,000 registered parishioners and consists mainly blue collar/lower managerial types. The parish takes in between $15,000 to $18,000 per weekend. On the other side of town the parish that includes the more white collar/professional types and they barely take in $9,000 a weekend. In my parish a man and woman died and they left the house to the parish which they use for the nuns. So cheap people would think; "oh why didn't they leave it to their kids?"[huh]

Perhaps they didn't have kids to leave it to...or perhaps the kids were doing well on their own. But back to poor parish vs. rich parish - do both have about the same number attending weekly services? My partner used to be a paid member of a local church choir in a very wealthy area (a $1 million dollar 2400 sq ft 25-30 year old home is considered a tear-down) and the santuary would be about 1/4 full each week, if that. But at Christmastime & Easter...they have three services, each packed to the rafters, SRO. But the local church in a poorer area downtown was filled weekly - almost gridlocked traffic when their services let out.

 

[Story]

they can't give millions to charity, but they make sure they have booze and food on hand at a party.

[John Houseman voice] How do you think they got so rich? They bogarted it. [/John Houseman voice]

 

[Lincsong]

Perhaps they didn't have kids to leave it to...or perhaps the kids were doing well on their own. But back to poor parish vs. rich parish - do both have about the same number attending weekly services? My partner used to be a paid member of a local church choir in a very wealthy area (a $1 million dollar 2400 sq ft 25-30 year old home is considered a tear-down) and the santuary would be about 1/4 full each week, if that. But at Christmastime & Easter...they have three services, each packed to the rafters, SRO. But the local church in a poorer area downtown was filled weekly - almost gridlocked traffic when their services let out.

Actually they did have kids, whom they felt were doing well enough on their own. Another man died and left 1/3 of his estate to the parish. There have been other bequeths of this nature.

Now between the two parishes I would have to say that my parish does have a better weekly attendance. However, the two "ethnic" masses only bring in around $700 each, it's the three American Masses that are pulling in the bulk of the money. This parish even has "volunteer mourners", about 3 dozen people who can be called upon in the event someone dies and the deceased only has a handful of people attending the funeral, these volunteers will come to the funeral service to show some comfort and comaraderie to the family. The priest, who was in wealthier Lafayette and Walnut Creek area parishes said he could never get the volunteers there that he has in this parish.

Now to be fair to wealthier parishes, when I lived in Florida the parish there was a fairly well to do parish and the parishioners stepped up to the collection plate numerous times. Since it was a fairly young parish and needed a school the parish raised the $1.3 million to build the school in 5 of the 12 alloted months. One person even donated $100,000 to the school building fund. This parish also had senior apartments on site. When I visited a couple months ago, they had built a much larger church.

I would say that we have about 5000 registered parishioners and the cross town parish has about 4000. I'm not sure about the third parish in town but I believe they have about 5000 members and take in about $12,000 a weekend.

When my parish wanted to put in 12 stained glass windows there was no problem finding 12 people to pay the $10,000 a piece for each window.