vox populi | how clean is clean enough?

dirty sexy money

In our last Corps appointment I was quite proud of the fact that we refused to apply to the Bingo Hall for local funding from lottery/bingo proceeds. We don’t take Bingo dollars. How could we? We were a strong advocate against gambling expansion in our town so it would be impossible to take the same dollars we were fighting to keep out of our town.

If we were to celebrate that fact with a cake we could have run the cake plates through our industrial dishwasher, a donation from the local Kiwanis club, the funds drawn on their Bingo account. oops. Well, we won’t go out and ASK for Bingo dollars directly from the Bingo Hall. If someone offers us money we don’t ask where it comes from. If they want to give it from their Bingo account then who am I to question this. And, the money can feed a lot of hungry people.

I feel a bit dirty by implication. The mafia sets up offshore companies to launder money for use in North America. Was I laundering money through the local service clubs? Is that okay to do, to have a “don’t ask” policy? I could take the spiritual high road, and invoke the spirit of William Booth by washing the money in the tears of those we serve. That’s my out. I wash the money in our service. Use the devil’s filthy lucre to launch a grenade right back at him. Good enough? How many have to suffer or die to get there? How far can we go and where does it end? In British Columbia our local schools buy textbooks with Bingo Dollars. It’s how they stay alive. Are my children now implicated in this mess? In most of the country we rely on people’s nicotine and alcohol addiction to keep many of our social programs in business. The taxes collected from cigarettes and alcohols go a long way in Canada.

Money washed in tears, don’t ask policy, x-rays and doctors visits courtesy of smokers and drinkers. Now I launder money courtesy of the federal and provincial government.

Hey, at least we never asked for money directly from the Bingo Hall. That just wouldn’t be right.

2 Comments to vox populi | how clean is clean enough?

1. If I am not mistaken William Booth would have taken money from anyone with his supposed belief that the Devil’s money is as good as anyone elses when it comes to providing services to anyone. Also, isn’t it better that this money is supporting mission for God rather than promoting Satan’s enterprise.
John Stephenson on November 16th, 2007

2. This is a complicated one.
   My view is that there’s a difference between accepting an unsolicited gift from an individual or organisation, and applying for a grant (in the UK) from the lottery fund.
   But it’s a fine line, I know. It seems to me that applying to the fund is condoning that it exists. And funds like this only exist because the state condones the disproportionate exploitation of (generally) the poorest people in our communities. And I don’t want to be part of that.
   Of course by accepting donations from other sources we could be indirectly “approving” some other questionable means of fund raising. And we might give someone else the chance to say, about some dodgy income they have acquired -“well it’s OK because I’ll give some to The Salvation Army”.
   So it’s harder to have hard and fast rules about this one.
   Even from within our own congregations there may be those whose income is less than honestly earned. What should we do - have a questionnaire for donors to see if they pass our integrity test?
   On balance, I think I’m with William Booth. But then I’ve never had to make the decision.
Heather Elliott on November 18th, 2007

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