A simple plan

By Sam Lucero
News and Information Manager

In February President Bush announced an economic stimulus plan that provides payments to more than 130 million U.S. households. Individuals eligible for payments will receive up to $600 ($1,200 for married couples), and parents will receive an additional $300 for each eligible child younger than 17.

The Treasury Department will begin mailing out rebate checks next month.

The extra income may seem like manna from heaven for families who have faced a myriad of financial challenges in the past year, particularly the spiraling petroleum and natural gas prices used to fuel our automobiles and heat our homes.

But what about our houses of worship? The churches and synagogues that also rely on electricity and natural gas to keep their doors open? Consider the double-whammy they face: higher heating costs and fewer dollars in the collection plate due to their members' financial struggles.

Now seems to be a good time for churches to issue a plea for assistance: With those pending rebate checks, why not earmark some of it to your local congregation?

That's exactly what Milwaukee's Lutheran bishop, Paul Stumme-Diers, has requested of his estimated 95,000 members in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's (ELCA) Greater Milwaukee Synod. Bishop Stumme-Diers sent letters last Friday to leaders of his synod's 140 congregations.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the letter urges pastors to reintroduce the concept of tithing. The Lutheran bishop noted that if half of his flock each donated $30 (10 percent of their minimum $300 rebate check), it would bring in more than $1.4 million.

Bishop Stumme-Diers, who - like his Catholic counterpart in Milwaukee, Archbishop Timothy Dolan - enjoys immense popularity, is himself a practitioner of stewardship. In fact, during an ELCA bishops' meeting in March, he challenged his fellow bishops to join him in tithing their rebate checks.

Bishop Stumme-Diers hopes that his letter will encourage discussion among his flock. It should also generate discussion within our Catholic community.