Biblical Precedent for Mail Solicitation

A Penitent Blogger has a good meditation on 2 Cor. 8:1-9. So far as I know, this, along with 1 Çor 16, is the first recorded solicitation of charitible funds by direct mail. This is a precedent which many of us wish had never entered Christianity.

While I understand the need, I wish that the direct mail houses would exercise a little stewardship and purge their mailing lists. Many orders - especially the Franciscans - are still sending letters to my mother-in-law, who died 12 years ago. Repeated request that they remove her name have been ignored. They are not alone. She is still getting letters from Bally Total Fitness.