Money

One of the chief differences between AA and my Catholic Church is that AA decided to stay poor and my Church decided to depend on the rich to keep in business.  Now AA will never support the arts or architecture, or music that my church has supported over the centuries.  A lot of artists over the centuries were paid to create beautiful things, paint, music, buildings and so on.  AA will never be able to do that.  But the downside of having wealth is that the "members" think they are members by showing up.  They don't think they have to contribute $$ to support their church.  "The church is rich," they say.  But AA was very wise with money.  They could have accepted big donations and wills, but then "members" would think showing up is all they need do because AA is rich.  But by staying poor AA relies on the money from each of those "showing up" people.  My church has always had a very low donation rate given the number of Sunday worshippers or baptisms.  I think it takes away from being responsible, if you could give but don't because you think our group is rich.  If you have nothing, OK.  But many people have plenty in AA and in religion, but keep it in their pockets or bank accounts.