Christian charity rejects 17K to feed starving children

From Giant In The Playground (www.giantitp.com), a community comprised of tabletop and RP gamers - most members play Dungeons & Dragons or at least role play scenarios (no, not cybersex). GiantITP features two original high-quality webcomics written and drawn in vastly different styles.

I didn't exactly go hunting for this (I visit regularly for the Erfworld comic), nor do I have a vendetta against Christianity or Republicans, but you read it and tell me it's not appalling at first sight. This was on the news page of GiantITP:

"As has been reported by a few other gaming blogs and news sites, the Charity Auction at this year's GenCon Indianapolis was held to benefit Gary Gygax's favorite charity, which I will not name here for reasons that will soon become obvious. The fine folks at GenCon raised over $17,000 for this charity, which helps starving children in impoverished areas of the world--only to have that money actually turned down by the charity. The charity refused due to the fact that the money was raised partly by the sales of Dungeons and Dragons materials, which as we all know, puts an irrevocable taint of evil on the filthy lucre that us demon-worshipping gamers might want to use to, say, donate to starving children. Not only is this a slap in the face to every gamer, but it is especially insulting to Mr. Gygax himself, who I understand donated to their cause many times over the years. Plus, I'm sure the children who would have gotten food or clean drinking water with that money would be sort of upset, too.

I bring this story to your attention not simply so that you might let the people at this charity know how you feel (especially if you have donated to it before, as many did in the wake of Mr. Gygax's passing), but so that you would be aware that there is an alternative charity that I would personally recommend (based on our own charitable giving) if you have a desire to donate money to help starving children. Plan USA is a worldwide charity aimed at helping those who live in poverty and/or have suffered from a natural disaster, particularly with monthly sponsorships of individual children. Since the money of D&D players is clearly not welcome at this other charity, I can't recommend Plan USA highly enough to those interested in giving anyway. At least if you choose to donate through them, there's no chance your generous gifts to the starving children of the world will be rejected due to your weekend hobby."

For non-nerds: Gary Gygax is supposedly the creator (or one of the creators, I can't remember which) of the hit long-running tabletop RP game Dungeons and Dragons. Mr. Gygax passed away this year. GenCon is a convention for gaming.


Naturally I dug a bit further.

They sent back a reply, which was copypasta'd for all gamers who sent an indignant email:

Christian Children’s Fund made the decision to decline the gift from Gen Con, LLC as the request presented to us gave the appearance that CCF (the organization) was an endorser or supporter of a gaming convention, which CCF was not. As many non-profit organizations, CCF is selective in its endorsements or support in order to maintain the integrity of its name and logo. We cannot lend our name to an event for which we have no involvement. This decision should in no way be interpreted as CCF holding an opinion on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeons and Dragons.


A person who saw the reply commented:

It's still saying "We don't want any ties to a role-playing organization whatsoever. Even if it's just them giving us money." I can see how accepting money from a particular organization or event can be considered an "endorsment" of that organization. But how does such a one-sided deal dilute the charity's image unless the organization in question is unpopular?

Another:

Charities have been accepting the donations of the GenCon charity auction since the second such show in 1969, before D&D was even invented. Never once has the money been refused by any charity, to my knowledge. Case in point, as mentioned, Fisher House didn't see the same legal issues with accepting the money or lending their name, nor did last year's recipient, Cristel House.

Moar & Moar:

As surprising as this may be, there are still folks who don't know anything about D&D beyond what they heard from sensationalists in the 80s (notably, my parents were in this group until I started playing!) and I would not blame a charity for not wanting to scare off such people based on a misunderstanding.

There is no evidence that the CCF rejected the donations. As was pointed out in the cited post the CCF simply rejected being the official charity of GenCon. GenCon then went with another charity and gave the money to them instead. From the form letter, CCF weren't even aware that they weren't going to get the donation until people E-mailed them asking why they rejected them.

And finally, another reply by the charity:

To be clear, Gen Con made the decision not to donate to CCF; at no time did CCF refuse to take charity money from Gen Con. Gen Con chooses a show charity long before Gen Con Indy 2008 ever takes place.


It's really not a one-sided issue, really. Numerous arguments have been made (cut out because they'd bore you) in the charity's defense (even by atheists) that detail why legal process or a misinterpretation of events may have perpetuated the issue.

People have been getting riled up for receiving copypastas, despite that half of the mail being written to the charity is over-reactive vitriol and Christianity-hate. And that the 17K has been routed to another charity. So the moral is NOT that Christian organizations are uptight little buggers, but that there are some things you'll never (or be hard-pressed to) really find 100% conclusive answers for, and trying to obtain such an answer even when there isn't one will lead to a lot of assumptions being made (which may well ironically devolve into discrimination).

Sources:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95278
http://community.gencon.com/forums/t/18786.aspx