Jesus Wept!

[womzilla]

If this is accurate, then this might be an even more offensive act by a supposed Christian than Liddy Dole attempting to slander actual Christian Kay Hagan by calling her an atheist:

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 impovershed 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.

(--Rich Burlew, Giants in the Playground)

The supposedly Christian charity, the Xian Xildren's Fund, probably wouldn't have wanted anything to do with that dirty fucking hippie who hung out with the tax collectors and whores and drunkards of Judea and Galilee, either.

Rich goes on to recommend the secular charity Plan USA. I don't know anything about them, but right now they look really, really good by comparison just by not being, you know, utter sanctimonious dickwads.

[Edited to correct a couple of spelling errors and change the title.--KJM]

Comments

PLAN

[malibrarian.livejournal.com]

We've been members of PLAN for years, supporting little kids in India and now Egypt. I've always found them to be a fine organization and would recommend them.

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

(Here via Supergee)

That's absolutely shocking (and terrifyingly sanctimonious, of course). I understand that charities need an ethical fundraising policy. My employers, for example, won't take a penny from multi-nationals or corporate partners who cause or exacerbate the sort of problems that we exist to help alleviate. That's just common sense. If those corporations want to salve their consciences after a long day of resource-stripping and exploitation, they can do it without dragging our good name down in the process.

But for that organisation to turn down that sort of money for such farcial reasons? Disgusting. I wish Plan USA - or whoever ends up benefitting - well in spending the donations.

Drawing a line in the sand

[dmsherwood53.livejournal.com]

One has to reciognise (dangerious tho it is) that some people are too far out to engage in rational discourse. Its especially painful as in my case we've got one of the lunatics in our familys (my sister).

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

I don't give money to anything with a cross on it, so I don't have problems like that.

Now I know one charity not to support

[serpentrose.livejournal.com]

When I have the money I do intend to support a charity that helps needy children, but it will need to be one with ethics I can agree on. I'm really going to have to do some research, aren't I?

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

Hello, womzilla. I was sent here via a reference from someone else's LiveJournal.

The Christian Children's Fund has made public a note saying:

Response (L. Jackson) 10/31/2008 08:50 AM
Dear ,

Thank you for contacting Christian Children's Fund through our website.

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.

We appreciate your interest in our work.

EDIT: From the Gen Con committee:

In choosing the charity for 2008, Gen Con had heard through several channels, including a close friend of Gary’s family, that Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) was one of Gary’s favored charities. Gen Con contacted CCF about our intentions and asked for a logo and some promotional materials that we could use on our website. We were informed by a person at CCF that they would not be able to provide us with these materials, apparently due to our association with Dungeons & Dragons. We were not comfortable with this position, considering Gary’s role as co-founder of D&D, and founder of Gen Con, and therefore we decided to pick a different charity. ... We later found out that we had been misinformed as to CCF’s position in regards to D&D and Gen Con, but by then we had already chosen Fisher House as our charity, and announcements and promotions were already made and in the works, such that it would not have been possible to change charities at that point.

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.

I have sent an email to The Partnership that runs www.livegameauctions.com and asked them to make sure the information being presented and discussed on their website is updated and accurate regarding this issue. I would also like to ask each of you to do your part in setting the record straight by contacting the various websites, blogs, etc. that you are active on, and where this issue is being discussed, to make sure they have their facts correct as well. The statement on Wikinews purporting to be from a Gen Con staff member is completely incorrect, as Gen Con staff has never commented on this subject …until now.

If there are any further questions or points of clarification, please feel free to contact me personally at jeannette@gencon.com.

Thank you.

Jeannette LeGault
Director of Event Programming - Gen Con LLC



So, while I think that both Plan USA and the Fisher House are also perfectly good charities, the CCF is not, in this case, being sanctimonious or dickwads.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I addressed this in a later post (http://womzilla.livejournal.com/224334.html), but I hadn't seen the statement from Jeanette LeGault, so I thank you particularly for that.