Here was the reply I got from writing Christian Children's Fund after sending them an email asking for their reasons on why
they declined the money from the charity auction. They get bonus points for replying within two hours of the question being sent. The writer explained that it was not the source of the money as much as the presentation of the event making it look like the auction was hosted by the CCF rather than them just being beneficiaries of the proceeds. They have to be careful about not offending their donors. It might be unfortunate that they refused $17,000 because of the kids that could be helped with that money. As an organization with Christians that are are sensitive to Dungeons & Dragons, they might lose support that would cost much more than the $17,000 that they rejected
You can read the reply for yourself:
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 after the review of numerous factors that in combination precluded our acceptance of the gift. These reasons include the possible misinterpretation of CCF’s role in regard to the event. CCF is selective in its endorsements or support because it must maintain the highest degree of integrity with respect to the use of its name and logo. The information presented to us gave the appearance that CCF (the organization) was an endorser or supporter of the event instead of a beneficiary.
Thank you for your interest in CCF. Please contact us if we can be of further assistance.
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With all due respect, that sounds more like damage control to me. If they were so concerned about the use of their logo, all they had to do was ask to have it changed or an announcement made at the auction.
ReplyDeleteDo also note that the email states "The reasons include..." The use of the logo was not the only reason.
No where in the email does it specifically state that the money was not turned down because of the source nor is there any mention that they would be willing to receive additional funds if the logo problems were corrected.
Wouldn't it be great if Christian people actually read and followed their own great work of fiction ...
ReplyDeleteRomans 2:1
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
You might be right Dr. Mike.
ReplyDeleteAs for anonymous.
To be fair to Christians and the Scriptures, the passages on judgment are more focused on not judging others with a standard you do not use on yourself. Even the famous "do not judge" passage is followed with the command to fix yourself before judging others. The context implies that we are to fix ourselves before judging others, but we must never judge others by a standard we do not use on ourselves.
1 Corinthians 5:11-13 states:
11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."
So the biblical teaching is that the church should not judge those in the world. This would also be consistent with the other teachings on judgment in their context. Christians are to judge one another but leave the world alone except for loving them. Too often, this is not the case.
This situation is somewhat different in that the Christian organization has to decide to accept money from a group that they probably disagree with. The Bible does not address the issue of accepting gifts from an organization that you disagree with. They did not come out with a judgmental attitude against Dungeons & Dragons (although there are churches who unfortunately have); they just stated that they would not be able to take the money. They seemed to follow their conscience without passing judgment. I would say they did a good job at doing what their conscience told them to do.
You might want to look at Gen Con's official statement about this controversy before jumping to conclusions:
ReplyDeletehttp://community.gencon.com/forums/t/18786.aspx
Bottom line: this has been a GIANT misunderstanding, one made worse by the insistence of some gamers on holding on to '80s stereotypes of Christians.
To further what the previous comment stated about the misunderstanding, there has been further insight posted here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theescapist.com/bequest/news.htm
There have also been comments that there are many legal implications of charities accepting donations from any (for profit) organisations, of which GenCon is. I am not well versed in corporate law so I will not comment any further on this factor.
Lastly, Considering the contents of the auction it would seem odd for the logos of a Children's charity to be put next to some items (for example one named the Book of Erotic Fantasy) it would seem that the charity would have been happy to accept the money but refrain from having the name of the charity associated with some of the contents of the auction.