Rocks fall, they die.

[gridlore]

Christian Charity rejects $17,000 to feed needy kids.. because it was raised by gamers.

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.

Oh, screw them! Hell, the priests of the Temple were able to find a use for the thirty pierces of silver Judas brought back, and these fools can't figure out that our money spends just as well as anyone else's?

Comments

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

Oh, that just pisses me off. They have LOST their MINDS.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

I see that the money raised at GenCon was instead donated to Fisher House Foundation. Frankly, I'm much happier seeing the money go that way rather than to ... the otherwise unnamed assholes.

[jilesa.livejournal.com]

Actually, the reason given by CCF is that the donation came from a corporation (Gencon, LLC), and accepting donations from corporations carry more implications about sponsorship, affliliation, etc. than accepting donations from individuals. I can understand why a charity would be very careful about accepting donations from any corporation, and I suspect that the gaming community may be blowing this a bit out of proportion. That said, I don't completely discount the possibility that CCF thinks all gamers are Satan's children and would refuse donations even from individual gamers-- I just think it's unlikely.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

If a gaming corporation's donation is refused but other corporations' donations are accepted, then the charity is judging the money by the source's way of doing business. Do they ever take corporate donations?

[jilesa.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether CCF takes other corporate donations, and I don't really have the time to dig around and find out right now. I've just seen so much knee-jerk reaction to this that I think it's worth pointing out that there may be other factors at play here besides "OMG!! D&D is teh EBIL!"

Personally, I have far more important things to spend my outraged energy on. Whether a charity group may or may not disapprove of my hobby doesn't really register on my outrage meter. If it's true that they refused the money because they think gaming is bad, then yeah, it's annoying. But I'd just as soon give folks the benefit of the doubt until they say something explicitly negative about me or a group to which I belong.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

i trust they handed the money to a different charity that feeds the hungry? i can ssure you there are several religious (and not) charities that will happily accept our demon tainted money.....
heck, cant they just bless it?

frankly, i feel very sorry for Mr Gygax to find out they hate him so much.......

[kshandra]

It went to the Fisher House Foundation.

[jarlsberg71.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you provided a link. all I could think of was a boys military school where they play chess REALLY well.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I'm reasonably sure a non-christian charity could put the money to good use.

[jarlsberg71.livejournal.com]

the thing is there's no cycle they're trying to prevent like "if they accept this money, the people will game more" it's done, it's over with, who cares if you dom't agree, someone should out them with one of those giant "Will somebody please think of the children" tags!