Huh. I wish I could say I'm shocked, but I can't really. I had a similar experience with another organisation of religious nutters at a fundraising event, only that time the game in question was Magic the Gathering. If you're already wondering how DnD could possibly be perceived as satanic, just try and work out how Magic the Gathering is supposed to be linked to "demon-worship" and "death culture", won't you.
All the letter-writing in the world didn't persuade that group to change their position, and I quite doubt that it'll convince this one. Nevertheless, they deserve every last complaint they are going to get, so I shall be writing a letter to the Crazy Christian Fundies following this, fully expecting to get the same, pathetic stock reply in response.
In order to loose some of my head of steam I went and talked with my University Chaplin about this. I feel it helped. He was somewhat supprised as to the behaviour of a chairty he is aware of on a professional level (and is going to ask the other chaplins to re-consider said charity's priorities in light of this). As a Christian the correct responce is to forgive and to pray that they will understand the folly of what they have done. As a gamer I feel the correct responce is to move on. There are plenty of gamer freindly charites out there and at the end of the day what they choose to/not to take as donations is their choice. If they do, as I susupect, count a large number of the fundemental "7 days and a snake, King James Bible pure" brigade that has caused us greif in the past as donators then sadly this is the sensible choice for them. And for us, tthe sensible choice is to investiage who we donate to.
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It is a contraction of Evil DM Mark 3. I don't know why why so many have difficulty with a standard contraction but there we are. In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded
Sir Terry
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tirian
He may secretly be the World's Greatest Detective, but I think that the average person in the DC Universe thinks of Bruce Wayne as the World's Worst Skier.
And for us, tthe sensible choice is to investiage who we donate to.
Rich recommended one called Plan USA in his News post; it sounds like he sponsors a child through them. Or am I reading too much into that?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Giant
Spod has it right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grasilich
You not reading the comic isn't going to make this comic any less awesome for all the rest of us.
I send this email to congratulate you on your wise decision regarding a recent attempted donation of over $17, 000 to your charity. I understand you refused this money, on the basis that it had been partly raised through actions related to Dungeons & Dragons. Although $17, 000 is not an inconsiderable sum, I feel the need to reassure you that your decision was the right one - as I am sure the starving children the money was meant for will agree.
Some of the so-called "gamers" who helped raise that money will likely protest, pointing out that this decision illustrates the moral ineptitude that seems to riddle the entirety of religion these days. You must not bow to this pressure! These people are, as we all know (courtesy of Jack Chick) devil worshipers and members of suicide cults. I allowed my teenaged son to pretend to be an elf with his for just a few hours, and when he returned he informed me that he had sold his soul to Satan. Just like heavy metal music, video games of any kind, and comic books, Dungeons & Dragons is a cancer of our society, and I am glad to see that this charity, at least, is upholding the moral standards of America.
The children who need that money? They'll understand. The moment elves got involved, that donation became dirtier than mob-money. The money was tainted with the stink of the devil, and I for one am glad you resisted the temptation to help others with it. Was it not Jesus who said "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."?
I understand another charity has since accepted the money with the goal of 'helping people' - a nauseating display of capitulation. Stay away from nerd-money, sirs. Our morals are just too precious to compromise by setting aside ridiculous prejudices in order to help people.
Alright. Just for that, if we both make it into the game, the first test target for Total Annihilation whenever I get Solar sorcery is going to be you.
You know everyone, I would personally suggest that before you send letters, you wait after you write them. Preferably a day, but at least an hour. Then look back at the letter and change it as necessary before sending it in. Otherwise you're likely to send extremely angry letters that will probably just be dismissed outright. This kind of "cooling off" period is a good thing for such letter-writing.
Well, I disagree with you. Polite or not, the letters won't change anything. Sending one had only a single purpose as far as I am concerned: making me feel better. If they get thousands, it might also have the purpose of making them realise many people do care about it. But only sheer numbers will do that, not the strength of our arguments.
What we can do is make sure as many people as possible know about it. personnally, I don't really donate to begin with considering both my husband and myself are unemployed, but should I find a nice-paying job that allows me to donate, I'll know to avoid CCF. If we can tell as many people as we can about it, it doesn't matter if they send an e-mail or not. What matters is that they will know to avoid this charity if they're feeling as strongly as we do here.
Ultimately, what really matters is the people helped by the charity, in this case children. Fortunately, other charities help children. If they were the only one, many things would be different. For one thing, it would be important to keep donating to them so the kids can be helped. it could also be important to make them realise their mistake, since any money they refuse could never be used to help children.
But that's fortunately not the case. there are other good charities. So let's just spread the word about them to anyone we know who might be looking for a new place to put their money to good use.
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Thanks. I promise not to voodoo you in the near future.
After reading this, I perused your site, and your mission statement, beliefs, and most of the information you provided in your About CCF section. Very noble. Every last bit of it speaks of using responsibility and accountability to assist as many children as can be helped. And yet, you turned down 17,398 ways to help. Tell me, which of the listed tenets of your foundation did this organization violate? How did this organization hinder your mission of helping kids? Did GenCon (and subsequently, Dungeons and Dragons) contribute to malnourished and uncared for children? If not, then why would you refuse to allow someone to support a cause you feel strongly about. GenCon offered you a donation out of the deep-seated respect for your organization held by one of the founding members of Dungeons and Dragons (Gary Gygax, who passed away earlier this year). In tribute to him, and out of respect for the causes he supported, an entire community wanted to honor both him and the cause he supported.
And they were turned away. This isn't like an anti-gambling organization taking money from casinos. It's an organization, too caught up in what they're fighting against, and losing sight what they were fighting FOR. Children. Needy children. That's what it is all about, or at least, that's what it was about, until your organization turned it into a Christianity vs. D&D issue. Is it not acceptable for people of different beliefs to gather together in support of a good cause?
Is the name of the CCF that important that it is worth the suffering of children? In first century Rome, christians had the moral strength to be reviled for their beliefs. They were hated, beaten, and killed, and yet they held to their beliefs. And now? We have an organization too afraid of being disliked to do what they're supposed to do.
Did your moral stand, in any way, detract from Dungeons and Dragons? Did it hurt the players, or the company that makes the game? No. The only victims in your choice were children. The same children in your mission statement, that there are too many of.... starving. How does that coincide with your beliefs.
Even in the bible, the parable of the good samaritan shows that even across beliefs, across nationalities, a man that reaches out and helps his fellow man loves his neighbor. Was that not what we gamers were trying to do?
We will still donate. Of that you can be sure. Your lack of judgement and clarity of purpose have not dulled our will to help others. But, as long as you maintain those backwards views, I can promise you. You will not see a dime of my money. Not even a cent. And I shall attempt to reach as many people as I can, and tell them the same.
When a person receives good news, they tell a friend. When a person receives bad news, they tell 10 friends. This was bad news. I have BCC'd most of my contacts, and am urging them to continue to spread this message, that as long as the CCF is unwilling to take money to help children, they were undeserving of any money they receive.
Because a charity does not want to be associated with D&D.
Who has been harmed? Precisely nobody - the money has simply gone to another charity: suffering people will still benefit, the people who made the donations still know that they have helped others.
Why would the charity do this? Simple - do a websearch on, say, Mother Teresa and see how many rants there are about how 'hypocritical' she was for accepting donations from dubious people and organisations.
Why should people sweating blood trying to help the suffering have to put up with these sort of smears? No reason - so the charity is protecting its members. Good for them.
And no, they're not going to check whether the accusations thrown against D&D are accurate. They're too *busy*. They simply don't have *time* to find out.
And if they did check? Sure, they'd find the 'demonic' charges to be laughable. But what about the savage violence and entrenched racism that OotS pokes fun at? How about Gygax's sexism? Or the early modules such as Keep on the Borderlands where PCs were expected to sell captives as slaves, and slaughter children?
Roleplaying, including D&D, is a lot of fun - and can be a healthy pastime. But D&D has a grubby past: we're in no position to take the moral high ground. Particularly against people who have far better things to do than listen to our complaints.
It has recently come to my attention that CCF has found it necessary to
decline a check from GenCon on the basis of protecting the integrity of its
brand name.
I must express my deep sense of sadness and regret that you chose this
course of action. Gary Gygax, a Christian and a game designer in whose
memory the money was raised, was a man deeply loved by his community.
The roleplaying game he helped to write has been unfairly and unjustly
maligned as a gateway to the occult. But I have worked in outreach
to occultists for 9 years, and I confess I have never met one who used
any roleplaying game as a gateway into it. I have read real grimoires,
and any aspiring occultist who sought the knowledge found in them in D&D
would find that he had spent a lot of time and money for very little gain.
Nonetheless, because of mis-conceptions there has been a great deal of
pain and misunderstanding between the churchgoing community and the
gaming community, especially on those who count themselves members of both.
I am one of those.
Gary Gygax' death -- and the shared love for him in both communities --
represented a golden moment to heal the breech and redress a wrong.
CCF chose not to avail itself of the opportunity. If anything, it has made
the situation worse.
Whatever CCF intended with respect to protecting the integrity of its brand,
the actions CCF has taken have 'heaped burning coals' on the heads of many
in the gaming community, and I daresay it will make it much harder for
non-Christian gamers to consider the gospel or its claims. Its
hard to listen to what we preach when our actions speak so loudly.
Its just one more stumbling block in a road already full of potholes.
Because of this, I personally will be donating my money in future to World
Vision, Mission of Mercy, and related organizations which pursue the same
mission but do not feel it necessary to take such ill-advised actions to
protect their brand. An action, by the way, which rings hollow in the
eyes of many, since no other organization has ever turned down a no-strings-
attached gift raised from the benefit of this group in the thirty year
history of the auction.
I nonetheless wish you success in your mission to bring comfort to the
lost and the hurting of the world, and hope that our next occasion to speak
is under better circumstances.
For those who think an e-mail to an account set up with an auto-reply is not good enough, here's some more information about the charity and who runs it:
Snail Mail Address
2821 Emerywood Parkway
Richmond VA 23294 USA
The president of the organization is Anne Lynam. The chairman of the Board of Directors is William E. Leahey, Jr.
I would like to strongly urge those who are in the mood to express their opinions to send an actual, physical letter to those individuals via snail mail. A physical letter has a much stronger impact in these sorts of situations, because of the effort involved in sending them. Please be polite in your correspondence. Explain the facts as you understand them, tell them why their views of gamers upsets you and (most importantly) point out that your donation money will be going to other charities in the future.
I also encourage those of you with blogs to make a post about this. Come back and link your blog post here, in order to help raise its Google rank. It would be good for this to show up high on searches for CCF, and for news to get far and wide -- including outside the gamer circle.
*
I was unable to find e-mail addresses for Ms. Lynam and Mr. Leahey (but I also didn't have much time for actual research). The only personal e-mail address I could find was for Ellie Whinnery, the Global Communications Manager. Her e-mail address is elwhinnery@ccfusa.org. It's obviously hard to extrapolate a pattern from one address, but for those inclined to try to e-mail Ms. Lynam and Mr. Leahey, I'd suggest trying anlynam@ccfusa.org and wileahey@ccfusa.org.
*
Finally, if folks are interested in even more charities, I'd be willing to list some of my personal favorites. But, I think between the two Rich mentioned in his news post (Fisher House and Plan USA) and the rest of the ones mentioned here, there's already quite a good list.
My two cents. Ok, don't go crazy and start writing them hate mail or anything like that. Maybe even just leave them alone. While I too think it is absurd to not take the money for charity, they have a right to their beliefs just as you or I do. If one of their beliefs is that DnD is evil how could they accept money from the sales of it? It would be like me accepting money from mainly the sales of pornography, or some other area I consider evil. There may be a difference of opinions/viewpoints, but that doesn't mean we have to attack it. They did what they had to do based on their beliefs, just as I'm sure many of you act in accordance with your own beliefs.
And in our beliefs, we are respectfully expressing how we disagree with their actions by contacting them. No one is attacking anyone in those letters, we're trying to keep it as civilized as possible.
Hypothetically, lets say a real Evil Organization was donating money to charity to bring up its PR- say, The Mafia.
Would you say that no matter the source, because people's lives are at stake, they must accept the money?
Now I think they are very wrong to not accept, but only because they are wrong about D&D.
EDIT: the contrasting view was said, I think, by Vespasian, when his advisor told him it was wrong- undignified to use money from taxing toilets to build temples. He held up a coin and said "Does it smell?"
Last edited by hamishspence : 11-01-2008 at 10:33 AM.
good point. Point I was making is- that if they genuinely believe...what they believe, in their worldview, it makes sense, not that their worldview is right, because in this case it isn't.
Let me clarify my post a bit. I just want to make sure no one is going to write offensive, attacking letters/emails. If you want to write a "civilized" one as someone put it, go ahead. Just remember that other people have different opinions than you and thats ok. The money was raised "cleanly" to us, not to them.
Also, starving children are a sad thing, but there are tons of starving children and quite a few starving children charities. If the concern was for starving children then they (Gen Con peoples) should have picked a different charity with that focus. Instead they went with Fisher House Foundation. Nothing wrong with that, just a different charity with a different goal.
Thank you for writing to Anne Goddard and sharing your concerns. Anne was traveling when she received your email. We discussed your concern and she asked that I respond on her behalf Please know that we take your email very seriously.
There appears to be a misunderstanding which I would like to correct. When Gen Con contacted CCF about its auction, we were pleased to accept donations. However, we couldn’t lend our name for publication because our policies have specific criteria for endorsements. We were unaware that this had caused any problem or concern for Gen Con until we began receiving emails. This decision was in no way intended to be a reflection on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeon and Dragons. We have the utmost respect for the gaming community and were touched by the generosity expressed through your auction. We were disappointed that we were not the recipients of the donation but we were pleased that another worthy organization benefited.
We realize this has become a topic of discussion in the gaming community and we hope you will help us by sharing this response.
The needs of children are great and we welcome your support. Should you wish to learn more we invite you to visit our website at www.christianchildrensfund.org.
Again, I thank you for taking the time to voice your concern. Your passion for gaming and your support for children are admirable.
Sincerely,
Cheri Dahl
Vice President, International Communications and Fundraising
I can understand why an organization might not want to give permission for its name to be published in an event brochure if they have no control or influence over the event. It's not a common policy, but it's not unheard of.
For example, a pet charity I'm familiar with stopped allowing itself to be listed as a recipient at most dog shows after a judging scandal at a small regional show that had been heavily advertised as "come support the (pet rescue organization). It didn't mean they opposed dog shows; they just didn't want to take a chance.
This letter seems to indicate that the nature of the convention (or what games were featured) was not a factor in their decision.
When I found out about this action I was appalled. Turning down over $17,000 in money donated in good faith because it might be "tainted" by Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) is reason many people do not take any kind of religion seriously.
I grew up learning and loving the teaching of Jesus Christ. He is my personal Savior and is a guiding light in my life. I think he would be shocked and appalled that your organization turned down money donated in good faith. He taught us to love and accept all of Humanity, not just those that believe the same things you do. Heck, he wasn't even Christian he was Jewish.
I have been playing DnD for well over a decade. I have never once worshiped a devil or have had thoughts of suicide. I played characters that fought evil and tried to make their world a better place. That is exactly what DnD is it is a game of make believe. I don't think any of those characters I created are any more real than any other fictional character. The game teaches you to use your imagination, think outside the box, and getting along with a group of people.
The sensational stories of the 70's and 80's are pure propaganda against DnD, by people that don't understand nor play it. I find it appalling that those close minded attitudes still persist in this day and age. The DnD I have been associated with has always been good triumphing over evil and a happy ending. I don't think that my soul has ever been "tainted" by DnD.
I apologize if your organization is not close minded and is only reacting because of close minded donors. I have seen and been around that type of close minded attitudes in my life. The only way to deal with them is through patience and education. You missed a golden opportunity to teach these types of people a lesson in love and acceptance by bowing to their pressure. You could have shown that people who play so called "tainted" hobbies are just as loving and just as open to helping their fellow man.
I have told all of my family and their responses are similar to mine even though they do not play any form of DnD. I know that one person standing against a wrong doesn't do much. I hope that the many letters and emails that you receive from people that are just as insulted by this as I am will change your mind. If many people stand against a great wrong it will be righted. I hope that this will change your attitude for future donations.
Sincerely,
Texas Jedi
I hope that we can at least shame them into saying they made a mistake. I think that would go along way into cooling my anger.
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I must commend you on your choice to reject the offering from persons involved with role playing. It is surely in the children’s best interest to only benefit from the charity of those your organization feel are worthy to donate. This calls to mind a few scriptures that may apply:
Luke 6:37
Luke 13:34-30
Matthew 7:6
Matthew 25:32-46
Rest assured, I will not bother your organization by offering any monies in the future and I have informed all those I know of your policy as well.
Reply:
Quote:
Thank you for writing to Anne Goddard and sharing your concerns. Anne was traveling when she received your email. We discussed your concern and she asked that I respond on her behalf Please know that we take your email very seriously.
There appears to be a misunderstanding which I would like to correct. When Gen Con contacted CCF about its auction, we were pleased to accept donations. However, we couldn’t lend our name for publication because our policies have specific criteria for endorsements. We were unaware that this had caused any problem or concern for Gen Con until we began receiving emails. This decision was in no way intended to be a reflection on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeon and Dragons. We have the utmost respect for the gaming community and were touched by the generosity expressed through your auction. We were disappointed that we were not the recipients of the donation but we were pleased that another worthy organization benefited.
We realize this has become a topic of discussion in the gaming community and we hope you will help us by sharing this response.
The needs of children are great and we welcome your support. Should you wish to learn more we invite you to visit our website at www.christianchildrensfund.org.
Again, I thank you for taking the time to voice your concern. Your passion for gaming and your support for children are admirable.
Sincerely,
Cheri Dahl
Vice President, International Communications and Fundraising
I guess they didn't think we were important. Nice to know they are woking on a good spin to try to cover up the huge insult.
I think that Matthew 7:6 does quite neatly sum up my views on this charity actually.
__________________
It is a contraction of Evil DM Mark 3. I don't know why why so many have difficulty with a standard contraction but there we are. In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded
Sir Terry
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tirian
He may secretly be the World's Greatest Detective, but I think that the average person in the DC Universe thinks of Bruce Wayne as the World's Worst Skier.
I am shocked by this. Absolutely shocked that people are still thinking like this about D&D. It is a game, just a game!
However just like anything, it can be misused for wrong purposes or whatever.
However raising that much money is not a bad thing, it was a good thing, and I'm shocked that they would reject that money simply because they think D&D = Stanic ((it isn't, unless the players make it that way (like most other things in a way), heck, you can make some sort of religion and goody-goody campaign))... I hate falling into stereo types >_<
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