I used to be a big fan of the Christian Children’s Fund. Donors can sponsor a child in a third world country, and for under a dollar a day can make sure the child has food, health care, and basic education. Its a great cause, and a very efficient charity – almost all the money goes to the children rather than overhead.
But recently, something happened that disturbed me. To honor Gary Gygax, the inventor of Dungeons and Dragons who passed away recently, a group of D&D players held a charity auction and raised upwards of $17,000 which they then donated to CCF (Gygax’s favorite charity). CCF refused the money, on the basis that the money was “tainted” by its association with “satanic” D&D.
Now, D&D has no satanic elements; its a game, like monopoly or scrabble. In the 80s there were a couple of media hyped cases about very disturbed kids who in addition to doing a lot of terrible things also played D&D, and the game got a bad rap. But that was nearly 30 years ago, and D&D is now mainstream as are its online spin offs (e.g. world of warcraft). So, I, as a gamer, was very disturbed to see the specter of stigma against gamers once again rear its ugly head.
But more importantly, the people who suffer here are the children. They don’t really care where the money comes from. I’m sure they would rather have food and medical care than worry about whether the money came from a less than desirable source (and I reiterate, there’s nothing undesirable about D&D). And it makes me think – if CCF is willing to refuse $17,000 without bothering to do any research to see that D&D is totally harmless, then are they really putting the needs of the children first?
I used to be a big advocate of CCF but I’m starting to second guess that. I still appreciate all the good it does for the children, but I can’t help but wonder if my money wouldn’t be better spent going to a charity that 1) doesn’t turn down large chunks of money that could help their cause and 2) wouldn’t turn down my donation if it knew what my hobbies were.
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