Stuart Hacking

I was reading through the usual assortment of RSS feeds and webcomics when I stumbled across this story on Giant in the Playground Games.

To summarize – insofar as Rich Burlew has summarized:

To honour the passing of Gary Gygax earlier this year, participants at Gen-con (A notable gaming convention) raised money to donate to charity- the charity was chosen as Gary had been a keen donator in the past.  The charity was Christian Children’s Fund.

The story goes on to tell that CCF refused the donations offered by Gen-con on the basis that Funding was partly raised by the sale of Dungeons & Dragons based material, which was tainted by evil…

Okay, that last part seems a little extreme and perhaps the idea was simply that in the eyes of some the material might be easily misunderstood or associated to evil.  Nevertheless, this is how things seem to have transpired.

Firstly, I’d like to state that I’m an avid gamer and see no problem with playing Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer or any number of Computer games that are built on Fantasy or Science Fiction themes.  I think the important point to bear in mind is that it is fiction and there’s nothing wrong with a little escapism.

What concerns me about the article is how, in one fell swoop, this organisation seems to have reinforced an old negative stereotype on Christians:  We are judgmental, holier-then-thou, close-minded and hopelessly outdated.  I’m no theologian, so I don’t wish to start filling this blog with biblical references and fire-and-brimstone,  I just wanted to point out that the apparent stance of CCF does not reflect the viewpoint of the majority of Christians.

Another debate has arisen from this event- the validity of CCFs stance to refuse donations which they see as ‘tainted’ (as described by the secondary sources… but for this argument let’s suppose it was true).

To refuse a gift based on the source is, in my opinion, counter-productive.  Much better to take this tainted gift and purify it by putting it to Holy use.  Doesn’t this present an altogether more positive image, while benefitting the children at the same time?

In closing I have received a response to an email I sent to CCF (while typing this post- so please take the preceding musings as hypothetical rather than concrete).  which is posted below this paragraph.  It clarifies the decision by CCF which appears to be more of a misunderstanding – I hope therefore that no ill will remains as a result of this episode.

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.

Gaming, Self charity, Christianity, Gaming, News, religion