CCF Refuses D&D Donation: Update

I'm sure a lot of you out there have heard that the Christian Children's Fund, a charity supported for a long time by Gary Gygax, refused a several thousand dollar donation from Gen Con this year. This cause a lot of anger, and confused a lot of people.

Personally, I was really put off when I first heard about this as a Christian gamer who is almost as passionate about gaming as he is about God. Now the idea of balancing God and D&D is one that I've done a lot of thinking about over the years, and is a topic I plan fully to talk about more in later posts, but for now I wanted to update anyone unaware on the charity situation.

Rich Burlew, author of The Order of the Stick (my favorite gaming webcomic) recently wrote a blog post with some updated information. Apparently, there was miscommunication, and the charity did not actually refused the donation - rather, it was unable to distribute publicity materials or something like that. I can't really work through it all since I been up all night, but it sounds like they're at least taking steps to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Rich quotes the following as basically what the charity has been saying in response to this whole controversy. Reprinted for your convenience:

"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."

Anyways, you can read the whole statement here, and make sure to check out Rich's blog post here for the full update. Also, go read The Order of the Stick!