Why This Open Letter
Background Note: We upset someone who played our game and introduced it to Christian and non Christian friends/families as an opportunity to talk about God. After our introduction of The Trump Cards, and its opportunities for donations, we received a message that this someone would no longer think highly of us or our ministry.
Our "liberal push" was the last straw for this individual. Specifically "it's ok to bust on our president, but then combine it with VERY poor choices for charity???!!!" This person felt as if they were "duped all along" by supporting us. This saddened us. So we wrote the individual, and corresponded. Things ended peacefully.
But we will take this moment to address our thoughts to you as well. The following is a (slightly) revised version of our email sent to this former supporter of AGFGC, with some additional thoughts based on our follow-up conversation.
We share it with you. Feel free to share it with others, or just ponder it yourself.
An Open Letter to Offended People
Dear X,
A Game for Good Christians represents the broad scope of the Church universal. We presented you with a sample of the denominations from which people hail who play our game. At the time of this writing we took an informal poll to get a better picture of these people, the results of which can be found here (edit: and we include the list in the comments below). In the U.S. alone, our players range from Catholics to Pentecostals, Non-Denominationals to Lutherans, Mennonites to Metropolitan Community Church members, African Methodist Episcopals to American Baptists. We minister to a wide swath of the faith.
You told us none of that is important, that we're all supposed to be unified in Christ. This is a wonderful sentiment, but we will allow those more learned in ecclesiology than us to hash out the ultimate reality and significance of that idea. But in weekly, daily practice, the Church universal has a multiplicity of local expressions. So we return to our original statement: AGFGC represents the Church universal. We cater to people within and without all denominations. While these groups do not agree on everything, relevant to this conversation, they hold at least two things in common. First, they like our game. Second, and vastly more important, they can honor the Biblical ideal of caring for the least of these. A commonality we will return to later.
X, you accuse us of pushing a “liberal” agenda. We're not. We're not into agendas. We can't even use calendars effectively. But should we take "liberal" as an insult? A simply survey of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament will show, without bias or twisting of Scripture, that the vast majority of the prophets, as well as Jesus and the disciples, were labelled as "liberal" by their contemporaries. We're not elevating ourselves to their status, merely pointing out that words have meanings and histories.
Besides, we made this game and have been accused of much worse. However, the thing that has us thinking, the aspect of this correspondence that rattles around in our brains, is the outrage at the charities/organizations we chose.
X, you've told us that "the bible is very clear on what is right and what is wrong," and that "supporting organizations that are clearly and directly outside of the biblical Truth" puts us "outside of biblical Truth." You accused us, and all the "false churches" we mentioned above, of "support[ing] murder" and "the killing of innocent children." That we, and members of those denominations who continue to support our game, have strayed from the foundation of Biblical Truth, and have caved in to those around us, doing "what is right in man's eyes and not God's." We took these statements to mean our choice of Planned Parenthood as a donation option is at the heart of this screed.
We challenge you to look into PP more than an ill-informed Facebook meme, Fox News, or Focus on the Family, to see where the vast majority of their money and resources go; to look at the testimony of women whose lives are improved and saved by the medical treatment that they provide, treatment that has nothing to do with abortion. We ask if your image of being 'pro-life' extends beyond the womb? We wait for a conversation predicated on thoughtful deliberation of all the facts, not just one sound byte.
X, you refused to explain why the ACLU is anathema to the Christian faith. You refused. You told us that you would not, could not explain anything to us on this score because we are not standing secure on the aforementioned foundation of Biblical Truth. You told us that "the Bible is clear on this point too." As the ACLU is not mentioned in the Bible, we are not sure what that statement means. We continue to ask if you are aware of the numerous cases the ACLU has fought, and won, on the behalf of Christians? That the ACLU has supported what you may call “conservative” ideals (or 'correct ideals founded on Biblical Truth') like religious liberty. We don't know if the problem is that the organization upholds this principle for all faiths and no faith, not just your narrow expression of the Christian faith. As you are silent on the matter, we don't want to speculate further.
However X, your silence on the remaining charities/organizations was deafening. We find it hard to believe that you find it reprehensible to support the Children's Health Fund or Meals on Wheels. We find it hard to believe that you have biblical reasons for hating the SIERRA CLUB, unless your interpretation of Genesis 1-2 reads as an environmental snuff film.
As we said before X, we represent the Church universal. Different factions in the family of faith have different ways of viewing things. And this is at the heart of this letter.
The Church universal does not feel one way about abortion or legal proceedings within the United States. Individual denominations, and individual people within those denominations, will make up their own minds in regards to these things. And miraculously, divinely, they remain within the Love of Christ.
This does not change based on what you think. However, if you are right, and God above, who sits in loving judgment, condemns all of these people housed in "false churches," so be it. Guess we'll find out.
Those who purchase The Trump Cards will decide how to allocate their money as they feel is an expression of their beliefs informed by their faith, just like you have they option to withdraw your support based on your understanding of yours. We gave them that option. They get a new expansion deck AND they can help protect God’s creation, whether that is cleaning the air you breathe, providing medical care to a child you love, feeding a hungry senior you may be one day, providing cancer screenings for women in your life, or even defending your right to condemn us all to the fiery pits of Gehenna.
The rational person can respond to this and say "I will not buy this game" or "I will not support this company anymore." We accept that and honor it. However, if they cannot do this without demonizing everyone within the household of faith who does not agree with them, something is seriously and tragically wrong.
So X, if we have lost your business that is regrettable. We value our customers. But you were not "duped" into buying our previous products. Nothing about what we are currently doing is in contradiction with anything we have done in the past. We are more than the cards in the game. We are vocal on social media about what we stand with/for. Our Card Talks and other blog post have never been shy. We’ve been transparent from day one. And nothing in the game or expansions that you own are in any way changed by this new deck.
We likewise appreciate your reply and comments, and also pray the peace of Christ upon you, and success in your personal and professional life. But we find we have no reason to apologize, nor a need to confess a sin in this regard. We recognize you feel differently, but that does not change our stand.
We also recognize that we are human, and prone to errors. So we say (as we do at the end of every Card Talk) what do we know: we made this game (and this promotion) and you probably think we’re going to Hell.