It’s been a ridiculous 24 hours in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Just to recap the main points of a story we’ve covered since
the beginning, atheist Matt Wilbourn wanted to donate $
100 to the Murrow Indian Children’s Home because he
appreciated the work they did, even though they were a
Baptist-run organization.

After he gave the money and filled out the form, saying the
donation would be made on behalf of the Muskogee Atheist
Community (which he and his wife Keli co-founded), he
received a call from the charity group saying they couldn’t
accept his money because “it would go against everything
they believe in.”

Matt thought that was absurd. He wasn’t asking them to stop
believing in God or promote atheism. He just wanted to help
the children and he thought that would override any
theological differences.
But how much money would this charity really refuse from
atheists? $100 might be chump change to them, but what
about $250? $500? So he start a GoFundMe campaign..https://www.gofundme.com/2zc57tpg to find
out.

Click the link to the site and see how the cash increases by the minute

As I write this, that campaign is at $24,094. And it seems to
go up every minute. Atheists from various walks of Life are contributing to this cause and counting as we speak.

And here’s the incredible thing: The Murrow Indian
Children’s Home, a charity that claims to care for “American
Indian children that are in out-of-home placement as a
result of abuse and neglect,” still say they don’t want the
money because it’s coming from atheists.
In a press release issued last night, they stuck to their
irrational belief that taking money from atheists would
somehow compromise their own mission:

-


The Murrow Indian Children’s Home was founded on
Biblical principles over 100 years ago by a Baptist
Missionary.
Those Biblical principles include believing and trusting in
the Trinity; God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
To accept money for an advertisement which would
indicate “In Honor of the Muskogee Atheist
Community” in the advertisement, would be contrary
to those Biblical principles upon which we at Murrow
stand. We are Christians, believing in God, Jesus and the
Holy Spirit.
We appreciate the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Matt
Wilbourn for their thoughtful donation to the Murrow
Children’s Home. This decision is not about money or
personal matters. It is solely about our religious
beliefs and Honoring God our Father.
Mr. Wilbourn asked that his donation be noted in the ad,
“In Honor of the Muskogee Atheist Community”. Murrow
cannot Honor the Atheist non-belief in God our
father, and Honor God our Father under our Biblical
principles. Those two positions are totally opposite of
each other. Therefore, we must respectfully decline the
donation and the request to Honor the Atheist Community
with the donation in an advertisement for a Murrow
fundraising event.
Once again, we thank the Wilbourns’ for their generosity
to Murrow and we understand their rights to their beliefs.
We also hope that in turn the Muskogee Atheist
Community and the Wilbourns’ will respect the Biblical
principles of the Murrow foundation for over 100 years
and understand why our principles are different and that
we must Honor our God.

-


There’s only one acceptable reaction to the above statement:


It makes absolutely no sense. Accepting money from
atheists doesn’t mean you have to accept their beliefs. It’s
just that simple. I’ve worked with several atheist-run non-
profit groups and we were thrilled to receive donations from
religious people who supported the work we were doing. It
happened often.
By their own rules, the Murrow Indian Children’s Home
would not accept money from Jews, Muslims, Hindus,
Pagans, or anyone else who’s not a Christian, because their
beliefs would contradict each other.
I’ve never seen a non-profit that cared so little about
advancing its own agenda — in this case, helping kids who
are suffering in many ways — that they rejected support just
because the donors were open about their theological
differences. Keep in mind that many Christians donated to
Matt’s GoFundMe campaign; you can tell by the messages
they left on the page.
In any case, let’s get to the other issue: What is Matt going to
do with the $24,094 in his pocket? (Yep, it went up since I
started writing this post)
He said late last night that he would give almost all of it to
Camp Quest Oklahoma. The GoFundMe campaign would
remain open for anyone who wants to donate, but the funds
would now go to the camp for children of atheist parents.
(So kids win either way!) Camp Quest organizers said they
would use the money to “improve camp programs and
increase the number of financial aid recipients.”
I said “almost” all the money.

Matt plans to hold on to $5,000 because he still wants to give
it to the children at the Murrow Indian Children’s Home. If
the people who run the group won’t accept his atheism-
tainted money, he’ll get it to them another way, even if that
means donating it anonymously.


How could a $5,000 donor really remain anonymous? I’m
not sure. But Matt says if they still reject the money, he’ll
donate it to a local church, which will then donate the
money to the Children’s Home. Those kids are getting this
money, dammit.

I still can’t wrap my head around a children’s charity that
rejects perfectly good money. It didn’t come from a hate
group. It came from a generous donor who raised even
more money for them, and who will still give them
thousands of dollars that they don’t deserve out of the
goodness of his own heart.

I hope other donors to the charity are aware of this story.
Because it seems obvious the charity doesn’t need any more
funding. How hypocritical would it be for them to reject
thousands of dollars (with no strings attached) only to send
out fundraising letters in the winter?