fencing as good deed?

[anotheranon]

A link to this interesting charity event landed in my inbox this morning. I have to admit - I like the concept. Fencing all night in bouts that are fun and sponsored whether you win or not, for arguably a good cause.

Arguably...

That's kind of what is holding me up. I don't know anything about the House of Mercy charity except what the person who sent the email told me - that they plan after school activities for underprivleged children in Baltimore. It's a hard cause to argue with.

However, the only other B.More charities with "Mercy" in the name that I'm finding online are Catholic. And I have no problem with Catholics as such, I just don't want to do fundraising that will go towards teaching some of the Vatican's more odious judgments to children - namely that gay people and birth control are bad.

Can anyone offer me some guidance here? I'd like to go kick some ass for the kids provided that the charity offers all the after school activities without the dogma.

Am I terrible for being this critical?

Comments

Hmm...

[shemhazai.livejournal.com]

As a member of "Curvers for Choice", I sympathise with your situation. Don't have any ideas, though. I went to a Catholic school, and gays & abortions weren't mentioned once...they're both pretty hot subjects, that the teachers avoided like the plague.

Also, speaking of sabres, here's something that's been running through my head since Sunday:

La Maupin + Anne Bonny + some pointy things = YUMMY historic fiction. (give or take a couple of decades. ;) I'm going to go reread the Three Musketeers and the Comte de Monte Cristo to get in the right literary mood for the attempt...

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

>Am I terrible for being this critical?

No. It's YOUR time, energy, and money. You decide how you want to contribute it. If something that looks like a good cause and a good time is tangled up with something you're allergic to, or something you find morally repugnant, take your fencing energy and your charity contribution elsewhere. Maybe get some fencing buddies together and all of you give money directly to the city recreation program in a poor neighborhood? Or just give the money to a cause that doesn't give you the creeps, and do your fencing at another time.

I don't know anything at all about this particular organization. Maybe they're affiliated with the Catholic Church in ways that would bother you. Maybe they're completely secular and the name is a coincidence. Maybe the religious connection is so faint it doesn't conflict with your values. I don't know anything about the organization OR your values...but I know it's a good thing to have your charitable work and donations line up with your values. That's why I don't contribute to the Salvation Army, for instance.

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

Am I terrible for being this critical?

If you are terrble, then I am terrible too. Doing something for a good cause if of course...well...*good*. But to do it in the name of something you don't believe in, is perhaps not so comfortable. And I have found that most charity/good causes are also carried out by non-political - non-religiously associations.

I would contact the admin for that event and ask.

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

You're certainly not a bad person for being leery of it. If it's something that you don't agree with, you shouldn't support it.

That said, however... it looks like they're at least loosely associated with Mercy Medical Center, which is where Alex was born, and the only thing Catholic about that place was a mural in the lobby and the two nuns working at the information desk. I also seem to remember that my church (First Unitarian of Baltimore) is supporting House of Mercy to some degree -- I'll check on that for you, in case I'm misremembering.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Please do check if you can. If the Unitarians endorse House of Mercy I'd feel much better about them and more likely to participate in this event.