Maggie's Centre gift - the reality

James Jopling from Maggies Centres has sent me the following email clarifying what actually happened with Christian Voice

"Maggie’s is committed to providing cancer support and information for
everyone affected by cancer through our growing network of cancer
centres across the UK. We are a non-religious organisation, with no
affiliation to any religious or political group. Our goal is to provide
support for people affected by cancer, whatever their background or
beliefs may be.

Jerry Springer the Opera offered Maggie’s a donation of £10 per ticket
sold for the matinee performance of the show on 18th February, 2005.
This amounted to £3,000.

The day before the performance, we were contacted by Christian Voice,
the organisation that lobbied against the BBC. They told us that if we
accepted the donation we would cause offence and that they would take
action against us, effectively blocking our ability to work. They said
that they would picket our centres, send out a press release deploring
our action and email their 50,000 members. We felt that these actions
would have prevented us from being able to function effectively. We
also came under similar pressure from a second organisation UK Life
League.

We decided that we would withdraw because we believe that our job is to
help the people who come to us for support with their own battles for
living with cancer. We believe that this had the potential to be an
extra battle, not of their own choosing, that they didn’t have to
fight.

Not only were we very concerned about the disruption to our centres and
our services, but most importantly, the impact of this disruption on
the people diagnosed with cancer who come into our centres on a daily
basis.

We are a small charity with limited resources and our primary aim must
be to provide people affected by cancer with the practical and
emotional support and information they need.  Your donation of £50 will
help us to do so.  Many other people have similarly made donations
which have enabled us to cover the amount of the donation we turned
down.  This will help ensure that we can continue to build and run new
centres across the UK for all those affected by cancer."

This is somewhat different from the subsequent spin which CV have put on their actions - perhaps even they are begining to recognise the damage to the Gospel this kind of perverse morality creates. Note that CV claimed to be able to email 50,000 people - unless the Church in Britain is greatly more distorted than I think I think that is pure fantasy - but you can understand how a small charity with few direct Christian connections might be conned by it.

Comments

[Chris Tessone]

The more I hear about this Christian Voice group, the more reprehensible they seem. :-(

[Diana]

I know that Maggies have said that by the publicity they have received equivelant to the money they would have got from the Springer production but wouldn't it have been better if they had received both but without the ridiculous adverse publicity that an organisation who most arrogantly call themselves the Christian Voice (they don't speak for me!) have caused.

[Tania]

DEATH TO STEPHEN GREEN