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Christian Children’s Charity Refuses $25K Donation Because Donor Is An Atheist [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 17:27 PST, Jan 4, 2017

In a drama that’s been ongoing for months, an Oklahoma Christian children’s charity has refused a massive $25,000 cash donation because the donor is an atheist. The charity, Murrow Indian Children’s Home, reportedly receives the majority of its funding from the American Baptist Churches Association. (On the charity’s website, its mission is described as being “to provide a safe, nurturing environment, spiritual foundation and cultural experience to Native American children in crisis”).

According to the atheist prospective donor Matt Wilbourn, the organization (which is currently said to house over 30 at-risk kids) said it would accept his donation on one condition: that he change the credit on the donation to something other than what he listed.

And what is the name that Wilbourn wants listed on his donation to the Christian children’s charity? The “Muskogee Atheist Community,” which is the name of a private Facebook atheist group co-founded by Matt Wilbourn and his atheist wife.

As Heat Street reports, the Christian children’s charity refused the atheist group’s donation “based on principle.” Murrow Indian Children’s Home told the local media that because of their charity’s “Biblical principles,” they cannot accept a gift that would, in turn, be tantamount to an advertisement for an atheist organization. Namely, the Muskogee Atheist Community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrgFMNv2TaA

“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.”

The entire bizarre clash of money and wills started back in August. That was when the avowed atheist tried to donate $100 to the Christian children’s charity and was rejected. As KJRH 2 reports, Wilbourn says he submitted his donation and filled out the forms required to do so.

“I filled out the paperwork and I put my wife and I’s name on the paperwork. At the bottom, it asks if there is any person or organization you want to put it in memory of and I put the Muskogee Atheist Community.”

Some time later, the atheist says he got a phone call at work from someone representing the charity. He claims that he was told that, unless he changed the name on the donation, it would not be accepted. Wilbourn refused to change the name and was then told his $100 would be returned by the Christian charity. Even though, not long after his donation was refused, the charity publicly claimed to be short on funds.

“Do things out of the goodness of you heart whether it’s for religion or not, but don’t let religion come between you and someone who needs help and that’s what has happened here.”

After he was told that the $100 he’d donated out of the goodness of his heart would be sent back to him, Wilbourn turned to the members of his Facebook group, the Muskogee Atheist Community, to discuss his plight and how to handle the rejected donation. The consensus was that instead of accepting the money back from the Christian children’s charity (essentially taking it from the children he was trying to help), the atheist philanthropist should give the charity even more money.

“All of them were in agreement that we shouldn’t take the $100 back and instead raise the amount. I emailed the director of the Murrow Home and told her that I’m raising the amount to $250. No reply from her.”

Ultimately, a GoFundMe campaign was set up to raise money to be donated to the Murrow Indian Children’s Home, the Christian charity that refused Wilbourn’s $100. In all, over $28,000 was raised.

Over the course of his fundraising campaign, the atheist would-be donor tried multiple times to donate the money he’d raised to the Christian children’s charity but was repeatedly shot down. Unless he agrees that the Muskogee Atheist Community (or apparently any atheist or atheist organization) won’t be publicly credited for making the sizable donation.

Because the Christian children’s charity refuses to take his money, Wilbourn has decided to reallocate the funds he raised. He says that the tens of thousands of dollars will still go to help children, just not the children he originally set out to help. Rather, the money will go to Camp Quest Oklahoma, a secular organization with no religious affiliation.

Camp Quest Oklahoma bills itself as a children’s charity that focuses on teaching kids things like”‘rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method” and so on.

According to the final update on the GoFundMe campaign page, Wilbourn claims that the charity refused to take his money no matter what, even “whether I donate anonymously or through a local church.” The atheist would-be donor also claims that he tried to use the money he’d raised to pay the utility bills of the Christian children’s charity, but was told by the electric and water companies that he would have to have the group’s utility account numbers to do so.

“Therefore, it is with a very small amount of reluctance that I will now announce that we are donating all of the money to CampQuest Oklahoma. I’m sure it comes as no shock to anyone in the world that religious greed has prevailed once again. We tried.”

It also appears that the Muskogee Atheist Community continued to raise a substantial amount of money after it was determined that the Christian Children’s charity wasn’t going to be the recipient of their donation; at the time of the final update, the amount raised listed was just $5,106.47.

[Featured Image by Prazis/Shutterstock]

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