Something to consider about your gift to the State Employee Charitable Campaign
LTTE in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:
As an employee of the state of Texas, I receive an annual request to participate in the State Employee Charitable Campaign. This year, while scanning the list of donation options, I came across the Institute for Creation Research. The ICR may be non-profit, but it is not a charity.
It is an anti-intellectual advocacy group, dedicated to denying science and imposing the beliefs of one religion on all schoolchildren. To include the ICR in the SECC program is a disgrace, especially at a time when Texas State Board of Education creationists are once again battling to legitimize teaching of religious allegory as an alternative to established science.
In contrast to the respectful variety of worthy religious and secular charities included in the SECC, there are no science advocacy groups that counterbalance the ICR.
Therefore rather than donate to this biased and politicized campaign, I chose to give instead to the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization fighting to keep Texas K-12 science classes safe from religious extremists.
I urge all Texas state employees who believe in religious freedom and fact-based education to carefully consider their charitable giving options.
JORDAN BERG/Lubbock
http://lubbockonline.com/editorial-letters/2013-10-25/letter-consider-options-giving#comment-309419
