Global Giving's New Definition of Discrimination

I had a surprising experience recently when I tried to nominate Every Child Ministries for inclusion on the Global Giving website. I see on their site many projects similar to our own, so I felt we would be a good fit. After completing the standard information, I came to these two questions: 1. Are the same services provided to people of all faiths? And 2. Are people required OR ENCOURAGED (emphasis mine) to learn about your faith? The first question was easy to answer. ECM serves children of all faiths or no faith at all. We know God loves everyone and we want to express that by serving others regardless of their religion. The second question was harder because of the inclusion of the words "Or encouraged". How could someone who has something as good as the Christian faith NOT encourage others to consider it? That would be like having a cure for cancer but not encouraging anybody to look into it. That would be a tremendous crime against humanity. So, I answered "Yes." We don't force anyone to change their faith (as if such a thing were really possible anyway). We encourage and teach our staff not to overly pressure people to become Christians. But we definitely do encourage people to consider the claims of Jesus Christ and His ability to change their lives.

As soon as I clicked "Yes", a box in colored writing popped up saying that they have a non-discrimation policy and we couldn't be approved anyway, so I might as well quit working on the application right there. I went ahead anyway. I know we do not discriminate on the basis of religion, so I couldn't believe we would be turned down just for encouraging people to learn about Christianity and then decide for themselves. No opportunity was given to explain, and as soon as I hit the send button, another box popped up telling me that our application was being rejected because we discriminate. I wanted to respond, "No, I think it is YOU who is discriminating against us." The only recourse was to write an email telling them why I still felt ECM should be considered. I did so, in my most polite English. The email was never even acknowledged, and we never heard from Global Giving again.

Of course, they have the right to set the rules for their own website, but the more I thought about it, the more I was dismayed by their novel use of the word "discriminate." If we had denied help to someone based on their religion, that would be discrimination. But is it now to be considered discrimination to encourage people to learn about the faith that motivates and sustains us in offering help to them? What a strange definition of discrimination!

Well, I never considered it a virtue to discriminate before, but if encouraging people to learn about the One who made them and loves them is discrimination, I guess we are discriminators. Sounds like a better term all the time.