I agree with your opinion that the ethical and moral background of a person does transcend the barrier between personal and professional life. While I share you

I agree with your opinion that the ethical and moral background of a person does transcend the barrier between personal and professional life. While I share your disappointment, I feel this leads to a larger problem than any of us would like to acknowledge. We're here (and Brendan Eich is here, by extension) because we share a common interest in technology and startups. From time to time it's necessary to remind ourselves that this is our only uniting quality. Just because I'm a secular guy that doesn't mean this is a given as far as any other member of the geek community is concerned. I'm probably not the only one to be occasionally surprised and dismayed when a fellow HNer casually expresses $insert_fundamentalist_traditional_value$. But it's worth reminding oneself that we don't in fact have a shared moral value system here, not even when it comes to basics. I'm making this observation because I don't think the actual donation is the central problem, it's Mr Eich's deeper seated belief system which some of us find appalling. But this and many other belief systems like it are quite common, it's just a facette that usually stays hidden during the normal flow of geek-to-geek interaction. I think the whole tech sector would just disintegrate if we started compartmentalizing based on world views. I remember when I was working at a startup, I somehow got into a discussion with an employee who firmly believed that I (and in fact the majority of people working there) would be going straight to hell to be tortured for all eternity. Not only that, he admitted that he was convinced we all deserved to go to hell and said the notion was filling him with a strange mixture of joy and pity. The thing is: we all got along great. This guy was always super nice to everyone, there was no way to tell from the outside. I decided then and there to just accept this and move on. Apparently, it's possible to work together (and even be friendly) even with the guys who are secretly wishing you harm. It's sad and depressing, but it works.