D&D satanic; here we go again.

[Harmon]

Gaming in general is educational- it teaches math, reading, comprehension, teamwork cartography, and it helps problem solving through the building of imagination.

I tried to explain this very thing to my sister-n-law when I bought my nephew (her step son) the PHB a few months back- he wasn’t reading enough and his grades were lacking because of it. She told me that he needed to read his schoolbooks and not some fantasy book about some Satanic religion. “You need to read the book first and see if Satan is mention in there,” I told her then followed with “he doesn’t want to read the school books, he wants to read something else, let him learn to comprehend this and it will help his comprehension of school books.”

She argued with me about it until her husband caught wind of the argument and stated- “I use to game on board ship,” he’s a 20 year vet of the Navy “let him keep the book.”

She is still upset about it, but she still has yet to try to understand.

Tolerance, acceptance and such, seem lacking in a great many people where it comes to gaming.

 

[ivocaliban]

Try a slippery slope:

1. Is she speaking from personal observation, or by the word of others?
2. Is chess satanic?
3. Is acting and drama satanic?
4. Are movies like the Lord of the Rings satanic?

I've got family members who are of a like mind and most of these examples fall flat in the face of pre-conceived notions:

1. My experience is that it's almost always the word of others. Personal experience would mean you've gotten too close to the thing you condemn as satanic.

2. Perhaps not chess, but my own grandmother calls playing cards "The Devil's Picturebook" and won't abide card playing in her house. So, trying to explain something like D&D is a bit of a trial.

3. Acting and drama around a table covered with dice and pictures of dragons may not be considered satanic, but to many observers it's certainly abnormal. Many people let go of "play acting" when they were children and find it essentially pointless in an adult unless you're getting paid large amounts of money.

4. There are those who would find Lord of the Rings films satanic, though there are many more who find the Harry Potter franchise as some sort of evil plot.

Granted I'm not trying to support any of these prejudices and stereotypes, but there is a certain portion of the population who are told "this is evil" by people they look up to and respect (be it parents, clergymen, or evangelists) and simply won't look at the matter in depth. An inherent danger of fundamentalism is the idea that what you believe is the absolute truth and that swaying from that truth (even in the face of new information) is giving in to temptation. It's a very scary thing.

 

[Sebastian Francis]

There are plenty of devout Christian D&D players, so it's not really a devout Christian issue.

I'd suggest finding the article that Tracy Hickman wrote about the misunderstandings of RPGs, and have your sister-in-law read it.

I'm a devout Christian, and a DM since 1980. Many other devout Christians don't have an opinion one way or the other.

There is a Christian Gamer's Guild online; though the exact address escapes me. Check it out, though.

 

[Aristotle]

Not much to add over what’s already been said here. When I was growing up this situation was much more prominent. The religious networks (at least in my area) would dedicate hours of television on the evils of role playing or interviews with former role players who were on death row for killing loved ones and blamed satanic games for their situation, or ex-cultists claiming D&D was the gateway game that led them to evil.

*sigh* At 17 years old my parents found a stash of role playing books in the ceiling above my closet (where any of my friends might have stashed some playboys). Since that day I've found myself constantly debating the value of gaming and how a game in and of itself can not be evil (but like any tool it could be used for less than good purposes).

The game does not instruct you on the proper procedures of real world ritual, who and what to pray to if you want "real power", or any other real world occult practices. It does depict demons, evil spirits, and various "vile" beings. Of course rules for these unsavory things need to exist in order for the heroes to be able to overcome them. If simply having evil an antagonist makes something satanic, then a great deal of non-game literature and media out there needs to be destroyed.

The game is a tool for storytelling. Sure, someone could tell some very dark (even satanic) stories with this tool... but only because that person chose to use the tool for that purpose. Not because the tool forced them to, or because that is the only function it has.

I can't say role playing has brought me into religion (I question my faith just as much now as I did as a kid, before I got into gaming) but it has inspired me to ask more questions and to be more interested in the history of real world faiths. Role playing has certainly not made me less religious or given me a dim view of faith (although I do get exasperated defending my hobby to uninformed members of the religious community).

I can say role playing saved my life. While the kids I grew up with escalated from simple vandalism to full scale criminal behavior; I was reading fantasy novels. While those kids were on the street fighting, doing drugs, or performing criminal acts; I was chowing down on pizza and Coke, and making plans to storm the keep. And while those kids were overdosing, getting killed, or getting sent to prison; I was mastering the art of storytelling and world design. I can honestly say that I would have been out there, with those guys, if I had not found gaming. As it stands 8 of the 10 of us kids from my neighborhood are dead or in prison. I wonder if I'd still be on the same side of that statistic without role playing games.

 

[Verequus]

I have two aunts that tell me this all the time. "Are you still playing that satanic game?" I ask them why they think it is Satanic. They say it is because their minister tells them so.

Faith in a man who tells you things are evil, without basis in fact = zealotry. Zealots cannot be argued with.

<sarcasm>My advice is to get a pentagram tattooed to your forehead and mount a goates head over your fireplace....</sarcasm>

Have you ever considered to ask your aunts: "Would you believe your minister, if he tells you, that the earth is flat and saying otherwise is satanic?"

 

[Dark Psion]

Finally, remember that OJ Simpson and Michael Skakel each played Golf, and were either accused or convicted murderers; by extension, Golf causes people to commit murder. (That one you might want to hold back as a last resort.)

My favorite statistic is that almost every person that has an Auto Accident has eaten potatoes in the last 24 hours.

Therefore Potatoes cause car accidents!!!!

 

[Halivar]

The important thing is understanding that the world you "play" in is not real. You cannot cast magic spells. You cannot summon balors. You cannot jump from the top of your house and ignore the first 10 feet of damage. Anyone that starts blurring this very, very important truth is going to have problems with D&D, either irrationally against or morbidly obsessed. I have known and met both.

Growing up I was not allowed to play D&D because it was "satanic", even though neither I nor my family was religious (never even saw the inside of a church until I was in college). In fact I didn't start playing D&D until I found friends at the church I attend now that thought it would be fun, and started playing with me once a week.

What I have found is this: those people that are the most informed as to the tenants and doctrines of their faith are less likely to have problems with D&D. I don't know why. My irreligious (or rather, superstitious) parents hate D&D, while my very devout Christian friends either enjoy it, or at the least care about it as much as they do the international cricket championship.

Getting back to my original point: some D&D players take the verisimillitude too far, and they make fodder for groups that think D&D is evil and has mutating powers. One ENWorlder mentioned a group-mate who started worshipping her character's deity. These kinds of people shouldn't be playing D&D. They also shouldn't be watching movies, TV, or reading fiction. It's not a problem with D&D, it's a problem with the person's inability to separate reality from fiction. By the same token, if I meet a Christian who thinks D&D is satanic, I'm not going to ask them to play with my group for the same reason (of course, if they're willing to be corrected on the issue, they're always welcome to join in ).

 

[Wolf72]

Inspiring (I hope) lines:


"Trust me, we're just sitting around a table acting like complete dorks."

All to true ... if all else fails, I would use this line.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Do a search on yahoo groups for Christian Gamers Guild. Lots of good folks there who are happy to help you out.

Never mind: Here's the link! http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Christian_Gamers_Guild/

 

[Algolei]

I remember a brief discussion I had once.

Someone's aunt, passing through: "D&D is supposed to be satanic."

Me: "It is?" *look at my DM* "Boy, have we been playing it wrong!"