D&D Still Satanic? "So my mom threw away all my D&D books..."

[Camelot]

Maybe if one is inclined to see Jesus in one's scrambled eggs. Seriously, there is no place to hide from the kind of mindset that objects to exciting interactive fiction for religious reasons, they won't be satisfied until they have control of your very non fictional life.

I meant that it could be read that way if you 1) have no idea what D&D is, and maybe remember some stuff about it being satanic in the 80s, 2) are inclined to believe that children are weak-minded enough to turn to shadow worship, and 3) believe that worshipping Satan or 'the Shadowfell' is an unhealthy lifestyle. Granted, this last one is probably true, but this woman clearly had misconceptions about D&D, about her son, and about her own parenting. Later in the thread, he says that he talked to her and she agreed to let him continue playing as long as she could supervise for a while, so she isn't continually behaving like the first post makes her out to be. She listened to reason, so her outburst was probably layered with other problems and what not. I'm just saying she shouldn't be dismissed as a crazy who's wrong about everything; she's a mom who got worried about her kid and stress drove her over the edge.

 

[Traveller From Afar]

2) are inclined to believe that children are weak-minded enough to turn to shadow worship

Or are inclined to believe that "shadows", whatever they might be, exist to be worshipped in the first place.

 

[Camelot]

Or are inclined to believe that "shadows", whatever they might be, exist to be worshipped in the first place.

That goes with my third point. Keep in mind that she doesn't have to believe they exist to believe it to be a problem. Even if she is completely nonreligious, it is reasonable to believe that when a person believes in shadow magic and starts worshiping weird pretend gods, they will turn to things like theft, maybe murder. However, thinking that this can stem from D&D is silly when you know what D&D is. She didn't.

If she does/did believe shadow magic exists, then its the same thing.

 

[pawsplay]

Even if she is completely nonreligious, it is reasonable to believe that when a person believes in shadow magic and starts worshiping weird pretend gods, they will turn to things like theft, maybe murder.

Really, worshipping even less weird gods can lead to that kind of behavior. Soccer, too. Anything can be overdone.

 

[Traveller From Afar]

Soccer

Now there, there you can see the clanking scales of evil.

 

[Diamond Cross]

Soccer

You know if a man hits a woman they're more than likely to go to jail, right?

 

[WHW4]

The only thing that's clear is that she has a tenuous grasp on reality. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt by using the word "tenuous."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You know if a man hits a woman they're more than likely to go to jail, right?

Congratulations on your awful pun, sir. Well done!

 

[Orius]

My experience, centered around North Alabama, in the same time frame you reported from, was that it was a "medium town" issue. Small towns, everyone knows everyone else, and this kind of stuff just can't stick long enough to become an issue. Fully half the kids at our school had at least dabbled in D&D, and while atypical for the area, the game was well known enough in other nearby small towns to innoculate against this particular brand of stupidity.

Well I also think with small towns, if they're inclined to believe D&D is evil, then they'll all keep their kids away from it and tell them it's evil. A lot of the cases people talk about are ones where the parents are ignorant of it until after the kids starts playing it, and the parent is told by someone else it's evil.

 

[nedjer]

Done with this religious stuff after last night's non-Rapture. There I am all set for the Apocalypse bang on 6pm and does it arrive. Nope, not even half-an-hour late. Quite what I'm expected to do with the whopping great Ark sitting on the front lawn I don't know.

Perhaps Mr Rapture will cover my costs out of the $73 million the papers say he made from yesterday's non-event.