The following excerpt comes from a private lecture given to a concerned community and parents’ group on June 11, 2002
The Myth and the Mentality
When discussing the role-playing activity with avid role-players, it is best to take a moderate or even neutral stance at the beginning, especially if your true intent is to convince them of the moral wrongness of the activity. Over the course of your discussions with the role-player, however, you will find it rewarding (at least in terms of the salvation of their souls) to “up the ante” as it were, regaling them with more and more horrific accounts of those players who were seduced by such games. You may find it useful to tell role-players about the Dallas youths who were burned to death in the steam tunnels of Southern Methodist University (of course it was the Methodists) while exploring them for treasure. Tell them about the syphilis-related insanity of Jimmy Cox, a Tennessee teenager who used role-playing games to build around him a coven of homosexuals. Tell them about Michelle Sikes, the Montana role-player who had a sex-change operation. The more perversion you can ascribe to involvement with role-playing the better. You may even wish to fabricate some of your own, to better illustrate the point to your specific at-risk individual.
Witness, if you will, the activities of Latricia Pushing, founder of SADD (Sickened About Dungeons & Dragons). Pushing’s position was one of immediate, active opposition — I can’t fault her for this, of course, as the titular game led to the suicide of her son “Dink” — but nothing serves to galvanize a debate rival against oneself than an open statement of hostility to his standpoint. Indeed, many of today’s role-players believe themselves to be besieged by some sort of potent anti-role-playing lobby. Would that this were true — ah, but this is not the venue for fancies and wish. Openly claiming a position against the role-playing earns the player’s ire immediately, and they almost invariably respond with accusations of alignment with the “moral majority” or some other convenient faction that they believe seeks to oppress their activity. The late Ms. Pushing’s attempts to formalize an opposition to the activity unfortunately had the side-effect of providing a rallying point against which role-players could unite. Now, rational first-stage arguments against the role-playing activity and acknowledgements of its detrimental spiritual effect serve only to ignite acrimony, usually laden with a healthy dose of adolescent histrionics.
By not immediately exposing oneself as an opponent of this morally crippling activity, a clever individual can bypass these fervent defenses. While I’m not normally the sort to advocate subversion or guile, neither am I too proud to use the Devil’s own tactics against him. Discuss role-playing with the enthusiast from a position of intent to learn, or of interest in something with which you have no familiarity. The price of doing the Lord’s work does not come cheaply, and you must be prepared — like any cult activity, adherents of the role-playing activity will attempt to woo you into their fold, either by regaling you with tales of their “characters’” exploits or invitations to their games, “just to see what it’s about.”
In my experience, it is difficult to deal with these tactics. Listening to accounts of the role-players’ games is either the height of tedium (it must be said, pardon my air of judgment) or evinces strong feelings of pity, as these individuals genuinely exult in the jeopardy of their souls. Like damned pagans, they thrill to the exploits of their forbidden activity, never knowing the true price that the Devil places upon their souls. Invitations to participate, if accepted, place the individual in a precarious position himself, and will probably expose him to the scourges of drugs, fornication, homosexuality and Catholicism/paganism in many cases.
Extracting a role-player from his spiritual jeopardy is better accomplished by working around the cult activity rather than by attempting to steer the individual away from it. Invite the role-player to join you in watching a movie, participating in a sporting event, or taking part in some other wholesome activity. Do not make claims of this alternate activity being better for the individual than the role-playing activity, as that serves only to agitate their already extant feelings of embattlement. Make your invitations more and more frequent — soon, the role-player will naturally find himself drawn to the healthier pastimes you suggest, as well as finding his self-esteem bolstered by inclusion in group activities and the company of people who earnestly appreciate him for who he is, rather than the accomplishments of some mythical persona. Don’t be afraid to “kick it up a notch,” though, warning the role-player about the potential hazards of the activity. Tell them, for instance, that role-playing is little different from homosexuality, in which gays and lesbians “role-play” the parts of women and men, respectively. Warn them about the sexual deviancy in addition to the social deviancy — point out to them that the activity borders on delusion (“You are not an elf, Tommy!”) and heresy (“If God intended for you to act like a demon, he would have made you a demon, Jenny”).
Warning Signs
Sadly, some of the role-playing activities are more seductive than others. Those who find their friends or loved ones (or even come across new acquaintances) involved with certain role-playing activities are in for a harder fight than others.
Without a doubt, the greatest offender in this category is The White Wolf Game Studios Publishing. Their printed materials are not the most popular, though my research has shown me that their position is a frightening second-place in the role-playing market. That means their tracts are almost as widely available as Dungeons & Dragons. Additionally, theirs are the most blatant with regard to turning the users into drug maniacs and sexual predators.
Of their titles (and I must confess some degree of confusion as to the nature of their market, as The White Wolf seems also to publish Dungeons & Dragons information, which itself is held in copyright by Wizard of the Coast), most deal with matters of the occult in a much more brazen manner than do Dungeons & Dragons. While a player may represent a spell-caster in a traditional “fantasy” genre, players in The White Wolf games portray openly evil and occult creatures in all the games. Vampires, goblins, sorcerers and other creatures all populate the World of Darkness, a “modern-day”-type setting that espouses a “dark Gothic Punk” version of the real world. The most disturbing of these is Demon: The Fallen, of which a source of mine has managed to acquire a pre-press copy.
If I may momentarily diverge from the path I had so far been taking, I do wish to express that not every participant of the role-playing activity must be viewed as a drooling, satanic degenerate. The Demon book that I received came from one of the company’s own writers or “play-testers,” the acolytes and experimenters of the occult industry who serve to prepare this odious material for public consumption. I can only assume that my contact’s exposure to the moral turpitude of the Demon title caused him enough remorse that he saw his ethical impetus align itself to a more admirable degree (and I have counseled him when he felt imperiled by homosexuality). God’s love is infinite, and even a cult-member can return to the Lord’s favor by acknowledging his period of straying and rejoining the fold. But I digress.
Demon represents a new depth even for The White Wolf Game Studios Publishing, previously known for such principled exercises in evil as Vampires Masquerade and Mage: The Ascension, the former of which has contributed to murder conspiracies* and the latter of which espouses a belief system of a most pagan and dangerous nature as well as openly encouraging sexual deviancy and fornication as well as Catholicism**.
Demon differs in that its characters do not even belong to marginalized groups such as vampires or werewolves. They are literal demons loosed on Earth by a vanished Lucifer, and the actions of the characters in the game concern themselves with finding and restoring to power their vanished patron. Other demonic activities explored in the game include the politics of the various “houses” of demons; each house corresponds to a specific archetype of demons in the hierarchy of Hell (some are attuned to the Seven Deadly Sins while others tempt mortals into indulging their darker impulses, etc.). Demons have supernatural power in the game that seem to correspond to actual occult practices, and it is by the symbolic use of these powers by characters in the game that I believe The White Wolf attempts to foster the real cultivation of such powers in its players. These ideas are even finding support within the intellectual community trivializing the nature of demons by dismissing them as "myths".
The True Problem
Without fail, participants in the role-playing activity find themselves exposed to the occult, whether indirectly (as a result of thematic elements in the games) or directly (as a result of learning witchcraft from the game books themselves or the naked, pagan rites of the drooling sex perverts). As good Christians, it is obviously our duty to prevent our youth from learning the corrupt ways these books and games teach. Sex, suicide, drug abuse, homosexuality, “golden showers” and many other behaviors proscribed by the Lord and the Good Book come as a result of players taking their games too far. In particular, the moral execration contained with the Demon book takes these aberrations to new levels by openly encouraging players to act in the interests of Satan (or Lucifer, as he is depicted herein).
Additionally, role-playing games teach that violence is an acceptable and even admirable way of solving problems. Significant portions of their rules are devoted to combat and weaponry. Demon, for example, also contains systems by which the satanic characters can attack or use magic upon their enemies, with dark arts spawned from Hell itself. These are not unlike the gay community’s reactionary “straight bashing” in response to the more physical efforts of their loving fellows (but loving in the Lord’s intended way) to bring them back into the fold.
To this end, I am undertaking my own mission, albeit one of domestic concern. White Wolf is waging war upon the spirits of the young with games such as these. I plan to attend the GenCon Game Fair, a gathering of role-playing cultists, pagans, Libertarians and heretics from around the world, to preach the Word directly and expose these dangerous fiends for what they are. Armed with my faith and a tract that puts forth the truth about role-playing and Demon in particular, I will turn White Wolf’s own war against it. Wish me luck, fellow disciples of God.
Pastor Ramos is no stranger to challenging the corruption The White Wolf Game Studios Publishing makes its business. He has brought several actions against them in court and seeks to bring their crimes to the attention of the public at large. Taking a cue from the evangelical works of Jack Chick, Pastor Ramos has assembled the tract “Demonic Deviltry”, even employing the aid of one of The White Wolf’s own artists who had seen through their morally cancerous ways.
Please Learn About Roleplaying Games By Reading Our Tract "Demonic Deviltry"
Download "Demonic Deviltry" here!
* Witness the crimes of Mathew Hardman, 17, of Llanfairpwll, North Wales, and Todd Ferrett of Kentucky (whose murders brought him to Florida). Both of these murders occurred as a direct result of exposure to the Vampires Masquerade game that so deluded these participants as to believe they could actually become vampires. Fortunately, the efforts of the law brought an end to their inclusion in the culture of vampires. In addition, rumors (which is why I relegate this to a side note instead of including it in the main body of my discourse) link the activities of the Columbine high-school “trenchcoat mafia” with Vampires Masquerade.
** Some of the factions of the sect include the “Cult of Ecstasy,” a group of wizards who achieve their powers by using that drug and the “Celestial Chorus,” a group of witches who fell from the Lord’s grace and made pacts with the Devil for their own arcane potential.
good to know the inquisitionists are still alive and well
