(Trying Not To Start A Rant) The Other Side of the Christian/DnD Thing

[Hjorimir]

I will simply add that I am a Christian and it is nice to see so many of us within the community here at ENWorld.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I get less flak from fellow Christians for being a gamer than I do from gamers for being a Christian.

Yep, I'm gonna agree with this statement as well.

If I mention I'm a D&D player to any of the christians I know, the worst I'd probably get would be "But isn't that game only played by geeks?"

If I mention I'm a christian on most RPG-related internet forums (not ENWorld, thankfully) or chat rooms, I'll get flooded with snide remarks about christians, rants about organized religion, et cetera.

It's funny how many gamers see christians as intolerant and close-minded while seeing themselves as paradigms of tolerance and acceptance.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I think what it really boils down to is, as with most things, extremes on each side having the loudest voices.

The extremes like Jack Chick who say D&D is the devils game, maybe because they hear about some crazed psychopath serial killer who says he worships satan and plays D&D and the gamers only hear that coming from these religious groups (even though they only represent a small sector of the religious people) who are so offended by that that they immediately group all religious people as raving , irrational lunatics.

I really think most people , religious or not are more likely to just think D&D is a game, perhaps they think it's kind of geeky or "weird" but certainly not Satanic, and I think most gamers think religious people for the most part are just regular people.

 

[WayneLigon]

Wormwood has a very good point. I have seen more christian bashing on these boards than I have seen D&D bashing from christians I know.

Color me conflicted.

I guess the first instinct when bashed is to bash back. Rarely do we remember the 'silent majority' in anything, mainly because they are silent. I'm guilty of this; I've done some Christian bashing mainly because it seems that all I hear, every time I turn around, are Christians that are bashing things I like and feel strongly about. Video games. Stem cell research. Cloning. RPG's. TV. Movies.

And yet, are they? Are they really?

No.

It takes a lot for me to pull back and remember: this is usually just the work of one group, or a small group, of people that are not representative of a faith as a whole.

heck, back in the 70's,80's, and 90's we (all of us in the groups i played/refereed) were all Christian. i only met non-Christian gamers when i started playing again in 2000.

That's pretty amusing. Diaglo and I live only about 170 miles apart. In the 70's and 80's not one single gamer I knew (and I knew a lot more gamers then than I do now, probably as many as a hundred) was Christian. Most were agnostic, pagan, or 'go to church on Xmas and Easter'. Only in, oh, the last ten years have I met gamers who were also Christians of any stripe.

 

[Meeki]

My friend's a Lutheran, and he plays D&D. He's not a brainless ideologue, and can rightfully determine that Dungeons and Dragons is in absolutely every way harmless, and all of it's association with the occult is propaganda and the fault of the mainstream media during the 70s and 80s. (but of course, now that's all wound down, and it's now just considered a fringe-stream hobby practiced by nerds) Of course, he also tolerates jokes our other friends make about Jesus' relationship with Mary Magdalene, so he's probably an atypical example.

Hahaha.. Im a Lutheran too and the same way... its cause us Lutherans are magical beasts with superior abilities such as the.. "We dont give a crap" ability

 

[francisca]

I get less flak from fellow Christians for being a gamer than I do from gamers for being a Christian.

It almost seems to be in vogue in some circles to denounce christianity. Usually these attacks come from people who spend the rest of their time babbling about being diverse and open minded.

 

[Barak]

hmm ok. I'm a bit tired of that flack I get as a gamer for being a persecuter of christians!

Seriously, there's prolly a same percentage of gamers who do silly snide remarks as there is christians making remarks about gamers (a-la chick). Heck, the winner of last year's silver Ennie for best fan website is run and operated by an openly christian couple, so Nyah.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

It's strange. I've never experienced the prejudices being discussed in this thread, either the anti-Christian prejudice (I'm agnostic), or the anti-Gamer prejudice (despite playing with Christians at least as often as nons, and having a Christian family.)

Reading this thread, it's hard to decide what to take away from it. There are non-Christians claiming they've felt prejudice from Christians, and now many Christians claiming that it's the (assumed) non-Christian gamers who are more prejudiced. In the latter half of this thread, there seems to be a lot of finger pointing.

Myself, I'll just mark it down as another example that prejudice exists everywhere, and be grateful that I hardly ever see that kind of intolerance here on the ENBoards, or in my real life.

 

[Psion]

Reading this thread, it's hard to decide what to take away from it. There are non-Christians claiming they've felt prejudice from Christians, and now many Christians claiming that it's the (assumed) non-Christian gamers who are more prejudiced. In the latter half of this thread, there seems to be a lot of finger pointing.

Yeah, I think we should chill out a little on the finger pointing less the wrath of the mods come down on this threat and try to take away from it that one should not judge any group -- be it due to hobby or religious beleifs -- on the actions of a few, and try to be tolerant of all.

 

[EricNoah]

This thread can only survive if everyone can abstain from being "blamey" or cutting each other down. Find a way to say what you believe without getting in a "dig" against those you disagree with.