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

[EricNoah]

Ok, now a couple of gaming and religion stories here while I can get away with it ...

1) My dad's a pastor. He never really had a problem with D&D overall since two of his kids played, but he did lay down one rule: we couldn't pretend to worship the fictional gods. So the clerics were all "generic" with no deities.

2) I was at the mall buying a D&D book or three, when I ran into my dad who was engaged in a conversation with a fellow pastor. He looked at me kind of funny and asked me what I was up to. I said something about buying some books and left it at that. After the other pastor had left, my dad admitted he was afraid that I'd say I'd bought D&D books in front of this other pastor. I then admitted to him that I was afraid that *he* would ask if I'd bought D&D books in front of this guy. We had a good laugh, though in a sense it wasn't totally a laughing matter as our denomination did not look kindly on RPGs at the time. He could have gotten in somewhat serious trouble. (Though that never bothered my dad, he was always kind of a lone wolf in the church anyway...)

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Weird

You know, reading this thread, and others like it, makes me wonder...because I never really ran into that kind of problems, and my dad's as close-quarter christian as he likes to believe to be..*shrugs*

Don't know if that's because I'm living in Germany, where religious matters are taken cum grano salis, or because roleplaying became "big" here in the late 80's, when most of the religious craze against RPGs was ebbing away already, but never in my..*ponders*..16 years of roleplaying did I meet ONE guy, no matter what faith, who bashed roleplaying on the well-known arguments.

Granted, we had a lot of fun mocking american religious fanatics who did, back then

 

[Mercule]

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

Heh. I was talking with my (Lutheran) pastor a few years back (it was in a Bible study, actually), and he was going through a 'list' of what all the different Christian denominations 'brought to the table'. He said that what Lutherans brought was the ability to say, "I don't know," and move on.

On a slightly different note, I wasn't trying to bash anyone or say the gamer-geek persecution of Christians was unbearable, just that it existed.

 

[bubbalin]

To get it away from religion and on to gamer prejudices, our whole group was stunned when one day the chinese food delivery guy brought us our food, looked at our table, and his face lit up as he recognized the game.
Chinese people play RPGs too, it seems.

Hey, I'm Chinese and so is nearly my entire group. We in fact have token Caucasians to round out our group.

 

[bubbalin]

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

Amen.

 

[bubbalin]

I'll just add one more to the Christian gamer pile. I'm a churchgoer (though not as regularly since I moved to New York) and a former Sunday School teacher.

There's nothing in the Bible that tells you not to play pretend. If there were, I'd be pretty dubious about the Bible.

There are a lot of us here aren't there. But I suppose that's expected given the number of registered users...

 

[Dr. Harry]

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

Statements in paratheses represent my minor editing of DJ's quote to serve my own nefarious purposes:

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 (Thing x*) see (Thing y*) as intolerant and close-minded while seeing themselves as paradigms of tolerance and acceptance.

I had the "advantage" of growing up in southeast Tennessee, so that (while there were anti-RPG nuts in my church) most of the anti-RPG types making the most noise were also convinced that Catholics were doing the same general types of devil-worshipping sorts of things, so most of the families of myself and other Catholic gamers instintively reacted "If I know that this stuff is hoo-hah, why would I believe the other stuff this person says?"

Plus, the most tight-cheeked Ned Flanders-like person in the bunch was so stern and puritanical, our (Irish) priest couldn't really stand to be near her.

As for why I altered the quote, on an nigh-topic breaking line of thought it occurs to me that gamers are only "paradigns of tolerance and acceptance" over certain narrow ranges. Also, not all peer-pressure is bad.

While the stereotypical gamer will not speak against another person's personal habits (especially habits of grooming), this tolerance does not extend to habits of the mind. Consider going to a messageboard not as friendly as this one and posting:

"One of my political beliefs"

"d20 vs. Hero system"

"I like d20/Hero/Gurps"

"I liked Kirk better than Picard"

Then duck and invoke the religion/philosophy of your choice with gratitude that you didn't include your actual name & address with the post.

 

[Hardhead]

"I liked Kirk better than Picard"

That's it. You've stepped over the line!

 

[mythago]

It almost seems to be in vogue in some circles to denounce christianity.

Few things going on there, IMO.

One is that gamers are a subculture, and subcultures pride themselves on being different, sometimes to the point of automatic rejection of anything 'mainstream' or 'normal'. Since Christianity is the majority religion in the US, knee-jerk hostility toward Christianity (in this view) is a lot like knee-jerk hostility towards, say, people who love John Grisham novels.

There's also the fact that many people who pride themselves on being intellectual and clever sneer at all religious beliefs as silly, arational products of inferior intellect.

And then there's the problem that the loudest, most obnoxious Christians generate a disproportionate part of PR. Unlike suicidal gamers, you don't just read about self-styled "Christians" in the newspaper. As Christianity is a belief system and not perceived as something you're just born with (unlike, say, your skin color), many people feel justified in remaining ignorant and hostile towards Christians as a group based on extremely negative interactions with a few.

And let's not even get into the hostility and ignorance you get if you're a member of a different religion. If I get one more person asking me why I'm not allowed to wear 50/50 poly/cotton T-shirts, I'm gonna brain somebody with my dice bag.

 

[Dr. Harry]

It's weird that the US is the place where it's really the most "controversial". Prolly 'cause it's the place where it's also the most popular.

The United States has also had its own approach to home-grown religion. The "Great Awakenings" were primarily revival-based faith expreesions in a highly emotional - not intellectual - context. Much of this culture comes from episodic revivals by travelling preachers as opposed to settled areas with regular services.

In a very general sense, this has left native denominations with a more emotional analysis system than denominations originating in Europe of the Mid-East, making the U.S. more vulnerable to "controversies" of this sort.

hmmm. It is also possible that since the U.S. does not have a dominant denomination, religious expression might be a bit more "proactively defensive" - i.e., touchy - here than elsewhere.

Please note that this is only an observation in the most general sense and is not meant to characterize any denomiation as anti-intellectual, per se.