Kelsey MacAilbert |
They're on to us! How are our plans to succeed if they've figured them out? We must find and... seal the leak that gave out this information and revise our plots, or we shall surely fail.
Fergie |
"I can tell you this from my own experience. I was a witch high priest (Alexandrian tradition) during the period 1973-84. During some of that period (1976-80) I was also involved in hardcore Satanism. "
Hmmmm.
Something about that tends to set off a red flag or alarm bells in my mind that this person my have... issues.
I can't put my finger on it however...
Kelsey MacAilbert |
"I can tell you this from my own experience. I was a witch high priest (Alexandrian tradition) during the period 1973-84. During some of that period (1976-80) I was also involved in hardcore Satanism. "
Hmmmm.
Something about that tends to set off a red flag or alarm bells in my mind that this person my have... issues.
I can't put my finger on it however...
It is quite perplexing, isn't it?
Kyremi |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ah yes... this topic. Let's start from the top...
Our "covendom" was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; just a short drive away from the world headquarters of TSR, the company which makes Dungeons and Dragons in Lake Geneva, WI.
Well, dang. Everyone knows that proximity to a location means they're somehow related... they've got it all figured out.
If you play at shooting your friend in the head with what you think is an unloaded pistol and don't know a shell is in the chamber, is your friend any less dead because you were playing?
Sure, but you call me when someone 'accidentally summoned a demon and it ate my friend'.
One pro-D&D psychologist wrote that "There is hardly a game in which the players do not indulge in murder, arson, torture, rape or highway robbery."
I don't know about everyone else's games, but I've never experienced torture or rape in my games, and probably not even highway robbery. Murder and arson are a bit more likely... but it's all about the context. If there's a party that goes out and says 'right, we're burning down this town and slaughtering the people COS WE CAN', then that's different to 'shit, there's an evil cult who are attacking us, let's destroy their base along with their leader so they don't kill the innocent villagers'.
In fact, the Dungeon Master's Guide gives the celebrated Adolph Hitler as an example of a real historical person that exhibited D&D charisma! The values contained in the game are, at the very best, "might makes right."
No, they're not. Time magazine has put Hitler and even Stalin as 'Man/Person of the Year', so good Christians shouldn't read Time magazine? (As a side point, if they really did use Hitler as an example of high charisma, they really could've come up with someone less controversial...)
Additionally, male characters in the game often try to seduce female characters; and references abound to things like venereal disease and satyriasis (a male condition of permanent sexual arousal).
That's completely in the hands of the player; there's no class called the Seducer. And I'm pretty sure the DMG doesn't have a section on sexual diseases...
Fear generation-via spells and mental imaging about fear-filled, emotional scenes, and threats to survival of FRP characters.
Snakes and Ladders can induce fear in you if you've got a 1 in 6 chance only of not landing on snakes that send you all the way back to square 1. That's a 'threat' to your 'character' too; without threat in a game, also known as obstacles to a goal, what's the point?
Isolation-psychological removal from traditional support structures (family, church, etc.) into an imaginary world. Physical isolation due to extremely time-consuming play activities outside the family atmosphere.
This is typical of addicts of anything, anywhere. Not at all exclusive to D&D.
Physical torture and killings-images in the mind can be almost as real as the actual experiences. Focus of the games is upon killings and torture for power, acquisition of wealth, and survival of characters.
Again, what helluva kind of game are they playing?? None of the campaigns I've experienced have been 'focused on killing and torture'... they're focused on having a good time.
Erosion of family values-the Dungeon Master (DM) demands an all-encompassing and total loyalty, control and allegiance.
I nearly LOLed at this one. I doubt when I was DM to my friends I suddenly became a paternal figure... and they definitely never gave 'all-encompassing and total loyalty'.
Situational Ethics-any act can be justified in the mind of the player, therefore there are no absolutes of right or wrong; no morality other than "point" morality needed to ensure survival and advancement. There are no win-win situations and good forces seldom triumph over evil forces.
They obviously never heard of the Paladin. 'Nuff said.
Loss of Self-control-authority over self is surrendered to the DM. Depending on the personality and ego-strength of the player, this loss can be near absolute.
Screw the rituals, all you need to do is be a DM and apparently you get COMPLETE authority over your players! World takeover, here I come...
Degradation-pain and torture are heavily involved in sadistic, sexual situations that graphically appeal to visceral impulses. Much of the material (as mentioned above) is well into pornographic areas and stresses the defilement of innocence.
Seriously... no. Same point as a few quotes up.
...they also entrain the player in an entirely different way of looking at life: what is called by anthropologists the "Magical World View(MWV)." This MWV is far outside the cultural norms of most societies, and certainly outside the realms of Biblical values.
What? Magic is a worldview? As far as I've ever seen it, it's just another tool for the job, really.
The MWV is like that. If you know the right technology (spell, ritual, incantation, etc.) the universe must respond-just like the light must go on if you flip the switch. It is automatic, and scientifically repeatable.
They obviously never played D&D. They describe magic as an I-WIN button, whereas it's anything but... funnily enough, they seem particularly irked by the fact it's 'scientifically repeatable'. Bonus point: they've obviously not heard of arcane spell failure either.
The Judeo-Christian Worldview (i.e. from the Bible, and held by most cultures in the Western world to some degree) teaches, on the contrary, that the universe is in control of a sovereign Person, God. To get "results," He must be asked. Thus, it is more like a child going up to a parent and asking for candy, than getting it from a vending machine. The parent may say "yes," "no," or "Wait till later."
Funny that. In my most recent game, a cleric of a dwarven god prayed to his deity to resurrect a person; the DM made the cleric roll a knowledge (Religion) check to see if it worked... wait, this sounds familiar! Blimey, dwarven gods are part of the Judeo-Christian Worldview!
The reason is that in the "universe" of Dungeons and Dragons magic is neutral, and can be used by "good guys" or by "bad guys." It is like "The Force" in the Star Wars movies. This magical morality pervades D&D, and it is utterly in opposition to the Word of God and even common sense.
Yes, it is like the Force, since it's a tool. Not a worldview.
If games and manuals which extol black magic, rape, sado-masochism, murder and violence are not "evil communications," then I do not know the meaning of the terms!
A rare moment of agreement here. Yes, those sort of things are undoubtedly evil. However, that isn't D&D. It's hard to imagine one of the world's largest toy companies buying a company whose main product 'extols black magic, rape, sado-masochism etc.'... one would imagine the investors might be a tad put off.
Whole long list of an entire 11!! people who've died
Correlation doesn't imply causation. If you look at the number of pirate attacks in the past 20 years, and correlate this with global temperature, you see they both rise. O SHIT, PIRATES CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!! Another rebuttal; these are 11 examples, from millions of people, plenty of room in millions of people for 11 crazy ones.
...there is no doubt that Dungeons and Dragons and its imitators are right out of the pit of hell. No Christian or sane, decent individual of whatever faith really should have anything to do with them.
Well, that's all of us damned then. Who's going to go let Vin Diesel know he's not a sane, decent individual?
Apologies for the long post, so here's a tl;dr: these people crazy. This was fun though, any other whacko articles out there we can rip apart?
Kelsey MacAilbert |
kyrt-ryder |
Straight Talk wrote:One pro-D&D psychologist wrote that "There is hardly a game in which the players do not indulge in murder, arson, torture, rape or highway robbery."I don't know about everyone else's games, but I've never experienced torture or rape in my games, and probably not even highway robbery. Murder and arson are a bit more likely... but it's all about the context.
Really? Adventuring is pretty much murdering 'people' (defined as sentient creatures) and taking their stuff.
Kyremi |
This subject is surprisingly controversial, even among Christians. This astonishes me!
In this context, I am amazed at how many so-proclaimed Christians who defend the game, do so with foul and abusive language. This, I think, speaks volumes about the spiritual impact of the game.
Nah, it just shows how isolated you are even amongst those you'd call 'your own'.
Some of these books, like TEEN WITCH, are written for young readers. There is even a DUMMIES GUIDE TO WICCA AND WITCHCRAFT!! When D&D started, you could perhaps find four or five books on Wicca in print.
I don't have the stats on this, but I'm pretty sure this goes back to the 'correlation doesn't mean CAUSATION' argument. You could argue that more Star Wars books were also published after D&D first emerged. Or that more advanced floristry books were published... curse those flower-arranging half-orc barbarians.
Most counselors and psychologists (including this writer) have used role-playing as a powerful way to transform human behavior and thought. Please bear that in mind as we continue.
Behold, the idea of using ONE THING in MULTIPLE WAYS! Here, take this gun. Now, you can shoot it at someone, or you can use the butt of it to hammer a nail into a plank of wood, or you can take it to a range, train yourself, and win a shooting competition and earn a small, shiny trophy. Besides, 'role-playing' is such a broad, catch-all category that it really could apply to any sort of acting/pretending.
The astute reader will have noted that already, some genuine magical terms from real witchcraft and occultism have been introduced. Druids and Bards are both part of the priesthood of ancient pre-Christian Britain.
Well done, you passed your Perception check. Now, tell me how many words have been used over the centuries and aeons of language, which have changed and evolved? Too many to list, for certain. Also, since when are Bards as we imagine them part of a priesthood? Must've been a rocking ceremony... (though I may be wrong on this, my ancient pre-Christian Britain isn't up to scratch).
However, you need to realize that quite often, players will pick an alignment that is more evil or chaotic because it is more "intriguing." This is much the same as why many talented actors would rather play villains.
Not at all true. All the games I've ever played in (not that many, but still a few over 2-3 years) have been exclusively inhabited by some variation of Lawful/Chaotic Good/Neutral. Never a mention of Evil. Sure, there's been 'mischievous', but hardly the same as 'let's wreck this town... cos we can'.
The morality expressed in D&D is fuzzy at best, and is certainly NOT the morality of the Bible.
...
Our young people are having enough trouble getting their values straight without being immersed in this sort of material!
First off, no kidding it's not the morality of the Bible; it's not meant to be. Secondly, whatever kids are getting their morality lessons from the Player's Guide are whack, yes, but that's not the fault of the book. They could equally pick up Justin Bieber's autobiography as a values manual and end up as effeminate, overhyped singers.
Magic users draw upon arcane powers in order to exercise their profession … He or she must memorize and prepare for the use of each spell, and its casting makes it necessary to reabsorb the incantation by consulting the proper book of spells … those of magic-users must be spoken or read aloud.10
This is excellent advice for budding necromancers. When we were high priests and training witches, we would insist upon no less. This is obviously a game which requires real initiative and dedication.
Replace 'necromancers', 'high priests', 'witches' and 'game' with such words as 'students', 'lecturers', 'professors' and 'degree'. The whole idea of memorizing things for future use isn't limited to spells from D&D.
"Might makes right" seems to be the rule. You are to take treasure or magic away from other players using whatever means are available, including force, magic, intimidation, coercion or negotiation
Well... not really. The fact remains that beyond a few levels, the party is most likely the most powerful group of people for leagues around. Plus, most taking of magic items occurs from NPC baddies, not other players.
Additional, the handbook tells us that a wizard's "quest for knowledge and power often leads him into realms where mortals were never meant to go." That would have been an excellent description of this writer at the beginning of his magical quest over three decades ago. It is true of most people who become fascinated with the occult and the magical.
Way to take descriptive fluff seriously. I've yet to meet a Wiccan or Witch or Wizard in 'real life' at any of my gaming sessions. I almost always play an arcane character, yet have no desire to go inscribing pentacles everywhere... it's just my favoured play style.
The cleric is a generic religionist of "any myth." In other words, religions are myths. Christianity is a myth; Judaism is a myth, etc. This makes the D&D cleric align with the theology of Freemasonry, where the Great Architect is generic and any old god (or goddess if you please) would do.
Disregarding the 'religions are myths' bit (not the right place for that discussion), the whole point of the cleric being 'generic' in the handbooks is so he/she can slot into any campaign setting. Moving on...
How can a person, Christian or not, immerse themselves in a reality view so deeply and not have it impact the rest of their lives? This is difficult to imagine, especially considering the highly demonic and magical content of much of the game. As the saying goes, if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
Again, this relates to taking things too seriously. I treat Pathfinder as a game; regardless of the fact that an RPG contains demons or magic, or high technology or spaceships, or pirates, or ninja monkey pirates, it's up to the person how deeply they immerse themselves in anything. Also, cheers for calling us all dogs with fleas... classy.
This problem is that the cosmology of D&D is fundamentally anti-Biblical.
That's your problem. There are many, many people of all kinds of religious stripes who can play it just fine.
The next section is him rambling about God and the Bible and how if you're not him, you're buggered, so moving on...
Cleaning up that part of the game and leaving Jesus, the true God, out of what is essentially a SPIRITUAL quest is like rearranging the lawn chairs in hell - especially when you consider there isn't very much grass in the inferno!
Wait, what? D&D is a spiritual quest game? Since when?
It needs to be emphasized that a spiritual deception which draws people away from Jesus Christ is much more dangerous than automotive chicken or people dying of starvation. People who write such things are - in all Christian charity - deceived. Down through the ages, no institution has done more to help the poor, the orphans and the starving than has the church of Jesus Christ. I would just ask them where are the rescue missions and orphanages started by D&D gamers?
There's so much wrong with this paragraph I don't know what to say... maybe that he compares playing RPGs with getting run over and dying of starvation?
Additionally, unlike Russian roulette or chicken, D&D is an extremely challenging game intellectually and emotionally. It truly involves its players in ways few games do, because it does demand a high level of imagination and creative engagement. Playing "chicken" demands neither.
Say what? Challenging on intellectual and emotional levels? A person who plays a level 1 fighter for three hours every week must be drained of all intellect and emotion after that session, I tell ya. Even the more dedicated players I know of are unlikely to be emotionally invested in their characters... and while DMs can come up with some humdingers of puzzles to solve, that's entirely like saying 'dang, the Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper is absorbing my child into a world of number worship!' Furthermore, you try playing chicken with cars without intellectually challenging yourself... like calculating precise timings for running across the road (I'm imagining here, this isn't talking from experience :P ).
Yes, D&D may be "fun," but it is fun with a spiritual hook in it. Sure it is stimulating and creative and there is nothing wrong with that part of it. What is wrong is that it is built on a superstructure of anti-Biblical cosmology.
And with this quote he erases nearly all his previous gripes about the game; if only the inventory had the Holy Bible in it, and all the player characters were Christians, it'd be all peachy.
One D&D defender wrote, "When I play the game, I might roll the dice and - depending on the result - state that 'I cast an invisibility spell.'" His point was, how is that like "real magic?" In mental or hermetic magic, it is EXACTLY like real magic (except of course for the dice)! It is all in the intent - in the mind. It is not in whether or not you are waving a sword around!
Yes, but his intent is to cast a spell IN A GAME, not in real life. Most people are capable of making this distinction.
A few years after college, I ended up working in a foundry in Milwaukee. I was around some "rough" people for whom foul language was routine. I was so immersed in it, eight hours a day, that after awhile, despite my best efforts, I began to talk just like them. It took a couple years away from the place to get my vocabulary "rinsed out."
Please appreciate the difference between a workplace and a casual gaming session... I doubt even the most dedicated gamers go for 8 hours every day. Also, the situations are different. In a D&D game, you could say 'I cast 'frost ray' upon the giant', but when in the real world are you possibly going to encounter a giant, or believe that you're capable of casting a ray of frost (however cool that may be)? Whereas swearing when talking is pretty much universal.
Now this is not to say that every serious D&D gamer is going to become a Satanist or demonized. But the odds are good that they might. Please realize that to be demonized does not mean you become a slavering maniac who vomits pea soup.
Most demonized people could not be identified as such by someone without Biblical discernment. But all one has to do is watch the news or walk through the halls of any high school to realize that there are lot of demonized young people (and certainly older people too) in this country today.
Funny thing about odds; give them a big enough sample size and the odds should start ringing true. I don't know the numbers, but there are most likely millions of gamers all over the world, of many different systems. Even narrowing it down to FRPGs, the amount of people who have played them and then become Satanists or 'demonized', whatever that is, is probably vanishingly small (bear in mind I have no numbers for this; just my experience from seeing lots of gamers in one place, I could be wrong...), probably far less than his 'odds' would indicate. Also, thing about Biblical discernment of the degree this guy seems to endorse, a whole lotta people would qualify as 'demonized'.
Finally, the comment about the D&D suicide rate being ten times below the national average is insulting. I would like to see how Mr. Freeman arrived at that figure. As has been observed, statistics can be manipulated to prove just about anything.
Why's it insulting? Since it reflects badly on his report? And he's right about the statistics bit... he does it himself.
We agree, and do not mean to imply that every D&D gamer is going to end up on death row before they are 18. Sean Sellers is probably close to the "worst case scenario." Most of the D&D problems we have encountered are a bit more mild - things like demonic obsession, suicide attempts, involvement in witchcraft or Satanism. However, they are all pretty serious and indeed can be life-threatening.
He makes it sound like all the 'mild' things are common occurrences at gaming tables... not so.
The question still stands. Why would a Christian wish to involve themselves in such a game?
Because they find it fun, they are able to detach themselves from the game (like 99.9% of everyone) to a sufficient degree where they don't go home and practise swordplay or spells, and because it's fun.
I realise I missed out a whole load of the article, but it's really really dang long and lots of bits are him just ranting rabidly, and that's funny in itself.
Also, replying to kyrt-ryder...
Really? Adventuring is pretty much murdering 'people' (defined as sentient creatures) and taking their stuff.
True, there's not really a way around it. I guess we justify it by saying these creatures, although sentient, deserved a mace in the face. These days, make-believe murder is hardly uncommon though... see virtually any video game that isn't Barbie's Horse Adventures...
Nazard |
6 people marked this as a favorite. |
The worst part about reading an article like this for me, as a Christian myself, is seeing the disgrace and discredit such rumblings bring to the Kingdom itself. It's like the guy who took out all the billboards last spring announcing the end of the world; makes the Christian community out to be a collection of religious nut bags.
As has been pointed out in rebuttal to the article, if you take a sample size of millions of gamers, you're bound to find a few wackos. Just like when you take a sample size of millions of Christians...
Tilnar |
Straight Talk wrote:In fact, the Dungeon Master's Guide gives the celebrated Adolph Hitler as an example of a real historical person that exhibited D&D charisma! The values contained in the game are, at the very best, "might makes right."No, they're not. Time magazine has put Hitler and even Stalin as 'Man/Person of the Year', so good Christians shouldn't read Time magazine? (As a side point, if they really did use Hitler as an example of high charisma, they really could've come up with someone less controversial...)
They did indeed, back in the day -- though, to be totally fair he wasn't the only example provided and it was meant to show that charisma wasn't related only to looks. (It wasn't anything about *might*, it was that the ugly dude sure could get a crowd to listen to him and agree with him).
They also used Rasputin as an example of Con -- because he was supposedly very rugged and hard to kill -- not because they were encouraging us to bilk the Russian royal family.
In any case, most of this stuff is clearly paranoid and has no basis on reality, but in some cases, at least, it's based on the testimony of "experts" like Patricia Pulling, back in the day -- Here's some fun reading about her, at least.
Obviously this text is dated (the tract is downright funny) -- but at the same time, some of us had to live through this stuff (and that horrible Tom Hanks movie) -- and, for that matter, this sort of stuff was the reason that Devils became Baatezu, Demons became Tanar'ri and the Planes got new names in 2ed.
spalding |
Straight Talk wrote:
Whole long list of an entire 11!! people who've died
Correlation doesn't imply causation. If you look at the number of pirate attacks in the past 20 years, and correlate this with global temperature, you see they both rise. O S#!$, PIRATES CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!! Another rebuttal; these are 11 examples, from millions of people, plenty of room in millions of people for 11 crazy ones.
hey I got a question -- if 11 people in millions is enough to condemn D&D how many have to die for less than half a million to condemn something? Because I remember this preacher from not so long ago who might be in trouble now.
Mikaze |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Lately I've been wondering how well Dark Dungeons could translate into a late 60's/early 70's Hammer horror flick. With Ingrid Pitt as the DM.
Kinda sorta want.
hey I got a question -- if 11 people in millions is enough to condemn D&D how many have to die for less than half a million to condemn something? Because I remember this preacher from not so long ago who might be in trouble now.
Chick probably would have given it the good old college try if that guy were Catholic.
Kyremi |
Kyremi wrote:hey I got a question -- if 11 people in millions is enough to condemn D&D how many have to die for less than half a million to condemn something? Because I remember this preacher from not so long ago who might be in trouble now.Straight Talk wrote:
Whole long list of an entire 11!! people who've died
Correlation doesn't imply causation. If you look at the number of pirate attacks in the past 20 years, and correlate this with global temperature, you see they both rise. O S#!$, PIRATES CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!! Another rebuttal; these are 11 examples, from millions of people, plenty of room in millions of people for 11 crazy ones.
Actually, the ratios would add up; given a ball-park figure of 4 million D&D players, and 11 of those are enough to condemn it, reducing it to 500,000 means you'd only need 1 and a bit people to condemn this whacko publishing what amounts to a child abuse book as 'parenting advice'.
One could only wish we could do some sort of 'counter-book', distributed to all the nutjobs out there, giving them 'advice' which ended up in... dunno, anything hilarious really. Any ideas?
Kyremi |
They did indeed, back in the day -- though, to be totally fair he wasn't the only example provided and it was meant to show that charisma wasn't related only to looks. (It wasn't anything about *might*, it was that the ugly dude sure could get a crowd to listen to him and agree with him).
They also used Rasputin as an example of Con -- because he was supposedly very rugged and hard to kill -- not because they were encouraging us to bilk the Russian royal family.
In any case, most of this stuff is clearly paranoid and has no basis on reality, but in some cases, at least, it's based on the testimony of "experts" like Patricia Pulling, back in the day -- Here's some fun reading about her, at least.
Wow... even not reading that through in its entirely makes it clear that woman is a bit disturbed. She lost a child, and that's terrible, but she's completely overreacting. And, anyone else seeing the irony of her presenting herself as a 'D&D Expert' when according to her D&D was responsible for her son's death?
seekerofshadowlight |
Fangaurd, some of us still recall being dosed with annotating oil or having books burned by someones parents to drive out the devil. D&D still has a bad image among many Christians to this day. It gets blamed on everything, I was even told if I had never started playing "You would be a nice god fearing christian, as you should be." And this was only a few years back.
Not to offend anyone, but as a whole Christians are not a very tolerant people.
seekerofshadowlight |
seekerofshadowlight wrote:Not to offend anyone, but as a whole Christians are not a very tolerant people.Actually, I think you can say this about any extremist who cherry-picks their holy text to justify their bigotry.
I am not talking about extremists, but run of the mill church goers. If you look at history , it says the same thing I did. as a whole, Christians are Intolerant and pron to haze and be down right hostile to people who are different in any way. Gamers, wrong music, wrong religion, dress the wrong way, happen to be gay or believe in rights they do not.
Not saying it to be mean, but It is what it is.
HangarFlying |
HangarFlying wrote:seekerofshadowlight wrote:Not to offend anyone, but as a whole Christians are not a very tolerant people.Actually, I think you can say this about any extremist who cherry-picks their holy text to justify their bigotry.I am not talking about extremists, but run of the mill church goers. If you look at history , it says the same thing I did. as a whole, Christians are Intolerant and pron to haze and be down right hostile to people who are different in any way. Gamers, wrong music, wrong religion, dress the wrong way, happen to be gay or believe in rights they do not.
Not saying it to be mean, but It is what it is.
I completely agree with you, but I'm going to expand your comment beyond Christians to include everyone who uses religion to justify their ignorance and hostility.
Fergie |
You can't even limit it to just religion. People have been persecuting each other since the dawn of time. But often it is up to the leaders of these organizations to rise above such things, and sadly they often come up short. I think we are ever so slowly moving towards a society based on human rights, but there is a lot of resistance and backsliding.
What Nazard said on 11/21 is perhaps the best point related to this. I hate it when someone who shares my "profile" spouts off batshit crazy stuff. That is when it is most important to speak up and say, "This jerk does not represent me"! Show that it is the individual, not the organization (even if it is the organizations leadership) that is a whacko. Going against the group is very difficult for us humans, but it is the mark of good civilization.
PS Somewhere on these boards SKR tells a story of his mother speaking up in just such a situation and changing minds.
On this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for SKR's mom.
Cardz5000 |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
lets start off with this; I am a Christan
...let it sink in...
now, I am a Cristian that avidly plays role-playing games 2-3 days a week, and while I have never made a character with Jesus as their deity of choice, I keep coming back to the same question after reading this and seeing him be critical of any myths other then has (and my) own: Is a person doing indisputable good in the name of someone other than my GOD (or in the name of no God at all) not doing a good thing?
Is a Muslim unable to feel Love?
Can a Atheist not lay down his life for another man?
and after thinking about this for awhile, I've come to the conclusion that many Christians are so afraid that someone that is not of their faith becoming more saintly, godly, or and over better person then them, that we immediately dismiss their acts because they aren't doing them in the name of God.
This whole article is an extension of that fear, that even in some realm created in the mind of 5 twenty-somethings in the back of a game store, the idea of a fictional character rising up against evil, and doing more then a "Man of God" is a threat to our faith that someone can do greater things without using God as their backing.
so what do we do to D&D?
we say that it is evil so that we can rise up and smite it in the name of GOD.
Fergie |
My search-fu is better then I had thought.
To refine my previous thought, it is up to us to confront wrongs we see in our own groups, not just committed against them.
hogarth |
"I can tell you this from my own experience. I was a witch high priest (Alexandrian tradition) during the period 1973-84. During some of that period (1976-80) I was also involved in hardcore Satanism. "
"But I was just experimenting a little. I'm not a witch any more."
Hoping for your support next election,
Michelle Bachmann