Why is playing dungeons and dragons a sin

You raise your staff to freeze the orc in a cone of ice, but then you remember…. Yet should you, as a Christian, play such a game? This inspiration became the first fantasy roleplaying game, in which players are characters in an ongoing fantasy story. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more.

This may be true again, it depends on the game and the makeup of the group playing a given game , but a similar argument — if broadly applied — would in order to remain logically consistent need to take into account just about any form of secular entertainment. Some of my favorite childhood memories involve my father and I together creating and playing strategy games.

We both loved history, science fiction, and fantasy. And I have many fond memories dreaming up various story ideas and making up our own games — and then playing them. In one particular game, we had medieval soldiers, castles, dragons, and wizards.

Freeman continues: "By then the attack on role-playing games was well under way. These tracts and flyers typically made their point by quoting rules out of context and blurring the distinction between player and character with half-truths and outright lies. Again, no actual quotes are provided from these supposedly lying "Fundamentalist Christian" fliers, nor is any substantiation provided for any of these statements. It is hard to answer such vague and unspecified charges.

In our original booklet, we provided footnotes for every documentable statement we made. Freeman does not. Then we proceed to… "Irving 'Bink' Pulling was reportedly a disturbed young man who'd taken a fancy to Hitler and had displayed 'Lycanthropic tendencies' according to Pat Pulling, his mother. He became depressed at school when he couldn't find a campaign manager to run for student council and wrote 'Life is a Joke' on the blackboard at school.

Two weeks later he shot himself with his mother's pistol. Instead of becoming a left-wing gun-control nut, Pat Pulling became a right-wing game-control nut. She filed suit against the teacher, the principal and the school district only to have her suit tossed out. Again, this may be true and may be untrue. We do not know. However, Mr. Freeman displays an astonishing lack of compassion. He dismisses a mother who had just lost her son offhandedly as a "game-control nut" and then proceeds to attack her for several paragraphs with ad hominem arguments that are not well substantiated.

The fact is, it does not matter very much whether or not Ms. Pulling only had a two-week course as a private investigator under her belt. By the way, what are Mr. Freeman's credentials to write on this subject?

It is a poor and futile argument to attack the character or personality of your opponent, especially when that opponent is a grieving mother. Additionally, I would want to know: where young Mr. Pulling acquired his concept of "lycanthropic tendencies? Lycanthropy is the clinical term for being or believing yourself to be a werewolf.

It is not a word commonly used in high school badinage, at least not back then. Probably few secondary school teachers would even know the meaning of the word.

Finally, the fact that the suit was tossed out is not surprising. US courts in my experience are increasingly reluctant to get involved on the side of people fighting the occult influences in our culture, in any way, shape or form. Also, the game manufacturer's association assigned Mike Stackpole to investigate the claims that role-playing games caused suicide.

We will get into the Stackpole report shortly. However, note that these "serious investigators" are not identified - other than Stackpole. Of course, one might be forgiven for suspecting an investigation paid for by the FRPG industry itself. That would be like asking the fox to guard the henhouse. Half of those suicides were refuted by the parents of the victims.

One suicide was a fictional death that had occurred in a novel. Again, notice the cavalier attitude with which Mr. Freeman treats this subject. Pulling thought of her son's death as a "trophy," nor of any other young person's death.

It is certainly how the devil feels about the deaths of young people killed before their promise could be fulfilled. Again, no documentation for any of these assertions is provided. 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. These young people are real, not just statistics! He then proceeds to attack Dr. Thomas Radecki, who is a psychiatrist that joined Ms. Pulling's crusade. Freeman claims he got his license suspended.

However, that does not make Dr. Then of course, one would like to know the statistical samples, the norming group, etc. When statistical statements like this are made, many complex issues need to be examined.

Just as an example, when the national murder rate is cited, a vast number of variables come into play. While I am not a statistician, I have a masters' in counseling and was required to take a course in the graduate level in statistics and measurements.

In this case, you have two groups - one rather small and selective - the gaming population, alleged to be around 9 million. This is not to say that there are not female gamers or gamers among people of color, but they do not figure very large in the statistics as I can best understand them. Most murders originate in domestic disputes or domestic violence OR are crime or gang-related. The large majority of murders are committed either by older people 20's to 30's with limited income and education OR by gang members and other criminals such as drug dealers.

Without wishing to appear racist, it is also true that people who are non-white commit a significant majority of these murders. That these killings are related to socio-economic inequality and poverty is certainly true in frequent cases, though that does not and should not excuse the killing. My point is, you have two almost entirely different groups of people here you are measuring statistically - the gaming population and the population of people who commit murders in this country. What would be better and we have no way of knowing from Mr.

Freeman's article if this was done would be to measure the number of murders or suicides among gamers and compare it with the national sample of murders committed by well-educated, creative, sensitive and imaginative young males of a mostly white population.

The statistics might show an entirely different result than that alleged by Mr. Then Freeman reveals his true colors. He is against Biblical Christianity: "Ultimately Pat Pulling had only one allegation remaining that anyone would listen to - and even then only fundamentalist Christian groups were willing to believe it. Fantasy role playing games, they asserted, were occult indoctrination tools that lured white suburban teens into horrific satanic cults.

Furthermore, these cults were everywhere. The popular "fortress mentality" of certain religious groups - the belief that the world is a wholly corrupt, evil place that only their faith protects them from - latched onto this "evidence" of Satan's power. Proof that the world was in Satan's grasp could be found by demonizing every aspect of pop-culture. Like many almost all? Freeman desperately defends his precious popular culture against the onslaught of "fundamentalist Christians" who have a "fortress mentality.

He quite obviously fails to grasp the discussion concerning the magic worldview and the ethical underpinnings of various genres of literature and films: "Any movie, book or game containing spell-casting characters, wizards, witches, demons and the like, was an "occult" indoctrination tool that 'glorified evil' and lured kids to devil worship. Ultimately, exceptions were made. For example, the movie The Ten Commandments contains spell-casting Pharaoh's magicians but is not satanic.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, featuring Gandalf the Wizard fighting a demonesque "Balrog", is not satanic. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, although fantasy, is not satanic. This Present Darkness, although populated with an entire cast of demons, is not satanic. It is not necessarily that the subject matter sorcery is bad, but rather, how does the medium treat sorcery? Is it shown as a viable tool or as something ineffective or evil?

In the movies and novels cited, sorcery is shown in its true colors, as something evil and ultimately useless against the power of the true and living God. If they were luring kids into cults, one would expect a mighty lot of cults. A large number of cults, meanwhile, would leave a lot of evidence of cult-activity. What evidence is there? One is more tempted to ask, what evidence ISN'T there?

As one who has been regarded for about 15 years as a "cult expert," I can say that the evidence mentioned at the beginning of this article: the vast proliferation of books, movies, video games and TV shows about the occult, witchcraft and sorcery is compelling. Additionally, the numbers of people involved in various occult practices are rising higher and higher each year, if book sales and the spread of related magazines and websites is any indication.

There are witch covens in every major city and in many minor ones! This was not the case 30 years ago.

Freeman then continues to not only bash Christians, but also police!! There is a sad irony in all this delusion. Pat Pulling warned police officers that gamers might commit suicide: Gamers have a below-average suicide rate while police officers have the highest of any profession. He then goes off on a tirade against fundamentalists and tries to characterize Christian churches as being potential Jonestowns or Wacos.

This is just using ad hominem arguments to attack because you have no other spiritual or logical leg on which to stand. It is a misconception or worse, a lie. Again, he has offered no substantial proof for this rather broad statement. Real danger of cult involvement springs from world-views that encourage psychological isolation.

Religious leaders that blur the distinction between mythology and occultism are being disingenuous. Theologians that further claim no distinction between occult involvement and fantasy entertainment often present a clear danger to those who believe them. To kill the body may or may not follow as a tragic consequence. Freeman obviously writes as a bigot who dislikes those who take the Bible seriously.

If he has proof that the late Pat Pulling 50 had overstated the level of suicides, I would like to see it. But just to write something is not to prove it. Nor is citing a study paid for by the gaming industry. However, neither Freeman nor William Stackpole has offered any proof that this is the case.

He thought he was not constrained to this life, but could leave [it] and return because of the game. Collins, Marion, OH. Death was apparently the result of a death pact as part of the game. He killed a year-old girl while acting out the fantasy-role game.

The girl had been raped, her throat cut, and she had been stabbed twice in the chest. Police said his "violent urges were fed by 'extreme involvement in the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. Fortunately, his dad and little brother were awakened by a smoke detector; but by then, Tom, Jr. That had a lot to do with it … It is not just a board game. It's a lot deeper than a board game. I've got five friends that are locked up for the same thing [murder] right now because of the game.

He was the youngest inmate of death row in the country before being executed for his crimes. Praise the Lord; he became a Born Again Christian some time before his execution! We put Sean Sellers' case last because we need to comment on that. Before we can, we need to look briefly at the work of Michael Stackpole.

As mentioned earlier, Mr. According to his own report, Stackpole is a science fiction novelist, an FRPG game designer and a computer game designer.

What is a Christian to think? What does Jerusalem have to do with the Forgotten Realms? Most of the remainder of this article is directed to this more biblically grounded concern. The popular Twitch show Critical Role , which features players and a DM who are professional actors, gathered more than , viewers for its most recent season premier.

Their videos have millions of views on YouTube. And Christians, now in a different cultural moment, no longer taking the old cautionary stance toward culture, are jumping in. My colleagues with teenage children are asking me about the game. Their kids want to play, and they want advice. Christians, by and large, have accepted that magic-heavy works such as Harry Potter , The Lord of the Rings , and The Chronicles of Narnia all can be consumed as a part of a well-balanced entertainment diet—not to mention video games and card games that trade in standard fantasy tropes.

Many Christian parents allow their children to play video games with spellcasting. Very often these games, like Skyrim , allow the player to decide how virtuously the player will act.

Open-world video games offer a freedom to make good-or-bad decisions while still progressing well toward in-game goals. A difference that is often pointed out is that role-playing games offer a more immersive engagement with, say, spellcasting, than a card game.

Though here the difference is more in degree than in kind. You spend a spell slot and deploy a fiery sphere that does 8d6 damage. Simply put, players are not required to dabble in the occult. Lewis and J. It allows greater freedom than the constrained worlds of fiction, but the imaginative world is not entirely different: good and evil forces contend against one another.

Fantastic beasts and magical spells can be employed for good or ill. Some may steer clear out of a sense of their own vulnerability to the occult, and others may object to the fantasy elements of the game. Lewis and Tolkien, of course, still have concerned critics.

I dislike this option. No one in my games is allowed to play with this subclass. Monopoly encourages players to actively drive other players out of business by slowly crushing them with real estate control. Risk does much the same with world domination. The reason I dislike the more sinister character options is because I think they tend to erode the imaginative integrity of the role-play. Worst case scenario is you will have to wait 2 years until you are out on your own then start playing if your still interested at that point.

Aug 26, 9. Aug 27, Whether or not it is sin depends on whether or not it causes you to channel hatred and evil. Long story short: No, not a sin. In fact, an excellent witnessing tool if you use it that way.

Nope, it is not a sin in itself at all, like all the other fantasy stuff out there. I agree with joykins. I think it may be bad for certain people however who start to actually think it is real or if it fuels bad feelings or whatever. She refused absolutley. I think the last, beyond anything else, has kept me from enjoying the game. Until then, I'll have no hard feelings against my parents, or anyone else for that matter.

They are are only trying to protect me altough it is from a false enemy. Thanks for evreything guys. Show Ignored Content. Your name or email address: Do you already have an account?