5 ms·

While the idea of teenagers literally worshiping Satan was a moral panic, I suspect many Christians would find D&D incompatible with Christianity, given its emp

While the idea of teenagers literally worshiping Satan was a moral panic, I suspect many Christians would find D&D incompatible with Christianity, given its emphasis on violence, personal power, and the occult.

throwaway234254 13y ago
For the amount of people that profess to Christianity, its amazing how many ignore the core tenets. I'm sure Bush was praising the Lord as he set the war machine in motion, or Bernanke saying a humble prayer as he pillaged the wealth of the middle class. Ah, the land of Christian principles. Thank God I'm not there.
- QuantumChaos 13y ago
  Bernanke was raised Jewish, but he hasn't spoken publicly about his beliefs, so it's not clear what religion if any he follows. Do you also feel the same way about Jews?
  - mercurial 13y ago
    History is replete with documentary evidence that whatever their creed (whether religious or political), men are more than willing to spill a lot of blood, as long as the blood belongs to the "wrong" group of the moment.
    - QuantumChaos 13y ago
      Well Bernanke certainly has political opinions, as do many other Americans, so I guess it is best to avoid these bloodthirsty monsters.
- walshemj 13y ago
  From the outside it looked like the churches that where aginst DnD where fringe protestant sects.
  - jes5199 13y ago
    Yes, that's true, but in some regions of the USA those fringe churches dominate the culture.
    - walshemj 13y ago
      Ah steples fingers "heretics" :-) sometimes I wish I had had the traditional "jesuit" eduation my paternal gradfather would have wanted
mercurial 13y ago
Violence, personal power and the occult? You're going to find a lot more "violence" and "personal power" by switching on the TV or going to the library. Anyway, combat is often (depending on who you play with, but it has been my experience when I played tabletop) a very small part of a scenario. As for "the occult" in D&D, come on. Throwing a die to check the damage of a fireball never turned anyone into Aleister Crowley.
- mercurial 13y ago
  The "violence" part is particularly ironic, considering the amount of God-sanctioned wholesale slaughter in the Bible. Maybe the Bible is incompatible with Christian beliefs as well ? :)
  - Noughmad 13y ago
    A large part of the Bible is incompatible with Christian beliefs. Then again, "Christian beliefs" isn't a well-defined term; it ranges from "there is some guy up there" to "gays are causing the hurricanes".
- QuantumChaos 13y ago
  >As for "the occult" in D&D, come on. Throwing a die to check the damage of a fireball never turned anyone into Aleister Crowley. I meant that D&D contained occult themes, not that it presented these ideas as factual or encouraged people to take them seriously. A fair reading of my post would have indicated this anyway, since my post started with "While the idea of teenagers literally worshiping Satan was a moral panic..."
Yetanfou 13y ago
Nah, not really. I think the main drive against things like D&D comes from a fear against anything which makes people think outside of the ordained box. The more people think - be it about fantasy and monsters or DNA and atoms - the less control you have over where their thinking might lead them. Free thinkers are the bane of organised religion, so anything which encourages free thinking is discouraged by it.
talmir 13y ago
I suspect that the chrstian objection to D&D stems from that it teaches you to think for yourself and do frequent problem solving. Nothing is as hard to control as an independent mind.
noonespecial 13y ago
Yeah, that or, you know, congress.
walshemj 13y ago
Lol watch the new BBC Musketers series and see how Cardinal Richelieu views violence and power.
Cthulhu_ 13y ago
And yet, those are frequently described in the bible; lots of violence in the old testament, some in the new, and again lots in the post-biblical eras; personal power, I'm pretty sure God is the pinnacle of that; the kings in the old testament another (they (re?) conquer Israel of all things), Jesus yet another (cult/religious leader). Occult, I don't know what falls under that, but plenty of talking to the dead / satan / higher beings there.
dropit_sphere 13y ago
I consider myself a devout Christian, and I find nothing inherently un-Christian in D&D. If one wants to indulge fantasies of evil, well, sure, there's the Book of Vile Darkness. But the nice thing about D&D is that it's like Lisp---so free-form that it can be whatever you want it to be. It is much more archetypal to play a band of shiny heroes---which is a good thing to aspire to. If any particular Christian finds something that would lead them to sin in D&D, then they should avoid it. But all things God has made are good in their proper place, and that includes imagination.

throwaway234254 13y ago

For the amount of people that profess to Christianity, its amazing how many ignore the core tenets. I'm sure Bush was praising the Lord as he set the war machine in motion, or Bernanke saying a humble prayer as he pillaged the wealth of the middle class. Ah, the land of Christian principles. Thank God I'm not there.

QuantumChaos 13y ago
Bernanke was raised Jewish, but he hasn't spoken publicly about his beliefs, so it's not clear what religion if any he follows. Do you also feel the same way about Jews?
- mercurial 13y ago
  History is replete with documentary evidence that whatever their creed (whether religious or political), men are more than willing to spill a lot of blood, as long as the blood belongs to the "wrong" group of the moment.
  - QuantumChaos 13y ago
    Well Bernanke certainly has political opinions, as do many other Americans, so I guess it is best to avoid these bloodthirsty monsters.
walshemj 13y ago
From the outside it looked like the churches that where aginst DnD where fringe protestant sects.
- jes5199 13y ago
  Yes, that's true, but in some regions of the USA those fringe churches dominate the culture.
  - walshemj 13y ago
    Ah steples fingers "heretics" :-) sometimes I wish I had had the traditional "jesuit" eduation my paternal gradfather would have wanted

mercurial 13y ago

Violence, personal power and the occult? You're going to find a lot more "violence" and "personal power" by switching on the TV or going to the library. Anyway, combat is often (depending on who you play with, but it has been my experience when I played tabletop) a very small part of a scenario. As for "the occult" in D&D, come on. Throwing a die to check the damage of a fireball never turned anyone into Aleister Crowley.

mercurial 13y ago
The "violence" part is particularly ironic, considering the amount of God-sanctioned wholesale slaughter in the Bible. Maybe the Bible is incompatible with Christian beliefs as well ? :)
- Noughmad 13y ago
  A large part of the Bible is incompatible with Christian beliefs. Then again, "Christian beliefs" isn't a well-defined term; it ranges from "there is some guy up there" to "gays are causing the hurricanes".
QuantumChaos 13y ago
>As for "the occult" in D&D, come on. Throwing a die to check the damage of a fireball never turned anyone into Aleister Crowley. I meant that D&D contained occult themes, not that it presented these ideas as factual or encouraged people to take them seriously. A fair reading of my post would have indicated this anyway, since my post started with "While the idea of teenagers literally worshiping Satan was a moral panic..."

Yetanfou 13y ago

Nah, not really. I think the main drive against things like D&D comes from a fear against anything which makes people think outside of the ordained box. The more people think - be it about fantasy and monsters or DNA and atoms - the less control you have over where their thinking might lead them. Free thinkers are the bane of organised religion, so anything which encourages free thinking is discouraged by it.

talmir 13y ago

I suspect that the chrstian objection to D&D stems from that it teaches you to think for yourself and do frequent problem solving. Nothing is as hard to control as an independent mind.

noonespecial 13y ago

Yeah, that or, you know, congress.

walshemj 13y ago

Lol watch the new BBC Musketers series and see how Cardinal Richelieu views violence and power.

Cthulhu_ 13y ago

And yet, those are frequently described in the bible; lots of violence in the old testament, some in the new, and again lots in the post-biblical eras; personal power, I'm pretty sure God is the pinnacle of that; the kings in the old testament another (they (re?) conquer Israel of all things), Jesus yet another (cult/religious leader). Occult, I don't know what falls under that, but plenty of talking to the dead / satan / higher beings there.

dropit_sphere 13y ago

I consider myself a devout Christian, and I find nothing inherently un-Christian in D&D. If one wants to indulge fantasies of evil, well, sure, there's the Book of Vile Darkness. But the nice thing about D&D is that it's like Lisp---so free-form that it can be whatever you want it to be. It is much more archetypal to play a band of shiny heroes---which is a good thing to aspire to. If any particular Christian finds something that would lead them to sin in D&D, then they should avoid it. But all things God has made are good in their proper place, and that includes imagination.