Dungeons and Dragons
I am going to start by just throwing this out there: I am the Dungeon Master for the game Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition. I’m also an orthodox, quasi-evangelical (to substitute for the weighty title postmodern orthodox, which has postmodern in the title, so it must be bad.). Because of this apparent dichotomy, my players and I get judged on occasion for playing, one of which asks that we not speak about it on his facebook for fear of him losing his job. This seems tired and ridiculous to me, and here’s why:
Many evangelical Christians have been conditioned to understand Dungeons and Dragons as a demonic, occultic tool of the devil, used to trick nerdy teenagers into becoming witches and wizards, being possessed by devils for using real spells. THIS.DOES.NOT.HAPPEN. Well, let me qualify that: This doesn’t happen anymore than it would for any fictional work. In my own research on the topic, I’ve come across what I believe is the root cause of this misconception:
The majority of the hype concerning Dungeons and Dragons comes from Patricia Pulling and William ‘Bill’ Schnoebelen’s work, mostly in the early-to mid-eighties, about the occultic nature of Dungeons and Dragons, and that it leads to suicide, schizophrenia and a tendency towards satanic and occultic worship. In 1979, tragically, Pulling’s son, Irwin – an avid D&D player – committed suicide. Pulling believed this was because her son’s principal cast a ‘Dungeons and Dragons Curse’ on Irwin, so she sued him, as well as TSR, who owned D&D at the time. After this, she started ‘Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD),’ which spread the ‘truth’ about the evils and suicide risks involved with Dungeons and Dragons. Schnoebelen got on board later (1984ish) and wrote an essay called “Straight Talk about Dungeons and Dragons,” published by Chick Publications, a bastion of fantastic theology and level-headedness. He claimed that real occultic practices were in D&D and therefore was evil. Now for the otherside:
- Pulling went through a tragedy and needed a scapegoat. Until her death in 1997, she did a lot of research into a link between RPG’s like D&D and Suicide. Her research is highly questionable at best, and The American Association of Suicidology, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Health & Welfare Canada have all found no link between the two.
- Schnoebelen, frankly is hard to believe. His own biography is at odds with his printed work and the sheer scope of his links to various ‘occultic’ societies is staggering. Also, and this has always been the case in D&D, when you cast a spell, you say “I cast magic missile.” Nothing else. No occultic influence.
I will concede this point, however. Dungeons and Dragons does pull the majority of its source material from all myths and legends of the world. In that respect, Dungeons and Dragons is fundamentally ‘pagan,’ (it should be noted, however, that Narnia and Lord of the Rings were just as much so).
Frankly, D&D is playing imagination like you did when you were a kid, except now there is a framework that capably functions through a series of dice rolling and statistics, to simulate random events. As Dungeon Master, I narrate a story (ours, particularly, is one of renewal and redemption) and everyone plays out the story. That’s it. No evil, no raping and pillaging, just 5 guys that sit around, eat chips and travel through time. With swords. And sidekicks. It’s nerdy, but not evil.
For more information on our game, see our Wiki, http://willkinchlea.com/dnd
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 19, 2008 at 4:11 pm, filed under Culture, Life and tagged Chick Publications, Dungeons and Dragons, Moral Panic, Occult, Satanism. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Fried.
So right now I’m sitting at that place I come to at the end of every semester – the place where my brain shuts down to almost everything but studying for exams and resting. Usually my creativity takes the biggest hit, mainly because my creativity has been burned out on papers and exam questions. That’s why I haven’t posted in a week, though I’m happy to say that this is the longest break since coming back to the scene last October. I’m feeling good about this blog, and I’ve got some plans for willkinchlea.com in general that might bubble up to the surface at some point soon. Or maybe not, no promises.
See you all soon.
This entry was written by , posted on December 11, 2008 at 12:55 am, filed under Blog and tagged Blog, exams, Life. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Evangelicalism Then and Now: Activism
So we’ve come to our last of the quadrilateral, activism.
Bebbington defines it as: the belief that the gospel needs to expressed in effort. I define it as: the belief that the gospel needs to be expressed in effort to make Christianity the predominant Culture, ridding the evils of any one else’s point-of-view.
Out of all 4 points of the quadrilateral, this one is probably the one that would brand me a liberal by our more conservative brothers and sisters, but I feel this needs to be said: We do not live in a Christian culture, and the former ‘Christian’ culture of Canada was of face-value at best. A culture war is an exercise in futility.
And there you have it. North-American Christianity, though far more prominent south of the border (though that seems to be changing), seems to be deadset on winning some cultural war against sex, homosexuality, postmodernism, religious plurality, and, it seems, the political left. All of these contribute to the downfall of society, or so I was to believe, had I listened to the late Jerry Falwell, or even Pat “Assassination’s cool with God” Robertson.
Don’t get me wrong. Some of these things are wrong. Some of these things aren’t bad, they are just reality. I’m not going to tell you which, but I am going to say what I think are the two things Christians do in response to culture that is bogus: wholesale condemnation, followed by a really crappy, ‘cleansed’ copy.
First off, the condemnation. I don’t understand how we can condemn a culture that is devoid of the Word for doing things against the Word? Yes, there are things that are bad that need to be brought to justice and renewed (television standards and practices), and there are things beyond redemption that we need to just condemn outrightly (abortion), but we are doing it in just the dumbest way possible. Scare tactics, guilt, and even outright hatred are not the ways of how Christians are to respond, let alone how Christ responded to things he that were wrong. Where is the love for our fellow man in saying “God hates Fags,” or “Abortionists are Murderers?”
Secondly, we really suck at creating an alternative. Contemporary Christian Music tends to be about 4 years behind realities tastes and flavours, not even mentioning how mediocre most of the talent is, and don’t even get me started on Kirk Cameron and his Left Behind movies (or for that matter, Tim Le Haye and Jerry Jenkins for coming up with those pieces of trash). We North-American Christians, by and large, seem to hate to be innovative or creative. What happened to 2000 years of Art History centred around Jesus? What made Christians hate good art so much that they would create all this garbage? For the sake of the Lord, make something decent.
Solutions: First of all, I think we need to cast off the ‘Christian’ label we have attached to everything in our God-fearing households, and replace them with socially-responsible products (which I’m pretty sure Jesus would appreciate it more than you may think). Second, we to interact and dialogue with our communities, to not feel better abour oursevles, but to serve the needs of those seeking out the kingdom, wherever they may be.
So that ends this cycle on Evangelicalism. I think I may write one more post on implicatiions, but we’ll have to see. I hope you’ve gotten something out of thise.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 2, 2008 at 7:05 am, filed under Activism, Christianity, Church and tagged Activism, Christianity, Church, Evangelicalism. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Advent 08: First Christmas together.
In an ongoing effort to avoid work that would actually go towards, say, a B.A. in Religious Studies, I’m going to start my Advent 08 talks with one that comes up amongst the newly married, like myself – The need for compromise and the joining of two traditions into a new tradition.
As Andy Crouch puts it, the family is the primary cultural unit. Why did I add that? It’s because (almost) everything you will attribute to Christmas, how you’ll do Christmas, who you’ll spend Christmas with, and when you start celebrating Christmas comes from (or comes as a reaction to) your family. Now that I am happily and newly married, this means that two cultures are coming together with differing views of how to do Christmas/Advent.
This leads right into a little confession: I started Christmas celebrations a week early. Christine decided that last week was really the best time to set up the tree, and since I didn’t want to leave her to do it herself/not take part in what I think is integral to the season (setting up), I broke my own ‘Not-until-Advent’ rule. These things happen, and I’m sure I’ll have to give on other things as well.
Luckily, we argued about Christmas last year. Instead of trying to synthesize our entire two traditions into a composite tradition interval, like many of my friends have done over the years, we will be attempting to create our own traditions for Christmas. This is both exciting and scary, since it is a big departure for both Christine and I, though I did spend Christmas in her tradition and with her family last year, so I may be slightly more prepared for the culture-change.
Most of all, I’m trying to keep everything in perspective. Throughout this season, I’ll be dropping lots of song lyrics, since song is integral to this season. The song that has, and will always, help keep me in perspective, is First Christmas, by Stan Rogers:
This day a year ago, he was rolling in the snow
With a younger brother in his father’s yard
Christmas break, a time for touching home,
the heart of all he’d known
And leaving was so hard
Three thousand miles away,
now he’s working Christmas Day
Making double time for the minding of the store
Well he always said, he’d make it on his own
He’s spending Christmas Eve alone
First Christmas away from home
She’s standing by the train station,
pan-handling for change
Four more dollars buys a decent meal and a room
Looks like the Sally Ann place after all,
in a crowded sleeping hall
That echoes like a tomb
But it’s warm and clean and free,
and there are worse places to be
At least it means no beating from her Dad
And if she cries because it’s Christmas Day
She hopes that it won’t show
First Christmas away from home
In the apartment stands a tree,
and it looks so small and bare
Not like it was meant to be,
Golden angel on the top
It’s not that same old silver star,
you wanted for your own
First Christmas away from home
In the morning, they get prayers,
then it’s crafts and tea downstairs
Then another meal back in his little room
Hoping maybe that “the boys”
will think to phone before the day is gone
Well, it’s best they do it soon
When the “old girl” passed away,
he fell apart more every day
Each had always kept the other pretty well
But the kids all said the nursing home was best
Cause he couldn’t live alone
First Christmas away from home
In the common room they’ve got the biggest tree
And it’s huge and cold and lifeless
Not like it ought to be,
and the lit-up flashing Santa Claus on top
It’s not that same old silver star,
you once made for your own
First Christmas away from home
If it is your first Christmas away from home, I pray you find peace in your new traditions.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on at 12:47 am, filed under Culture and tagged Advent, Christmas, Culture, Family. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Busy busy busy
Sorry for the lack of updates last week, we had a banquet at school.
My hard-working, wonderful team
We had a great time – a wonderful end to 16+ hours (and that was just me!). Christine enjoyed herself too, since she got to wear one awesome dress, that I also spent 11+ shopping/buying/tailoring/picking up for. All worth it.
Beautiful Wife Alert!
I’ll get back to posting something of more substance soon, until then:
Christianity is based on community and relationship. You can’t do it alone – in fact there’s little you can do on your own at all, let alone well. Value your friends, family, bosses, workers, teammates – Christian or not – they all help shape you. I wouldn’t have survived this semester without all the people pictured above.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 1, 2008 at 10:06 am, filed under Life and tagged Community, Life, Student Council, Tyndale University College. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
» Next Entries