Just something I wanted to add that I did not yesterday, which is a completely different topic regarding being careful with our translation usage of the Bible.
In the blog post to which I linked where the blogger gives reasons as to why WoW is akin to witchcraft, she utilizes Galatians 5:19 & 20. She underlines the word "emulations", which I can only assume she interprets to mean "copying or imitation". This might be a point for someone to say that the Bible forbids even pretending to cast spells.
However, she uses the King James Version, where the archaic meaning of this word is "jealous rivalry", but the King James Version leaves emulation, as that was a common word during the formation of the KJV. In a modern translation, like the New American Standard Bible, which I use, the word that is emulation in Galatians is jealousy, correctly translating it for the modern reader. This would demonstrate that Paul is talking about something very different here, not what the blogger appears to want to point out. Paul is not talking about emulating or copying. He is talking about abstaining from a life of jealousy. Way different from what we think of emulating. Please be careful when you use old translations. They may mislead your interpretation if you don't know the archaic language.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Part 3: Why It Is NOT a Sin to Play WoW
When I was in high school, my friends played Dungeons and Dragons. There you have it. I was at one point a D&D nerd. When I told my mom that I was going to a friend's house to play D&D, she had an immediately negative reaction. She said that the game was witchcraft and sorcery and demonic. I made a couple of points to her telling her that it was a bunch of Christian guys sitting around a table tossing dice and drinking Mountain Dew. She didn't believe me at first, but I still went. I then told her that if she wanted to watch real D&D, then I could invite my friends (whom she knew quite well, since we'd been friends all through school), and we could play while she watched. She agreed, and after watching us throw dice, roll a die to see if our spells hit the monster, calculate our damage against monsters, and concoct Lord of the Rings-ish stories for our characters, she very quickly changed her mind. She had been under the impression that people who played D&D were practicing divination or something. From then on she happily let me play there or at a friend's house. She even went so far as to call one of my buddy's mom to inform her that the game was by no means demonic, since my buddy wasn't allowed to play (though still played when he was at our house).
Some of the Reasons Why Most Christians Think WoW-like Games Are Bad:
1. Sorcery is an abomination.
This one seriously gets old. Though it's the one that most uber-Christians will spout off first. ("Hmm, a Christian being derogatory towards his own kind. Curious.") Yes, characters in WoW like games cast spells. Last time I played my druid though, I personally did not cast any spell, did not morph into a big gray kitty cat, or teleport to Moonglade. WoW-like games are pretend, plain and simple.
Yes, a Christian should abstain from witchcraft of any sort, however, let's drive the point home again, the person playing WoW is not practicing witchcraft, they're playing pretend in a make-believe world where average people in the world can use magic. It's not sinful for little boys to play cops and robbers, it's not sinful for little girls to play pretend and try to be "pretty", and yet if I'm really mean about it, it's by the Bible's standards wrong to commit crimes and wrong to entice men to lust. And yet we have nothing to say about little kids doing these things. Why is it so wrong therefore for Christians to play a game of pretend with magic users?
It's because playing a game with magic will lead Christians and other people towards witchcraft! OK then, though this is completely anecdotal, I have had plenty of friends who are both Christians and played WoW, and they are all still normally functioning members of society, have never engaged in witchcraft, still go to church, still read the Bible, the whole shebang. I'm one of them. I'm married, currently a substitute teacher, preparing for graduate school or possibly getting my full teacher's credential--I play WoW and read my Bible daily, pray daily, help in a ministry towards college students, and am a member of the evangelism committee at my church. That's not to say that I'm sort of super Christian, only that even though I'm a WoW player I still make time for my life and my relationship with Christ, which is of utmost importance compared to WoW. It's the mindset thing towards sin. Is this game with magic causing a deterioration in the relationship between God and me? If so, inspect your priorities as a Christian. If not, play on.
2. There is nothing spiritually uplifting about WoW
An interesting claim. On the surface, yes, there is nothing spiritually uplifting about WoW. But neither is there anything uplifting about playing video games in general, or let's be more pointed here, there is nothing particularly uplifting about reading fiction novels, scrapbooking, collecting stamps, going fishing, playing basketball, watching sports on TV, shopping at the mall, chatting with friends over coffee, or anything else really. These activities are just that: activities to keep our mind fit. Hobbies we call them. So it is with video games. They are the hobby of Gen X and Gen Y. Some video games are online, involve millions of people, and involve lots of knights, orcs, and dragons. If you're going to claim a video game as spiritually void, then you have to cast a lot of other hobbies into the same frame as well, since it is always the motive or the heart of the hobbyist, which makes the hobby worthwhile or not.
Furthermore, I am attempting to make a Christian guild. (Go to The Fish and Bread Trick for more information.) To me, that qualifies as trying to form a Christian fellowship in the WoW gaming experience. If that is not something that is spiritually encouraging, to play a video game together with like-minded people who share a common bond in faith, then I don't know what is.
3. WoW-like Games Desensitize People
Sometimes a claim is that since the game espouses evil, that evil becomes everyday for the player. That they no longer see a distinction between good and evil, or worse, that they rejoice in evil. This is just not true. Again, I play WoW, and I am disgusted by evil. The actions against the people of the Sudan is repugnant. Terrorist beheading Westerners and their own people is reprehensible. The Nazi regime was a force for evil that was rightly stopped. I think anyone would agree with me on these things. I play WoW, and yet I find these events (current and historical) to be incredibly morally wrong. There is such a thing as evil. It must be stopped. It is in the stories of these fantasy tales where evil is depicted as it truly should be: a force against the people that must be obliterated so that the good life can continue. The people of Azeroth are in a battle against evil: the evil is the Scourge, the Lich King, demons, Deathwing, etc. Players pretend to be a part of this battle against evil.
The forces of Mordor in Lord of the Rings were evil, and the forces of good (The Fellowship) did all in their power to stop this evil from overtaking Middlearth. Tolkien was a Christian. He understood this evil, and demonstrated it in his stories. The story of Azeroth is derived from a Tolkien fantasy. It's the same. I do not believe people who play WoW-like games will suddenly find themselves unmoved by the evil of this world. It just does not make sense. As long as we Christians continue to keep our mindset stuck on God, WoW will not create in us a nonchalance towards evil.
* * *
Well, I think that's about all I can really do for right now. I hope I've elicited some interesting thoughts in your mind while reading this. If you disagree, that's perfectly OK, I'm always open to thinking and talking about these things.
It is my sincerest belief that Christians should have fun with their lives. That reading the Bible and playing a video game can be equally entertaining and rewarding. Be wise about what you do. If you think that playing WoW will get you addicted, and you will lose focus of what is important (God) in your life, take a break, and reexamine your priorities, as I have stated. Do not be moved by the words of reactionaries. Think logically about your own spiritual foundation in Christ. Honestly, playing WoW is a lot like walking about a college campus: you will be bombarded with things that offend you, make you laugh, make you smile, and challenge you everywhere. But remember that is life. Christians should not shy away from the online world like WoW just because there are pretend elements similar to the stuff of Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. Let the uber-Christians have their say, but have your own opinion, too. Show them that Christ inhabits all aspects of our lives, and He can be glorified even in the places where the prostitutes and the tax-collectors eat. Or even scarier to some, where the MMO players roam. Game on.
Part 2: Why It Is NOT a Sin to Play WoW
Take a look at this blog. A Christian View of World of Warcraft
My stomach lurches forward like a slug when I see this kind of stuff. Honestly, I'm annoyed. Thoroughly annoyed. Here's another piece: an interesting book my wife Jordan showed me when we went to visit her parents one time: New Age Lies to Women.
Let's consider the second one for just a second. I have not entirely read the exposition on women being diddled by Satan into the New Age Occult by Marrs, but I have read enough to determine that the commentary was complete rubbish. It is a reactionary response to a rise in Paganism throughout the Western world in the postmodern era. Seriously, just about everything is of the occult to this woman. Cabbage Patch Kids--because they came out of a plant they were a part of the Earth Mother's takeover of the world; Kirsten Larson--an American Girl character because her family was Swedish and at Christmas they celebrated St. Lucia's Day where they dressed up in white robes and a wreath crown with candles, which is apparently symbolic of Satanic worship, as it looks very Pagan to Marrs. The Care Bears, a desire for world peace, just about anything that does not have to do with being a stay-at-home mom. The book is ridiculous, but I might make a conjecture here, and state that many non-Christian folks may think that this kind of writer represents the whole of Christian thinking. These kinds of people do not speak for us. Their comments to me are lunacy.
Here's the truth of the situation regarding what the Bible says. Paul states, "Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble." (1 Cor. 8:13) A slightly cliche verse, but it still is important to consider. Let's go back to my original thoughts about sin. Something is sin if it brings us further out of our relationship with Christ. In the context of what Paul was talking about, he was speaking about whether or not to eat food sacrificed to idols. Paul says earlier in the passage, "But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat." (1 Cor. 8:8) In other words, eating the food that was sacrificed to idols is neither sin nor non-sin. As I have said earlier, something like this is neutral. It's a mindset thing. If we can with a clear conscience disregard the idol sacrifice and eat it with thankfulness towards God, by all means, eat up! Similar to WoW, if the playing of the game is not affecting you, not taking you away from God in any way, by all means, play on!
Paul then goes on to instruct Christians not to take liberties on this, so as to confirm that our brother (or sister), when seeing us eat food sacrificed to idols does not stumble. Stumble, in other words that they do not have negative thoughts about about those who did eat, do not feel badly for not eating, etc. If this is happening, we should abstain from eating the sacrificed food as it were. Regarding WoW, it is on its own not a sin to play, but consider if someone else is thinking badly of you when you play. If this is happening consider talking to that person, try to demonstrate to them why it is not a "bad" thing to play. In my last post on this topic I am going to go through the normal reasons why people are against games like WoW, and try to help people understand that it's not a jumping off point into Satanism or witchcraft. Let's think logically, not get all in a tizzy because we hear anti-Christian buzzwords like "magic", "sorcery", "blood", "Death Knight"--stuff like that.
My stomach lurches forward like a slug when I see this kind of stuff. Honestly, I'm annoyed. Thoroughly annoyed. Here's another piece: an interesting book my wife Jordan showed me when we went to visit her parents one time: New Age Lies to Women.
Let's consider the second one for just a second. I have not entirely read the exposition on women being diddled by Satan into the New Age Occult by Marrs, but I have read enough to determine that the commentary was complete rubbish. It is a reactionary response to a rise in Paganism throughout the Western world in the postmodern era. Seriously, just about everything is of the occult to this woman. Cabbage Patch Kids--because they came out of a plant they were a part of the Earth Mother's takeover of the world; Kirsten Larson--an American Girl character because her family was Swedish and at Christmas they celebrated St. Lucia's Day where they dressed up in white robes and a wreath crown with candles, which is apparently symbolic of Satanic worship, as it looks very Pagan to Marrs. The Care Bears, a desire for world peace, just about anything that does not have to do with being a stay-at-home mom. The book is ridiculous, but I might make a conjecture here, and state that many non-Christian folks may think that this kind of writer represents the whole of Christian thinking. These kinds of people do not speak for us. Their comments to me are lunacy.
Here's the truth of the situation regarding what the Bible says. Paul states, "Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble." (1 Cor. 8:13) A slightly cliche verse, but it still is important to consider. Let's go back to my original thoughts about sin. Something is sin if it brings us further out of our relationship with Christ. In the context of what Paul was talking about, he was speaking about whether or not to eat food sacrificed to idols. Paul says earlier in the passage, "But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat." (1 Cor. 8:8) In other words, eating the food that was sacrificed to idols is neither sin nor non-sin. As I have said earlier, something like this is neutral. It's a mindset thing. If we can with a clear conscience disregard the idol sacrifice and eat it with thankfulness towards God, by all means, eat up! Similar to WoW, if the playing of the game is not affecting you, not taking you away from God in any way, by all means, play on!
Paul then goes on to instruct Christians not to take liberties on this, so as to confirm that our brother (or sister), when seeing us eat food sacrificed to idols does not stumble. Stumble, in other words that they do not have negative thoughts about about those who did eat, do not feel badly for not eating, etc. If this is happening, we should abstain from eating the sacrificed food as it were. Regarding WoW, it is on its own not a sin to play, but consider if someone else is thinking badly of you when you play. If this is happening consider talking to that person, try to demonstrate to them why it is not a "bad" thing to play. In my last post on this topic I am going to go through the normal reasons why people are against games like WoW, and try to help people understand that it's not a jumping off point into Satanism or witchcraft. Let's think logically, not get all in a tizzy because we hear anti-Christian buzzwords like "magic", "sorcery", "blood", "Death Knight"--stuff like that.
Part 1: Why It is NOT a Sin to Play WoW
I was fortunate enough to grow up in a home that was both Christian and open to understanding other people's beliefs, not shoving the Bible down anyone's throat, while also trying to let people know about the good news of Jesus Christ. (If you don't agree with Christianity, that's perfectly fine, my goal in life is not to convert you. It's to have a friendship. You don't need Jesus-talk to have friends.) I went to Oberlin College, an institution of higher learning known very much for its progressive philosophy and liberal mentality towards new ideas. I like that kind of environment; I like hearing about what other people believe and then discussing it, challenging ideas, and engaging people over the consequences of their beliefs.
Perhaps it's because I have both a degree in philosophy and biochemistry that I am able to scientifically think through ideas and then at the same time I want to challenge those theories and put them to the test. . .
Yada, yada, blah, blah--OK, so what's this got to do with World of Warcraft? Well, not a whole lot. It's just a big introduction to my point. My point is that the vast majority of the members of the Christian faith at some point in its history stopped thinking, stopped questioning ideas, stopped challenging ideas, went into a little Christians Only Bubble, and said No Way Jose to the rest of the world and what the rest of the world thinks about it. Christians became arrogant, holstered themselves in this Bubble, looking down from their perceived terrace exclaiming how screwed up the rest of the world was. Well, folks, here's the reality of the situation: we're all human! We're all in the same boat! We're all screwed up! Whether you've got the Christian fish on the back of your car or not! Bible fact check: "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. . ." (Romans 3:9-10) In other words, you're no better than anyone, Christian, Jew, atheist, Muslim, etc. Tough pill to swallow when Christians reinforce in their Sunday Schools how awesome and more moral we are than the rest of the world.
To define sin I take a point from Kierkegaard, the famous Russian existentialist philosopher of the early 20th century: in his book The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard writes that sin is "in despair not wanting to be oneself before God." That is to say that sin is attempting to have identity apart from God; or put more frankly it is to "find your deepest identity [not] in your relationship and service to God" (Keller, The Reason for God) We have this idea that sin is "doing bad stuff", even worse, that sin is only things like theft or murder. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity takes great pains to indicate that all sin derives from pride, so even those Christians who go to church every week and teach Sunday school lessons, but then go home to then think about how spectacular they are (not giving thanks to God for what He's done), well, that's pride, and that is not what God wants us to do.
OK, now to WoW stuff. Based on the definition of well-respected theologians and philosophers, is playing a video game like WoW a sin? I think any reasonable person will respond with an emphatic "NO!" I think any Christian who considers what I put above will agree. Am I going to convince everyone with that? Probably not, and that is why we're going to think about this more. Sin is only sin because it is something that takes us away from our relationship with God. I sin every freaking day because every day I have a mindset that is not of Christ. And therein lies the rub: it's not actions or thoughts really, it's a mindset.
Actions like eating your sandwich for lunch are neutral--there's no real sin or "good" in eating food, but when I live a life not in the mindset of getting closer to God, it's not the action or the thought that is "bad", it's the underlying stuff of how I live that is sin. If I go to church to look good or fulfill some obligation of the social circle, I am sinning, because the motivation of my heart is not to have a relationship with God, it's to do something for myself. But if I go to church knowing that I am a sinner, go inside and want to develop a relationship with God, that's admitting my failure as a human, and seeking God. Totally different, a sinner still, but wanting to change that. It's complicated, and I don't think I fully understand it myself, but I'm always willing to talk it through and think about it further.
If playing WoW takes a Christian away from God in any way whatsoever, that's when the Christian should be concerned. Not because there's demons or magic or warring factions that could invade the mind and cause the player to become Satanists. That's seriously really freaking silly. Part 2 starting right now is going to go through a blog post of a Christian whose opinion of WoW is easily found by Googling World of Warcraft and Christian in the same search. Let's really consider this stuff without the wacky flavor of Christians Only Bubble, shall we?
Perhaps it's because I have both a degree in philosophy and biochemistry that I am able to scientifically think through ideas and then at the same time I want to challenge those theories and put them to the test. . .
Yada, yada, blah, blah--OK, so what's this got to do with World of Warcraft? Well, not a whole lot. It's just a big introduction to my point. My point is that the vast majority of the members of the Christian faith at some point in its history stopped thinking, stopped questioning ideas, stopped challenging ideas, went into a little Christians Only Bubble, and said No Way Jose to the rest of the world and what the rest of the world thinks about it. Christians became arrogant, holstered themselves in this Bubble, looking down from their perceived terrace exclaiming how screwed up the rest of the world was. Well, folks, here's the reality of the situation: we're all human! We're all in the same boat! We're all screwed up! Whether you've got the Christian fish on the back of your car or not! Bible fact check: "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. . ." (Romans 3:9-10) In other words, you're no better than anyone, Christian, Jew, atheist, Muslim, etc. Tough pill to swallow when Christians reinforce in their Sunday Schools how awesome and more moral we are than the rest of the world.
To define sin I take a point from Kierkegaard, the famous Russian existentialist philosopher of the early 20th century: in his book The Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard writes that sin is "in despair not wanting to be oneself before God." That is to say that sin is attempting to have identity apart from God; or put more frankly it is to "find your deepest identity [not] in your relationship and service to God" (Keller, The Reason for God) We have this idea that sin is "doing bad stuff", even worse, that sin is only things like theft or murder. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity takes great pains to indicate that all sin derives from pride, so even those Christians who go to church every week and teach Sunday school lessons, but then go home to then think about how spectacular they are (not giving thanks to God for what He's done), well, that's pride, and that is not what God wants us to do.
OK, now to WoW stuff. Based on the definition of well-respected theologians and philosophers, is playing a video game like WoW a sin? I think any reasonable person will respond with an emphatic "NO!" I think any Christian who considers what I put above will agree. Am I going to convince everyone with that? Probably not, and that is why we're going to think about this more. Sin is only sin because it is something that takes us away from our relationship with God. I sin every freaking day because every day I have a mindset that is not of Christ. And therein lies the rub: it's not actions or thoughts really, it's a mindset.
Actions like eating your sandwich for lunch are neutral--there's no real sin or "good" in eating food, but when I live a life not in the mindset of getting closer to God, it's not the action or the thought that is "bad", it's the underlying stuff of how I live that is sin. If I go to church to look good or fulfill some obligation of the social circle, I am sinning, because the motivation of my heart is not to have a relationship with God, it's to do something for myself. But if I go to church knowing that I am a sinner, go inside and want to develop a relationship with God, that's admitting my failure as a human, and seeking God. Totally different, a sinner still, but wanting to change that. It's complicated, and I don't think I fully understand it myself, but I'm always willing to talk it through and think about it further.
If playing WoW takes a Christian away from God in any way whatsoever, that's when the Christian should be concerned. Not because there's demons or magic or warring factions that could invade the mind and cause the player to become Satanists. That's seriously really freaking silly. Part 2 starting right now is going to go through a blog post of a Christian whose opinion of WoW is easily found by Googling World of Warcraft and Christian in the same search. Let's really consider this stuff without the wacky flavor of Christians Only Bubble, shall we?
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Check Your Gear!
Before I do something crazy and talk about how Christianity and World of Warcraft can co-exist, or even more crazily, work together to possibly accomplish each others' goals (speaking very metaphorically here), I thought I might just write a quick rant post about under-geared folks trying to do instances that they just cannot do.
Today I rolled with a group that was unfortunately mostly in blues. I'm a rogue (undead) who is besides my Mighty Alchemist's Stone, entirely in epics, no raid stuff since I've never done a raid since I've never had the time to do one nor been in a guild for about a year, but definitely not under-geared for heroics. Iorokan for those who want to see. I like Honor among Thieves because it's not Mutilate, since I'm the kind of guy who hates to do what everyone else does just out of principal. Anyways, with a good group, I can put out anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 dps. Not that shabby, thought not incredible, but that's what I get for being casual. That kind of rhymed. Cool.
Anyways, we rolled into heroic Trial of the Champion, which is seriously really freaking easy if everyone knows what to do. I was thinking that the group would be OK for me being HAT, since there was a DK and a warrior, meaning a decent amount of criticals moving around for my HAT spec, but I found out very quickly, that my dps was going to suffer because nobody else in the group was well geared. My dps hovered around 1700, which is pathetic in my opinion. I was the best in the five man group. I died so many times because the healer couldn't keep the heals up on everyone. Lots of wipes on the shadow boss (Paletress). All around bad experience, though it did allow me to get the last few badges needed for my new pants.
Anyways, the whole point of this post was to say, if you don't have the gear, then don't try to do the dungeon. Start slow, grab some PVP purples or do the easier heroics like Utgarde Keep or The Nexus. Read WoWWiki and figure out what the bosses do. It's not that hard. When I started doing instances, I practically freaked out before I entered a new one, reading strategy since I didn't want anyone to find out I had never been there. And it is a sublime feeling to help someone who's never been to an instance.
That's it for me today. I will be commenting on the state of the Christian community and video games soon.
Today I rolled with a group that was unfortunately mostly in blues. I'm a rogue (undead) who is besides my Mighty Alchemist's Stone, entirely in epics, no raid stuff since I've never done a raid since I've never had the time to do one nor been in a guild for about a year, but definitely not under-geared for heroics. Iorokan for those who want to see. I like Honor among Thieves because it's not Mutilate, since I'm the kind of guy who hates to do what everyone else does just out of principal. Anyways, with a good group, I can put out anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 dps. Not that shabby, thought not incredible, but that's what I get for being casual. That kind of rhymed. Cool.
Anyways, we rolled into heroic Trial of the Champion, which is seriously really freaking easy if everyone knows what to do. I was thinking that the group would be OK for me being HAT, since there was a DK and a warrior, meaning a decent amount of criticals moving around for my HAT spec, but I found out very quickly, that my dps was going to suffer because nobody else in the group was well geared. My dps hovered around 1700, which is pathetic in my opinion. I was the best in the five man group. I died so many times because the healer couldn't keep the heals up on everyone. Lots of wipes on the shadow boss (Paletress). All around bad experience, though it did allow me to get the last few badges needed for my new pants.
Anyways, the whole point of this post was to say, if you don't have the gear, then don't try to do the dungeon. Start slow, grab some PVP purples or do the easier heroics like Utgarde Keep or The Nexus. Read WoWWiki and figure out what the bosses do. It's not that hard. When I started doing instances, I practically freaked out before I entered a new one, reading strategy since I didn't want anyone to find out I had never been there. And it is a sublime feeling to help someone who's never been to an instance.
That's it for me today. I will be commenting on the state of the Christian community and video games soon.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Warcraft Free Will
I don't presume to know a massive amount of philosophy, however, I did receive a minor in it from Oberlin College. In a way therefore, I feel as though I have some grasp of the love of wisdom.
As I mentioned last time, while I was trying to find Christian folks on the US Boulderfist server by using the official forums (very bad idea), I came across a high concentration of antagonistic people who, I think, did not understand the consequences of their philosophies. One post that intrigued me very quickly was that this individual firmly believed that the only reason anyone was Christian, was because their parents had been Christian and that they had grown up in a Christian environment. He or she stated that if this individual had been born in Saudi Arabia, that the individual would instead be a Muslim.
Though I can see the logic in that kind of thinking, and to a point it does make sense--namely that people are the product of their environment, I cannot possibly fully believe that people are only the product of their environment and do not have any choice in the matter of what they personally believe. Nor do I believe that this person who posted really believes in this theory, since our culture has determined that we can fight back against the foibles of our upbringing, or more importantly, that we can discover that the old age mysticism of religion of older generations is not part of enlightenment, of which we are a part of now in this post-modern era. In what this person is saying, an individual with atheist parents and an atheist upbringing will inevitably be atheist; an individual with similar Christian circumstances will inevitably be a Christian; a Hindu family will inevitably raise Hindu children; and so on and so forth.
This doesn't jive well with our current culture. We tend to be incredibly individualistic: in other words each person can decide for themselves what they want to do with their lives and what they believe is extremely personal. There are countless examples of atheists who have become Christians, Christians who have become atheists, individuals who switch religions several times throughout their lives. C.S Lewis comes to mind immediately of an example of an atheist who became a stout Christian. (By the way, Lewis by no stretch of the imagination was not an intellectual, on the contrary he defined in my opinion what a Christian should be: highly learned and skilled in defending the faith.) It doesn't matter where they have lived, what their parents believed, or what the people around them have believed. They just alter their worldview and believe whatever they want to believe. Our culture thoroughly believes in a concept of free will, where nothing of our thoughts or our actions is predetermined by any entity, force, or person. If determinism, as this theory is called, were to be true, a great many people would be extremely upset, as they would have absolutely no control over how their life will continue. It's already been determined, why think for myself? Even more so, if anything is determined, there is no individual; a person is just a variable in a mathematical function acting out its part.
The secular world implies that individuals are free; the Christian world bluntly disagrees, however, I must qualify that by saying that Christians believe that in our sin (actions and thoughts that are self-fulfilling and not Christ glorifying) not one man is free. Instead, it is only in our faith in Christ that we have freedom of action and thought. Jesus makes a massive transformation in us as believers. We are no longer shackled to ourselves. The Gospel removes the scales that covered our eyes, and we no longer serve just ourselves. We serve Jesus. Is that to say that we have no thought in this? That we only serve Jesus with a Bible-thumping ferocity that does not incline ourselves to others' opinions of how the world functions? In no way whatsoever! If ever a Christian does not consider the opinion of another and will not listen, he has become a Pharisee. Caked in the mud of self-righteousness and complacency, this is not how a Christian should be. It is through dialogue, it is through relationships, that people begin to understand one another. And it is only through relationships that the unbeliever will come to faith in Christ.
Though I did not answer my own question. Do we have no individuality in Christ? Nay, our individuality flourishes in Christ. I am His, and yet I am still my own. This dichotomy is difficult to understand, and many would dismiss this as specious reasoning, but let me try to clarify. Before being a Christian, I was a reticent, lonely kind of person, interested in only a couple of things: video games, reading, and doing well in school. I wasn't a "bad" person, and I wasn't the kind of person people avoided at school; everyone pretty much liked me, but I was shy and so didn't have a large amount of friends, which was and still is just fine by me. When I became a Christian when I was a teenager, who I was blossomed. I just wasn't a video game/school nerd. I was someone different. There was a point to who I was. My knowledge allowed me to be a strong cornerstone of the Bible studies. People asked me questions, and I developed relationships and helped people to understand what these wacky Christians believed. Some laugh and some pondered over it, and that's fine. I'm very techy, and I could develop relationships with people over that. With this WoW thing, I'm hoping that my love for the MMO will get people to think about what they believe, while still enjoying WoW. I play guitar, and my musical skill (though not too amazing by any stretch of the imagination) was utilized by the church to sing praises at worship time. All these things that make me an individual have been used by Christ to do good, and not just make myself happier, but others, too. This is awesome, and I see this as Christ making me His own, while giving me wings to do my own thing. You may disagree, but that's OK. Let's talk.
I think next post I'm going to combat a Christian community belief that games like World of Warcraft are bad, sinful, awful things for Christians to play. I thoroughly disagree with people like that, and I hope you read.
As I mentioned last time, while I was trying to find Christian folks on the US Boulderfist server by using the official forums (very bad idea), I came across a high concentration of antagonistic people who, I think, did not understand the consequences of their philosophies. One post that intrigued me very quickly was that this individual firmly believed that the only reason anyone was Christian, was because their parents had been Christian and that they had grown up in a Christian environment. He or she stated that if this individual had been born in Saudi Arabia, that the individual would instead be a Muslim.
Though I can see the logic in that kind of thinking, and to a point it does make sense--namely that people are the product of their environment, I cannot possibly fully believe that people are only the product of their environment and do not have any choice in the matter of what they personally believe. Nor do I believe that this person who posted really believes in this theory, since our culture has determined that we can fight back against the foibles of our upbringing, or more importantly, that we can discover that the old age mysticism of religion of older generations is not part of enlightenment, of which we are a part of now in this post-modern era. In what this person is saying, an individual with atheist parents and an atheist upbringing will inevitably be atheist; an individual with similar Christian circumstances will inevitably be a Christian; a Hindu family will inevitably raise Hindu children; and so on and so forth.
This doesn't jive well with our current culture. We tend to be incredibly individualistic: in other words each person can decide for themselves what they want to do with their lives and what they believe is extremely personal. There are countless examples of atheists who have become Christians, Christians who have become atheists, individuals who switch religions several times throughout their lives. C.S Lewis comes to mind immediately of an example of an atheist who became a stout Christian. (By the way, Lewis by no stretch of the imagination was not an intellectual, on the contrary he defined in my opinion what a Christian should be: highly learned and skilled in defending the faith.) It doesn't matter where they have lived, what their parents believed, or what the people around them have believed. They just alter their worldview and believe whatever they want to believe. Our culture thoroughly believes in a concept of free will, where nothing of our thoughts or our actions is predetermined by any entity, force, or person. If determinism, as this theory is called, were to be true, a great many people would be extremely upset, as they would have absolutely no control over how their life will continue. It's already been determined, why think for myself? Even more so, if anything is determined, there is no individual; a person is just a variable in a mathematical function acting out its part.
The secular world implies that individuals are free; the Christian world bluntly disagrees, however, I must qualify that by saying that Christians believe that in our sin (actions and thoughts that are self-fulfilling and not Christ glorifying) not one man is free. Instead, it is only in our faith in Christ that we have freedom of action and thought. Jesus makes a massive transformation in us as believers. We are no longer shackled to ourselves. The Gospel removes the scales that covered our eyes, and we no longer serve just ourselves. We serve Jesus. Is that to say that we have no thought in this? That we only serve Jesus with a Bible-thumping ferocity that does not incline ourselves to others' opinions of how the world functions? In no way whatsoever! If ever a Christian does not consider the opinion of another and will not listen, he has become a Pharisee. Caked in the mud of self-righteousness and complacency, this is not how a Christian should be. It is through dialogue, it is through relationships, that people begin to understand one another. And it is only through relationships that the unbeliever will come to faith in Christ.
Though I did not answer my own question. Do we have no individuality in Christ? Nay, our individuality flourishes in Christ. I am His, and yet I am still my own. This dichotomy is difficult to understand, and many would dismiss this as specious reasoning, but let me try to clarify. Before being a Christian, I was a reticent, lonely kind of person, interested in only a couple of things: video games, reading, and doing well in school. I wasn't a "bad" person, and I wasn't the kind of person people avoided at school; everyone pretty much liked me, but I was shy and so didn't have a large amount of friends, which was and still is just fine by me. When I became a Christian when I was a teenager, who I was blossomed. I just wasn't a video game/school nerd. I was someone different. There was a point to who I was. My knowledge allowed me to be a strong cornerstone of the Bible studies. People asked me questions, and I developed relationships and helped people to understand what these wacky Christians believed. Some laugh and some pondered over it, and that's fine. I'm very techy, and I could develop relationships with people over that. With this WoW thing, I'm hoping that my love for the MMO will get people to think about what they believe, while still enjoying WoW. I play guitar, and my musical skill (though not too amazing by any stretch of the imagination) was utilized by the church to sing praises at worship time. All these things that make me an individual have been used by Christ to do good, and not just make myself happier, but others, too. This is awesome, and I see this as Christ making me His own, while giving me wings to do my own thing. You may disagree, but that's OK. Let's talk.
I think next post I'm going to combat a Christian community belief that games like World of Warcraft are bad, sinful, awful things for Christians to play. I thoroughly disagree with people like that, and I hope you read.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Making a Christian guild! PST!
Hello there again,
So I had the crazy experience of trying to start a Christian guild on my home server, Boulderfist. The only means of advertising to do such a thing so far have been to make posts on the official forums. I discovered that though my intentions were good, that I had no desire to start a flame war, and that I only really mentioned Christ twice in any of my posts, that people at the very word of Christ*, react incredibly passionately, and mostly negatively. After three days I have stopped looking at the thread, mostly because I haven't received a single response that indicated that anyone was interested in joining. The other reason is that it's starting to be a little mean-spirited. Perhaps that's because there are no Christians on Boulderfist, or perhaps more likely, that there are none who venture on the forums.
It is a sad day when Christians really have to stay quiet, or else be mocked. This doesn't happen very often in "the real world", when you're face to face with someone, but something happens when the anonymity of people is allowed online. Because no one will really be able to figure out who you are, and thus no consequences of what you say are garnered, it seems as though people feel compelled to spew forth whatever plops itself out of their mind. Unfortunate that propriety in even online conversation has evacuated our culture. I'm at a loss to understand why the good ol' adage of if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all, has become trite to our culture.
Regarding the guild, I had named it "The Fish and Bread Trick", in reference to the feeding of the 5000; I am stilling looking for nine other folks who are interested in banding together as Christians to play together and fellowship. The only signature I do have on the guild charter is my wife's. Since I can't play all day, nor do I like the kind of guild where people are required to show up for dungeons and such, I wanted to make it a very relaxed, casual fellowship that when we had time, enough people on, and wanted to as a group, would do whatever we wanted together. That could be raids, battleground groups, or just maybe shoot for some of the harder achievements together. As a plug, if you are reading this, play WoW, and are interested in joining this kind of guild, please make a character you'd like to play on Boulderfist, and message Iorokan or Junataro. Or please contact me by email at thestealthpoet@gmail.com . There would be no requirement of faith to join, but in general there would be strict regulation of guild chat, so that objectionable topics and language would be minimized. I also would like for members who are Christians to support one another spiritually and be real friends together, as we have the most important bond that can be formed--that link to the head of our lives that makes us brothers and sisters. At the same time, this is about fun together in a game we like, so all around goofiness and the excitement of being with likeminded folks would be encouraged.
I'm going to try making a website for this, and then advertise in game. We'll see what that leads to. In further blog posts I am going to talk about some of the comments that were made in the forum thread regarding my guild--mostly apologetic stuff. A quick preview: it appears that many people unfortunately do not understand the consequences of their own beliefs: for example one person stated that Christians are only Christians because they were born into Christian households. Bold claim, especially since that viewpoint subtlety implies that people are without free will.
Much more to come! This is fun.
So I had the crazy experience of trying to start a Christian guild on my home server, Boulderfist. The only means of advertising to do such a thing so far have been to make posts on the official forums. I discovered that though my intentions were good, that I had no desire to start a flame war, and that I only really mentioned Christ twice in any of my posts, that people at the very word of Christ*, react incredibly passionately, and mostly negatively. After three days I have stopped looking at the thread, mostly because I haven't received a single response that indicated that anyone was interested in joining. The other reason is that it's starting to be a little mean-spirited. Perhaps that's because there are no Christians on Boulderfist, or perhaps more likely, that there are none who venture on the forums.
It is a sad day when Christians really have to stay quiet, or else be mocked. This doesn't happen very often in "the real world", when you're face to face with someone, but something happens when the anonymity of people is allowed online. Because no one will really be able to figure out who you are, and thus no consequences of what you say are garnered, it seems as though people feel compelled to spew forth whatever plops itself out of their mind. Unfortunate that propriety in even online conversation has evacuated our culture. I'm at a loss to understand why the good ol' adage of if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all, has become trite to our culture.
Regarding the guild, I had named it "The Fish and Bread Trick", in reference to the feeding of the 5000; I am stilling looking for nine other folks who are interested in banding together as Christians to play together and fellowship. The only signature I do have on the guild charter is my wife's. Since I can't play all day, nor do I like the kind of guild where people are required to show up for dungeons and such, I wanted to make it a very relaxed, casual fellowship that when we had time, enough people on, and wanted to as a group, would do whatever we wanted together. That could be raids, battleground groups, or just maybe shoot for some of the harder achievements together. As a plug, if you are reading this, play WoW, and are interested in joining this kind of guild, please make a character you'd like to play on Boulderfist, and message Iorokan or Junataro. Or please contact me by email at thestealthpoet@gmail.com . There would be no requirement of faith to join, but in general there would be strict regulation of guild chat, so that objectionable topics and language would be minimized. I also would like for members who are Christians to support one another spiritually and be real friends together, as we have the most important bond that can be formed--that link to the head of our lives that makes us brothers and sisters. At the same time, this is about fun together in a game we like, so all around goofiness and the excitement of being with likeminded folks would be encouraged.
I'm going to try making a website for this, and then advertise in game. We'll see what that leads to. In further blog posts I am going to talk about some of the comments that were made in the forum thread regarding my guild--mostly apologetic stuff. A quick preview: it appears that many people unfortunately do not understand the consequences of their own beliefs: for example one person stated that Christians are only Christians because they were born into Christian households. Bold claim, especially since that viewpoint subtlety implies that people are without free will.
Much more to come! This is fun.
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