Pat Robertson Goes Biblical on Dungeons & Dragons
- Robertson: Kids face bulimia, anorexia and suicide caused by ‘demonic games’, via The Raw Story
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, parents were told their children faced mortal danger because of Dungeons & Dragons. Many of these concerned folks were Christians, and they believed that the game encouraged children to worship the devil, practice witchcraft, and commit mortal sins.
Some were even convinced the imaginary demons in the game would drive their children insane. (While the hysteria was unfounded on so many levels, it did give rise to one of our most popular actors: Tom Hanks. See Mazes and Monsters, the movie.)
Well, televangelist Pat Robertson is pretty convinced the hysteria never ended.
This isn’t the first time Robertson has gone Biblical on Dungeons & Dragons either.
- Robertson: ‘Demonic’ Dungeons & Dragons ‘Literally Destroyed People’s Lives’, via Right Wing Watch
A Historically Fun Anti-D&D Piece
- Straight Talk on Dungeons & Dragons, via Chick Publication
- (Updated) Should a Christian Play Dungeons & Dragons?, via Chick Publication
I don’t to cherry pick too much to make my point, but a certain strain of Christians have always had an issue with Dungeons & Dragons, and they have gone to great lengths to analyse the game and its components. One of the more interesting to read are these pieces from Chick Publications, which go into exhausting detail about the game, the occult, and demons.
To main point in the articles is this:
This problem is that the cosmology of D&D is fundamentally anti-Biblical. Many of the defenders of D&D make the common mistake of assuming that because there are roles in the game for “clerics,” this makes the game alright. They make this mistake because they equate Roman Catholicism and its robed clerics for Christians. They do not understand that one can be a cleric (Muslim, Buddhist, etc.) and not be a Christian.
The articles are of tl;dr length, I suspect, but there are some amazingly awesome nuggets within the argument against the game. My favorite is the author’s attempt to give credence to his case based upon his own experiences:
As a former witch high priest, and one who worked with game writers for D&D back in the 1970’s, I could hardly be called ignorant. And I am only “dangerous” to the wallets of the moguls of the FRPG industry and to the devil.