Dungeons and Dragons Game QUESTION from Suzanne June 16, 1999 I am very conserned of the effects of the Game Dungeons and Dragons. My husband after leaving the church in high school was introduced to this roll playing game and now has a very extensive gaming collections including boards pieces and tables with possible plays. I am very conserned about having this in my house and would apresiate any information pertaining to this game. I am very happy to say my husband has returned to the church and the sacraments but still does not find anything wrong with this game. Although he does not activley play this game he can not see the point in etting rid of this harmeless game. Any help or info on the subject would greatly be of help. Thank You so much Suzanne
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius on June 18, 1999 Dear Mrs. Suzanne:
To answer your question requires talking about the nature of how Satan influences us.
Satan’s primary position of attack is on our imagination. All sin begins with a thought, and then an imagination, and then a desire, and then an action.
If Satan can influence out imaginations he can manipulate our thinking and our behavior.
Satan has successfully found ways to manipulate our imaginations through music, movies, T.V., art, books; but what better way to get access to our imaginations than to encourage us to manipulate our own imaginations in role-playing games.
Role-play is well known to be a therapeutic device to help people to understand how others are feeling, to get rid of emotional baggage, and to train oneself to avoid a habit or to adopt a better personality demeanor. Police Officers role-play dangerous situations so that they can train themselves to act automatically then the time comes. Practicing piano is a form of role-play that allows us to, in essence, create neural pathways that eventually allow us to play the piano without thought.
Images and imaginative ideas that we put into our brain, in essence, programs our brain. This was expressed in the old days as garbage in, garbage out. We cannot expect to put negative, occultic, death-oriented, magic oriented, witchcraft-oriented, non-Christian worldview and theologies into our brains and not be affected by it.
The Bible specifically teaches that we are to guard our senses because what we allow our senses to experience WILL affect our thinking and our imaginations and our behavior. Ultimately is can affect our eternal soul.
St. Paul in Philippians 4:7-8:
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. D & D can hardly be considered noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. In fact D & D presents a worldview and a theology that is occultic, magical, death-oriented, and totally inconsistent with Christianity.
The game is played by player assuming roles often of unsavory characters such as a thief, assassin, or magic user. In the old days with role-playing games of the civil war and the like players assumed roles of soldiers and related characters, but in today’s role-play games the orientation is toward occult-type characters.
Although imagination was used with the old battle games of the past, the focus was on mere role-play. Today, intense imagination is required, and the tendency now appears to be in the direction of developing an alter ego.
These games are, by nature, set within a worldview. In the past role-play games had a historical setting. Today it in one of fantasy and mythology. Although past games had violence, today there is immortality, idolatry, and occultism.
The most dangerous aspect of these games is that it manipulates the imagination and submits the imagination to ideas contrary to God. More than submission, these games encourage indulgence of exploring the imagination in these ungodly ways to the point of alter ego at times.
St. Paul states in 2 Corinthians 10:5:
We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive of obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. Our first Pope, St. Peter warns us in 2 Peter 3:17:
Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability. The Theology of FRP (Fantasy Role Play) Games is polytheism against Christianity’s monotheism; nontheistic universe against Christianity’s theistic universe; reincarnation against Christianity’s one life and then the judgement, amoral universe against a moral universe of Christianity.
Some of the occult connections of FRP games include occult magic and casting of spells (some of these spells found in some books are real spells used by real Satanists and witches), astral projection, necromancy, conjuration of demons, divination, etc. All these things are resolutely condemned by God.
One researcher, Stanley Dokupil, has noted on the subject of the danger of occultism in FRP games:
The very nature of D & D, and FRP in general, is such that the imagination is being guided into encounters with nonmaterial entities, forces, or spirits. Those entities, we are told, are mere fantasies with no basis in reality. If, however, those entities do actually exist in some form in the spirit world, then the line of demarcation between what is fantasy and what is actual with spiritual, demonic forces becomes extremely abstruse if not entirely nonexistent. Regardless of the difference between reality and imagination, Elliot Miller cautions:
However real this distinction may be in the minds of the players, though, I feel no assurance that the spirit world will not respond when it is beckoned. Then I was of high-school age I was extremely skeptical about anything reputedly supernatural. I recall engaging in a mock séance with a group of friends. Our lightheartedness was turned to fear when suddenly the medium, my best friend, began to convulse, his eyes rolled back in his head, and a strange voice emerged from his throat. For the following two years this young Jew was tormented by spirits. Withdrawing from all social contacts, he haunted graveyards until he was delivered through the power of Jesus Christ.
FRP games have lead players into bizarrre behavior. It can be very addictive. It can lead to odd curiosities and strange actions. I personally consulted with law enforcement in Florida once on a case where three boys dug up the remains of a suicide victim from a local graveyard. The used the decomposing body for rituals associated with the D & D game.
But, none of this ever happened to me! we will hear people say. Or, It’s only a game!
Those words were composed directly by Satan. All sorts of devilish activity is excused by saying, It’s Only…. (a game, a TV show, a movie, a song). Yes, it is ONLY a game, TV show, movie, song that will lead us to hell.
As for the childish, But none of this ever happened to me excuse, I could stand in a barrel of gasoline lighting matches 100 times and never blow up. It never happened to me I could say. In saying that I am giving a testimony that it is okay to take the risk. If someone is influence by my testimony that I did it 100 times and nothing happened and a person follows my example and dies, that person’s blood is on my hands.
Let me be blunt, No Christian as any busy playing D & D and no Christian has any business even having the game in their house.
In fact, having such a device in the house can, in some instances, give demons permission to come into the house. We need to clean house.
As for your husband, his reluctance to give up the games and burn it, I believe, shows that he still has an attachment to the game. He needs to be freed from this attachment.
There is no such thing as a harmless game that serves the purposes of Satan. When you play in Satan's sandbox, you WILL get Satan's sand in your shoes. We need to stop playing in the devil's sandbox, and we need to clean ourselves up so that we don't track Satan's sand into the house.
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