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I've heard many stories of people who abandoned their role-playing hobby, or burned their fantasy book collections, on the grounds that these were opposed to their Christian faith.

What is it that causes some Christians to be concerned about fantasy and role-playing? What are the sources** for these concerns?

**Not just Biblical sources, but also the people that promoted the concern within the Christian community.

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Welcome to Christianity.SE! You might get some interesting answers to this question since I know quite a few folks around here also participate on gaming/fantasy related SE sites. – Caleb♦ Sep 18 '11 at 16:44
This is the first example of a "sexed up" title I've encountered from Christianity.SE! I've suggested adding "games" to the title to disambiguate a bit. – Andrew Grimm Sep 19 '11 at 2:55
Ugh. I didn't intend for it to be "sexed up". I just forgot that on the internet, everything is about sex. :-( – Sean McMillan Sep 19 '11 at 18:29
@SeanMcMillan: It's ironic - I didn't mean "sexed up" in a literal sense, I meant it as in hyped up :O See also this and this, though I was mistaken in thinking it was deliberate – Andrew Grimm Sep 22 '11 at 10:22

3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote

On one hand, fantasy world is based on magic. In fantasy there are daemons, witches, sorcerers, spells etc.

But on the other hand, real magic is a sin against God's Will

Deuteronomy 18:9 (ESV):
9 "When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, 14for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.

Revelation 21:5 (ESV):
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

While fantasy magic may be not the same as real magic, as far as people keep it fantasy, it may lead someone to the thoughts that magic is fine, and furthermore, that it would be cool to learn some real magic. Remember that fantasy is mostly for kids and that is a real danger if they don't have enough knowledge of God's Law.

But there is an other side also, many believe that Tolkien's Lord of The Rings has a Biblical background (see The Gospel According to J.R.R. Tolkien by William D. Brehm), as well as C.S. Lewis in Chronicles of Narnia.

See also Religious debates over the Harry Potter series

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I would challenge your first statement, "fantasy is based on magic". While there may be cross over between the two realms, those are hardly equivalent items. Are you saying people PERCEIVE that to be true and that's the source? – Caleb♦ Sep 18 '11 at 16:33
Fantasy is (usually) based on magical ideas. God clearly considers the practice of actual magic to be a sin. Whether the two are equivalent or not seems to be the sticking point here... – Mason Wheeler♦ Sep 18 '11 at 16:44
@Caleb you right, I should explain my opinion in other words. See last edit. – Max Gontar Sep 18 '11 at 17:02
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I also think that saying "fantasy is mostly for kids" really misses the point, too. I don't know any kids who play D&D. – Flimzy Sep 18 '11 at 18:36
@Flimzy you may be right but my answer is more about fantasy culture in common than about RPG's, which may be very sophisticated, as like D&D or may be a parody as like Munchkin (which is really fun and not pretend to be real). – Max Gontar Sep 18 '11 at 18:52
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up vote 4 down vote

I have never been heavily involved in fantasy or role playing games, but I've had plenty of friends who were. A couple of them have given it up for one reason or another.

The most applicable of these cases was somebody who was convicted about the usage of their time spent in the gaming world not being productive or glorifying to God. There was no objection on principle to the activities, but they were convinced that there were better things to be doing with their time. Besides ... in light of the grace they received from Christ, they wanted to spend their sharing that grace with others. The real world is hardly a boring place, and the way it comes alive in light of the Gospel is enough to inspire and drive even the most active imagination.

I also have friends (who I respect) that think their time spent in role playing games or fantasy worlds is well balanced and the interaction with people a valuable investment. I don't know enough about the culture of gaming to know how easy/hard/valid/invalid this is, but I have to imagine as a past-time and social activity it doesn't have to be a bad thing.

That being said, the content of what you are participating in needs to be considered. Considering movies as a whole one might conclude that watching films is permissible, but then if all you watch is trash, obviously you've twisted some truth into a lie. If the content of the world you are participating in is not wholesome, as a Christian you would have no business continuing.

I think this might fall under the umbrella of Paul's admonition about meat sacrificed to idols. All things are permissible but not all things are beneficial. That's a judgement call you'll have to make. Is your time spent in gaming or role playing giving the most glory to God that you can give with your life?

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To tie this answer in with the question a little better: "fantasy and role playing games" generally require more time to play. A game of Dungeons and Dragons could take days where most card games take minutes or hours. A video game like World of Warcraft can take months to level up a character to get to certain areas, where a game like Call of Duty takes about 15 minutes to play a round. Not only are these games typically longer, but role playing seems to replace real life and players might use the game as an escape from real life (much like a drug). – styfle Sep 19 '11 at 4:39
up vote 3 down vote

I know when I was growing up my mom didn't let me play D&D (I did anyway) partly because of the magic/demons/occult stuff, but also because (according to Focus on the Family at least) role playing is supposedly all consuming with a cult like aspect of sucking you into it's world and not letting you go. That was at least the common wisdom of James Dobson in the early 90s. I wonder how that has adapted to video games and the like?

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Auto repair, computer programming, and reading, can also be "all consuming with a cult like aspect of sucking you into it's world and not letting you go." :) I think @Caleb's answer does a good job of discussing how neither role-playing, nor anything else (apart from God), should monopolize our time. If role-playing is a problem for everyone, it needs to be a problem on its own merits--not because some people don't have a good sense of time management. – Flimzy Sep 18 '11 at 18:39
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Thank you for mentioning Dobson and FOTF -- I would like to know more about why RPGs became such a focus for them. – Sean McMillan Sep 18 '11 at 18:43

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