Can you be both Christian and a gamer?

[Not Disclosed]

Hi,

My Name is Larry

and I am both a Christian and also a Gamer...

I live in the Bible belt of the USA and some of the churches

here have condemned gaming. However I like to Play White Wolf's

World of Darkness and other gaming systems, but someone in my

Bible study has stated that (and I paraphrase here here as I

was told secondhand through a third party because they did

not even have the courage to tell me in my face)

“If it is a world of darkness it must be evil and is of satin”.

However many years ago I once saw a printout of a web page

that described why this was incorrect and it further went on

to explain that you could be BOTH Christian AND a gamer and that

one was not necessarily exclusive of the other! It explained

that gaming was just a creative outlet and that it was not

necessarily “evil” or “of the devil” and that the Bible

and Christianity did not condemn gaming or any other

creative outlet that did not directly contradict the Bible

or break any biblical laws. I am desperately searching for this

web page or any similar information that I can point out to these

individuals, and for others that have expressed concern for my wish

to use this storytelling system (or any other gaming system) as a

creative outlet. See due to intolerance, predigest and ignorance,

I am completely unable to locate a suitable location to host or

join a game in my “Local” area because people

“just don't understand” and are to intolerant of my wish

to play a simple game, to participate in a story related to

the darker side of our world or to play in any RPG games

and allow me to express some creativity. I am however having

a bit of trouble locating this website or any information

that I can reference. The individual's that I am wishing to

give this information to are very intelligent and are

somewhat literate. However they are misled, misinformed,

or simply prejudiced against gaming do to the “stigma”

that “many gamers tend to do evil things like “murder,

suicide, rape, steal and etc, etc as a result of playing

these evil games” and then they point out some of the few

stereotypes of people that have taken it way to far and

are no longer able to distinguish between the game and the

real world. I wish to point them in the correct direction

and show them some actual statistics and other related

information and give them the truth of the mater and to

point out that it is just a “healthy outlet for creativity”

and not a “satanic ritual practice” rather than be forced

to drop from my weekly Bible study and other Christian activities

or to be forced to become a “closet gamer”, an atheist or both.

As some of these people are also my neighbors and I do not

wish to create strife in the apartment complex where I live,

I am desperately looking for information on this subject.

However I have had a very difficult time however trying to

find the proper words to describe to these people what

the World of Darkness is and why I wish to use this

storytelling system and that it is just a creative outlet.

It has gotten to the point where I must decide between either

Gaming or Church! I am continuing to look for this

blasted web page, or any other related information

I can get my hands on but so far have exhausted my

patience with sites that do not offer any reliable

information related to this subject matter or simply

point to some zealots “Christian Game”. I desperately

do NOT wish to become a “closet gamer”, an atheist, or both.

However this is where I seem to be headed if I am

unable to locate this information. So Please if you

have ANY information that may prove useful to me

PLEASE post it in this newsgroup or e-mail me @

knot_disclosed at yahoo dot com with links,

documents (attachments), or information from

publishers of any of this kind of information.



Many Thanks in Advance

Larry