eat. sleep. game.

Could gaming be considered a sin? While no one at ESG could be considered religious, it is something that we feel is important to address because plenty of gamers are religious. And plenty of religious gamers have numerous different pressures in their life that will probably make them confront whether or not their habit is congruous with their faith. For the sake of clarity, this article will only focus on the Judeo-Christian tradition, because that is what I am familiar with.

As a Religious Studies Graduate from the University of California, Davis, this idea became important to me after I was made aware that gamepolitics.com had posted an article from the Express-Times that brought up the question of whether video game violence could be considered a sin. Though I am not religious myself, I recognize that this could be an extremely important issue to a lot of people since the majority of Americans are self-declared Christians. I don’t want to just discuss whether video game violence is a sin, but whether if playing video games, in all their various elements, could be considered a Sin in the Christian tradition.

Sin is something that is hard for many people to define. For the sake of this article it will be defined as any action with estranges a person from God. That probably sounds much more cold and devoid of the passion that people associate with Sin, always thinking of it as something that is obviously evil; Sin does not have to feel wrong to be something that estranges one from God.

It would be easy to say that playing video games could be sinful because of the fact that players are committing virtual Sins. Gamepolitics correctly makes the connection between Matthew 5:27 which essentially makes clear that to Jesus their can be a clear connection between fantasizing about committing Sin and committing the Sin in reality. Jesus informs his followers that to God both are Sins.

But this issue deserves more attention than simply making a connection that if fantasizing lustfully is a Sin, then video game violence, which is fantasy violence, is a Sin. Clearly there is a distinction between actively creating a fantasy about something in your mind and simply interacting with one in a digital environment. Video game fantasy is the same as that of a book or movie. Players are not fulfilling their desires but rather working within the constraints of a universe with boundaries.

However, if players are playing through a fantasy that is not their own but are enjoying the acts of violence or sexual transgression that they are taking part of, are they not committing a Sin similar to fantasizing about it themselves?

This question is incredibly hard to answer. I suppose the easy answer would be to say yes, it is a Sin to find pleasure in things that are inherently sinful, even if they are virtual. But the reality of the Christian tradition states that all humans are sinners. While this may sound like a cop out, and that players should just play because Sin is unavoidable for humans, this is not my intent at all. Rather I think, like so many things in life, that individuals have to examine the way that video games play into their life and what the pros and cons, based firmly within their belief, are.

Video games have violence and they have sex. However the act of playing video games goes above and beyond simply participating in a fantasy environment. People often play video games as a means to connect with others. Some of the most intense times of connection and love that I have experienced have been late nights of video gaming with others. I have seen video games used as a way of creating fellowship amongst fellow believers. And if God is Love, then, in the eyes of the author, video games can bring one closer to God.

But what if there was a way to argue that violence did not have to be inherently sinful? After all the Christian video game Left Behind was filled with violence; even the Bible is riddled with tales of violence that was committed as an act of God. Christian writers have been debating whether or not there can be a “just” Christian war for centuries and still have never come to a decisive decision that all within the faith are satisfied with.

The question will inevitably get more attention as video games continue to become a much more pervasive part of world culture. Like many Christian arguments about matters of Christian faith it is doubtful there will ever be a uniform answer that all Christians can respect. For now, at least in my fallible opinion, it comes down to the individual and how they perceive and interact with the fantasy worlds that video games place the user in. Make your video game experience one that is about bettering yourself and the love you have for others, even if it’s making a friend with that loner guy at school, and I think you are on the right track before God.

(NOTE: I don’t believe in any particular God. I know that to many this will make my opinion completely irrelevant in the matter. However as a scholar of the Christian tradition I do take this idea incredibly seriously. I didn’t dedicate my time at college to learning about the various beliefs of Christians for no good reason. So if this helps you in any way, even to just communicate the idea with people who might be able to expand the conversation, then I can say, just like our President, “Mission Accomplished.”)

Hit me up with thoughts either in a comment here or at chufmoney@eat-sleep-game.com

Chufmoney

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 11:00 am and is filed under Christian violence, Christianity, Sin, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.