jordan@noscvax.UUCP (Martin C. Jordan) (10/15/85)
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Date: Thu, 10 Oct 85 10:47:24 pdt
From: Martin C. Jordan <jordan@cod>
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To: seismo!ut-sally!speegle@ngp.UTEXAS.EDU
Subject: D&D, fundamentalists, and a potion of confusion
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Dear Charlie,
First of all, I wish to apologize for causing you to think I
purposely "belittled" your faith in agnosticism or atheism, whichever
one you claim. My attempt at a little humor obviously failed, as I was
using "narrow-minded atheist" instead of the "narrow-minded fundamentalist"
which one sees tossed about the net like lettuce in a salad. I should
have put a "happy face" as a tag to look for the humor in it. My own
personal feelings are that ALL religions should be treated with the
respect one would treat their own. I may not believe a letter of it, but,
I will treat it and its followers respectfully. I see this example in
the life of Christ and in Paul's discourse to the Greeks on the Areopagus.
So, if I have offended in any way, shape or from, I ask your forgiveness.
In our last communication, you also asked what I had against
D&D. My answer......nothing, I am a player myself (nonfrustrated by the
way). I don't know if you read my first posting, but I had a point I
wanted to make. I had read about "umpteen" articles from people up in
arms about the "narrow-minded fundamentalists" (a quote or a REAL close
paraphrase) out to ban FRP's such as D&D. It became apparent after reading
all those articles, that at least 75% of the writers had no real idea
of what a "fundamentalist" Christian was, what he/she believed, or why
anyone would even think twice about banning D&D. My point (several actually)
was to say (1) not all fundamentalists are out to get rid of D&D and other
FRP games, (2) here are some reasons that a Christian MIGHT find upsetting
(which I thought were rather far fetched, i.e. spells from the Tibetan
Book of the Dead, etc.), (3) for non-fundamentalists to try and see
things from my perspective (difficult I know because of differences in
philosophy), and (4) stop calling me and my friends "narrow-minded."
Lets face it Chuck (if I may call you that), there are a handful
of radicals in both camps, who more than likely mean well by their actions,
that manage to get media attention and set up stereotypes. Examples,
all "womens-libbers" are not Bella Abzugs, all Democrats are not Hubert
Humphries, all Republicans are not Ronald Reagans, all blacks are not
Rastafarians, all whites are not George Wallace's, and not all Fundamentalist
Christians are Jerry Fallwells. Obviously, those I've named haved created
more than their fair share of controversy. I guess my point here is that
religious stereotypes are just as bad as racial stereotypes.
What is the upshot of all this? I have only tried to present a
(not "the") fundamentalist Christian perspective on D&D type games from
a non-denominational standpoint; what does the Bible say vs. Rev. *.* says.. .
I'm not out to stop all the fun, but to promote a greater understanding of
two different world views. Also, and this is important to understand about
me, I am not out to shove my Protestant beliefs down anybody's throat. I'll
discuss them with those interested, but I refuse to dig out a crowbar and
start cramming "in the name of the Lord." You never saw Jesus making people
come listen to him. They came out of their own free will.
I hope this clears up what appeared (to me) to be some misconceptions
of yours concerning my motives for posting such flammable material.I look
forward to hearing from you again.
Sincerely,
Martin Jordan
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