GaryCon II and Old School Gaming

Well, my buddy Redd and I have driven up to Illinois to visit with my friend Jolly Blackburn and his wife Barb of Knights of the Dinner Table fame before heading over to GaryCon in Lake Geneva, WI. GaryCon starts on Friday and is going to be three days of Old School Gaming in honor of the late co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, E. Gary Gygax. The convention is put on by his family and is a wonderful way to honor the memory of someone who helped create a game that many of us still love to play. There is also going to be an auction run by the amazing Frank Mentzer to help raise money to build a memorial to Gary Gygax.

So, you may ask, what does this have to do about geekiness and spirituality? Well, I had the honor of meeting Gary the year before he died when he was on a panel at GenCon on Christianity and Gaming. It was wonderful to realize that this man who had a profound effect on my life was also a person with a deep rooted and abiding faith in Jesus. He once told me that he was simply "trusting Jesus" and I think that's the best any of us can do in this life…..simply trust Jesus. It's a great place to start and an exciting place to end up!

Over the past few days, I've been reflecting on my own spiritual journey. It's been quite an interesting one for a person who did not grow up in a family that emphasized any type of regular church attendance and considered spirituality to be something we just discussed half-heartedly. As a geek, I often felt like an outcast so I did a lot of reading and I find it amazing that many of the authors I enjoyed were people of faith. I did not realize people like CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and, yes, Gary Gygax are people whose lives had been affected by their faith journey. So, as I've thought on these matters, I realize that God used all of these people (and many others I won't mention right now) to guide me on this journey even though I did not know it!

You see, many people affect you in this life and they have an influence on what you think, believe and feel even when you least expect it. As a young and often lonely geek, I found solace in books written by these people and felt a connection to a wider community. Gaming books, especially Dragon Magazine, helped me realize there was (and still is) a large community of gamers out there of which I could be a part. As a kid, that wasn't always possible. I sometimes felt disconnected from my local gaming scene but I knew there was a community out there of which I could be a part of even though it wasn't until I became an adult that I began to actually visit other gamers and become an active participant in that community.

The church should (and often is) the same way. There are many Christians living life who feel lonely and apart from other believers and the people around them. They go to a local church and might not feel that connection to the larger community of faith but, hopefully, the pick up their Bible or a Christian writer's latest book and begin to feel that larger connection to a community of believers. The book of Hebrews refers to this as a "cloud of witnesses" and theologically it is often referred to as the universal church but we can never forget the need to somehow search and seek out those other people of faith that help complete us and make us feel a part of a community. This is what I've done in both my gaming and faith journeys but, to be honest, it's never been easy. Often I've had to travel all over the country just to meet up with other gamers to feel a part of that physical community and I've also had that experience in church.

In the end, you're probably asking yourself what this crazy geekpreacher means in all this rambling. Simple. I don't care how hard it is or how difficult it seems find a way to plug yourself into your community of faith. You may have to travel or you may find it right around the corner from your house but, in the long run, like a good game of D&D it is definitely worth finding because The Game Must Go On!

Thanks, Gary, I look forward to hanging out with you in the resurrection.

God's Best Always and in All Ways,

GP

Religion and The Southern Geek

    Here is a topic that I've been meaning to address for some time now. Many people in Christian circles talk about how American society has become "post-Christian" and very few people have any understanding or familiarity with the faith. While this has a certain truth to it, this is not a hard and fast rule and couldn't be less true in the South.

    As someone who has spoken with Geeks across the world on a variety of topics, I have found that the Geek in the Southern part of the United States still has a somewhat nominal acquaintance with the faith. In a way, this bothers me for the same reason most "nominal Christians" irritate me but it especially irritates me where Geeks are concerned. Why might you ask? Well, let me relate something that recently happened:

I was recently in my FLGS sitting around talking with the store owner and some friends. As often happens, a group of customers walk up to the counter and ask about a particular product. Being a good Geek and supportive of my FLGS I point out several nice items while the owner retrieves some of the games from behind the counter that might interest them. As the customers are browsing through the games, a conversation starts up about technology. Imagine that! Geeks talking about tech. Go figure, eh? Well, since I didn't bring up the topic I thought I would listen for a bit to see if I might want to jump in the conversation. Hey, Geek Talk is Geek Talk, right?

As I listen to the conversation, one of the customers begins to talk about credit and debit cards while another brings up the concept of electronic chips being implanted in someone's hand and then scanned so they might pay their bill. It's a similar idea to the "quick pay" system you see at many convenience stores and gas stations. It was at that point I decided to speak up. I mentioned how it would be much more convenient and less likely for someone to steal your information if it was placed on a chip that would only work while implanted. This gamer, this Geek looked at me with wide eyes and said that it was a scary concept. I then asked this young man why he thought it was such a scary concept. His answer? "Because of that Bible thing. It talks about it, you know?"

Now, a few things were immediately obvious. First, this young man had only heard the "chip concept" within some type of Conservative Christian context. Next, it was fairly obvious that he had not really read any of the Biblical texts that are so often stretched to "prove" this point. So, what was my response? The first thing out of my mouth took him by surprise. I simply said, "That's bad theology." Well, the young man looked at me as if I'd suddenly rolled three consecutive ones on a Twenty-Sider or had told him that I'd never heard of an XBOX. I went on to explain that I work in the field of Biblical Studies (doesn't that sound so much geekier than "pastor"?) and that the texts used to try and prove that point were never meant to be read in that manner. Needless to say, I think I effectively killed the discussion at that very moment. It is times like that I remind myself why I try my best never to bring up these topics but I also realize that when someone else brings it up I'm definitely going to try and jump in and have a bit of fun.

    So, you might ask? What's the problem? Don't people show their Biblical ignorance daily in the South? Haven't people been exposed to just enough of the Scripture in the Southern US that they can pretend to know what they're talking about? Yes, these things are often true but I expect better from Geeks! Come on! Geeks are the ones who are known for reading through 300 page rulebooks so they can Min/Max their character or learning a new programming language just for the fun of it. Shouldn't we know better than to just make statements we haven't really researched?

Now, don't misunderstand me. I don't expect every Geek in the country to immediately become a Biblical scholar. However, I do expect Geeks to try and learn about a topic to some degree before just making some off-hand remark. Maybe I am asking for to much because I have to be honest with myself. In the electronic age where everyone immediately claims expertise on a topic, I probably should expect Geeks to behave like everyone else. Aren't we the ones that invented flame wars and L33t Speak while also constantly editing peoples Wiki entries just so we can have our own shot at rewriting history?

    So, what does all this mean? What's the point I'm trying to make? First, most people need to realize that many people of all stripes like to say "The Bible says" without having one damn good idea as to what it really says or means. Second, Geeks are like everyone else. We pretend to have knowledge we don't. Third, Southern Geeks are affected by Southern Christian culture just as much as the next person. Honestly, we're all guilty of these things so I'll end with my good ol' Southern Mama's Advice. She would say to me:

"Derek, when you don't know what the hell you're talkin' about keep your damn mouth shut!"

 

Thank you, Mama. I miss you but I don't think I'm ever going to forget that advice. Maybe it would do us all a bit of good to remember it.

The G33k's 23rd Psalm

Well, I'm taking a class called Introduction to Educational Ministry and we have to paraphrase the 23rd Psalm for an in class project. I decided to go The G33k route so I thought I'd post it here to share it with everyone.

The G33K’s Twenty-Third Psalm

God is my programmer; I always have the latest software
God gives me the fastest processor on earth, My hard drive never crashes
God gives me constant updates that are always helpful
Even though it seems the computer crash is coming, I’m not worried for I.T. is with me
Their flash drives and high-speed access comfort me
Even when the Mac users hate on me I sit down with them because you’ve
Let me know that the PC & Mac will learn to live together in harmony.
Surely I’ll be able to handle internet flame wars all the days of my access.