Christians and Violent Video Games

Last weekend was our annual Thanksgiving weekend family reunion. My parents, my siblings, and our associated families gather for food, fun, and conversation. It's a nice time. Requisite to our gatherings, there always seems to be the necessary "deep discussion item". It will change from year to year, of course, but it seems as if we have one every year. This year it was the topic of boys and violent video games. (You know, Call of Duty: Black Ops just came out.) You can see the question, can't you? Is it okay for Christians to play violent video games?

There were standard answers out there. The ladies of the group warned that it was bad because it inoculates us against violence and makes it seem perfectly acceptable to kill. The guys countered with "I grew up with that stuff and I've never killed anyone." And you'll find the same concepts going on in the world. Author Steve Johnson argued that it was good for kids to play these games because it would "function as a kind of safety valve -- they let kids who would otherwise be doing violent things for the thrill of it, get out those kind of feelings sitting at home at a screen."^(Source) The American Psychological Association holds that these games increase aggression. In his book Future Men, theologian Douglas Wilson argues that boys especially need to learn right and wrong in matters of conflict, and they do this by playing. The New York Times did an article last month on church youth groups that drew in kids by getting them involved playing violent video games. "Daniel R. Heimbach, a professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, believes that churches should reject Halo, in part because it associates thrill and arousal with killing." (I had to mention Dr. Heimbach because he happens to be a cousin.) And, of course, there's always that pesky bunch that offers, "Well, the Bible itself is full of very violent stuff. Do you want to keep your kids from that?"

Now, I know you think I'm here to offer the wisdom of the ages, the solution to the sticky question. I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you there. You see, I think this question is just the tip of the iceberg. I think that it's much bigger than violence in video games. Should Christians be playing video games at all? "Wait," you'll likely protest, "isn't that a bit legalistic?" Bear with me.

David wrote, "I will set no worthless thing before my eyes" (Psa 101:3). I think it would be hard to find genuine "worth" in video games. But it only gets harder from there, doesn't it? What is the genuine worth in television? In playing on the computer? Even in reading books? "Oh, now wait, of course there is value in reading books." I won't deny it, but I don't think you can deny that there are worthless books, so it is not all books that are worth reading. What's the value in watching sports? Is there any value in sitcoms or TV dramas? How about the movies we choose to see? You see, David's comment about the "worthless" goes far beyond "the bad", doesn't it? It asks "What value?" rather than "What harm?"

It really boils down to a singular question. Is it our aim to "get by"? Is it our goal to do as little as possible for God? Look, imagine that we get to heaven and find out that we spent a lot of time doing X and X was a sin. That would be bad, right? So what if we get to heaven and find out that we did not do Y with the aim of being godly and, lo and behold, Y was not a sin? Would that be a bad thing? Can we really do too much in our efforts to be godly?

I don't have a hard answer for the Christians-and-video-games question. Sorry. I guess I won't be taking up the job of the Bible Answer Man. But I do know that there is a lot in my life that may not qualify as "evil", but certainly qualifies as "worthless". Long before I ever get to "Is it a sin to play video games?", I've got enough to work on with the "worthless" category. I suspect I'm not alone in that.