Dear Linda:

Role-play games that include a worldview of witchcraft and the occult are dangerous. Here is an excerpt of an article entitled, "How POKEMON and Magic Cards Affect the Minds and Values of Children" by Berit Kjos:

The televised Pokemon show brings suggestions and images that set the stage for the next steps of entanglement. It beckons the young spectator to enter the manipulative realm of role-play, where fantasy simulates reality, and the buyer becomes a slave to their programmer.

Remember, in the realm of popular role-playing games - whether it's Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, or other selections -- the child becomes the master. As in contemporary witchcraft, he or she wields the power. Their arm, mind, or power-symbol (the pokemon or other action figure) become the channel for the spiritual forces. Children from Christian homes may have learned to say, "Thy will be done," but in the role-playing world, this prayer is twisted into "My will be done!" God, parents, and pastors no longer fit into the picture fantasized by the child.

Psychologists have warned that role-playing can cause the participant to actually experience, emotionally, the role being played. Again, "the child becomes the master." Or so it seems to the player.

Actually, the programmer who writes the rules is the master. And when the game includes occultism and violence, the child-hero is trained to use "his" or "her" spiritual power to kill, poison, evolve, and destroy -- over and over. Not only does this repetitive practice blur the line between reality and fantasy, it also sears the conscience and causes the player to devalue life. The child learns to accept unthinkable behavior as "normal" .

To be a winner within this system, the committed player must know and follow the rules of the game. Obedience becomes a reflex, strengthened by instant rewards or positive reinforcement. The rules and rewards force the child to develop new habits and patterned responses to certain stimuli. Day after day, this powerful psychological process manipulates the child's thoughts, feelings, and actions, until his or her personality changes and, as many parents confirm, interest in ordinary family life begins to wither away.

You may have recognized those preceding terms as those often used by behavioral psychologists. They point to a sophisticated system of operant conditioning or behavior modification. The child must exercise his own intelligent mind to learn the complex rules. But after learning the rules, the programmed stimuli produce conditioned responses in the player. These responses become increasingly automatic, a reflex action. Naturally, this can leads to psychological addiction, a craving for ever greater (and more expensive) thrills and darker forces.

What is said here refers not only to children, but to adults too.

St. Paul tells us that we are not even to have the "appearance of evil." That means that we are not only to avoid evil itself, but even it's appearance. The practice of magik, witchcraft, and the occult is evil. Even if these games were not really practicing the "craft," they give the appearance of doing so and that is enough to condemn it. The use of "the craft" against computer characters or against other human players is still using "the craft" or making an appearance of doing so.

As the article mentions, role play does affect our thinking and our spirit. To put this in perspective, would people want to role play Hitler?

Actually, a real life experiment was done on this at a California university back in the 1960s. They setup a basement of one of the campus buildings to resemble a prison. Some volunteer students role-played the role of prisoners and other volunteer students played the role of Nazis guards.

The experiment had to be canceled after two weeks, if I remember correctly, before someone got seriously hurt of even killed.

Role play is a powerful force on our psychology.

Christians have no business involving themselves in role-play games that practice occult arts, or other destructive non-Christian worldviews. To do so is playing with fire; it is walking in Satan's sandbox and, as I am famous for saying, "if you walk in Satan's sandbox you WILL get hell's sand in your shoes."

I would advise your sons, no matter how grown-up, to avoid such games that are inconsistent with the Faith. They, of course, will do what they want, but I think it is important that they know your displeasure about this and that it violates not only the "appearance of evil" teaching of the Bible, but the Culture of Life teaching of Pope John Paul II.

This is not "just a game." There is no such thing as "just a game/song/movie/etc." All games, songs, movies have a message. The key is to figure out what that message may be. The message of games like this one that include occult practices is that it is okay to use such "powers." No it is not okay.

This is why the phrase "its just a..." comes from hell, I believe, as it seeks to trivialize and minimize that which is improper for Christians. Satan depends upon us taking these sorts of things lightly. It is a major way in which he sets his trap.

You have done the right thing, in my opinion, in banning this game from your house.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

P.S. If you want to read the entire article that I quoted you will find it here.