A Stealth Addiction
Meditation Moment #237

I try deliberately to avoid overstating the matter of what is and is not sin. For example, there is the temptation to call television "sin." God is pretty specific about the categories of sin. Galatians 5:19-21 and related itemizations are unambiguous. Television is not listed. To preach against television as sin can distract from the reality that television, like books and magazines and radios and the like, can be used as promoters of sin. Man specializes in taking things and turning them into tools for unrighteousness. And Christians specialize in demonizing the tool rather than the sin. Rather than calling the television evil we would serve one another better to encourage mutual and biblical accountability for the use of the television.

Having said that, you need to know that I am very close to slipping into the error of calling a thing "evil." So, I must be careful.

What is that thing which has raised my ill will? It is the video game.

Yep, I know: there are good and educational video games out there. So, no, I'm not going to call video games "sin." However, when we begin to think in terms of the need to have some kind of constraints regarding the use of things which can be misused, we become uncomfortably aware of what a serious factor video games play in our culture. If you don't think it's serious, try to have a calm family meeting in which you establish restrictions on the playing of video games. For the fun of it – suggest a limit of one hour per night and suggest that the games be played in a public part of the house and suggest that non-video game time be spent doing things together as a family and doing homework and helping with chores and learning to hike and help neighbors. In fact, you yourself might be a little irritated by the idea because maybe, just maybe, you like the fact that the video games keep the kids out of your hair.

Let's pursue this a little more. Are you interested in developing creativity and imagination in yourself and your child? Ask yourself the question – Which requires the greater amount of creativity and imagination: watching pre-imagined and pre-created images muggety-chug across a screen or creating a play world with things at hand such as stones and leaves and pine cones? Could it be that the "educational" video game which you use as a babysitter for your little one is teaching him that entertainment is something to be supplied from without and not developed from within? Could it be, also, that the game, which usually has nothing to do with promoting a real-world, adult work ethic, has something to do with why your child thinks life is about "fun" and that "fun" is about things and that adults exist to keep the child entertained? There is a place for developing good eye-hand coordination. (May I suggest tennis?) There is a place for developing strategy. (May I suggest chess?) But there is more to life than eye-hand-coordination and shoot-the-other-guy-first strategy.

Seriously, if you are hearing "I'm bored" from the people in your life you might be able to find a a growing addiction video games lurking in the shadows of their soul. Consider the willingness of human beings to become addicted to a never ending entertainment stream which, when reluctantly turned off at three in the morning, finds the player drained of any sense of enthusiasm for tackling the adventure of the real world. Ask the game addicted husband to talk with his wife and he may say, "She doesn't understand me." Ask the game obsessed student to prepare for a test and you may hear him say, "The course doesn't motivate me." Listen to a person talk about being bored with his job. Ask him how tired he is when he gets to work in the morning and why. Don't be surprised if he can wax eloquent about this on-line video game he plays with scores of friends he has never met.

Are you interested in social skills? Some are beginning to call the next generation (presently aged thirteen and younger) the "Cubicle Generation." They will spend the greater percentage of their interpersonal interaction time with a computer – either at work or via e-mail or "socializing" in on-line game rooms or playing group games. Think about the impact of a largely technological society. Imagine a faceless/voiceless interaction between people who feel no need to know or be in any way responsible for the people with whom they play. Video games and other forms of computer socialization could easily lead us to believe that the command to love our neighbor is irrelevant. When asked, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus' account of the good Samaritan makes no sense in a cubicle world. No one is there to discover the man lying bloodied on the highway.

Nope, I'm not going to call video games "sin." But I have only skimmed the surface of the dark stuff associated with the immature use of the technology. And, speaking of "immature," it is curious that the more irresponsible and self-indulgent the game the more it is apt to be called "Adult."

Reply to Pastor Comings

Pub. Date: 07/01/2008
Rev. Date: 6/17/2008

Previous Issue: The Gift of Disillusionment (#236)

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