A Theory

Several years ago our church did a study on entertainment and it's place in our lives. This is an issue that people think of passionately, a lot of times this is because people feel defensive about how they use their free time. I always felt like something was missing from this discussion and a few days ago, while I was in the shower (where I do my best thinking), it came to me what it might have been.

One of the basic contentions about certain games or entertainments is that they go explicitly against what we are called to do as Christians. God called us to tell and show people the coming kingdom through the love God showed us. On the other hand, the Bible has little to say on what we do with entertainment and free time. It was ground we went over again and again.
I don't know what I was thinking those couple of days ago but suddenly it occurred to me that we have forgotten certain aspects of God. God is love, he shows his people love and in return we show others love. So to play certain games (especially Shoot 'em up games) would be the exact opposite of love.

Really? Because it occurs to me that God has, in the past, acted in ways we would not consider loving. He called the Israelites to take the promised land from its inhabitants in not very nice ways. And in the future we expect him to bring not only the Kingdom but justice for those who have not found salvation in Him. This could be considered very unchristian of Him.

I would not say that there is any part of Gods character that goes against his unfailing love, however I would not say that God is not capable of wrath, jealousy, and the ability to met out justice. What good does it do us to accentuate Gods love and completely ignore other attributes. I have to admit that there is a part of me that longs for Gods justice when he comes. I feel the need to see evil punished.

I think I see this need in most people. I think this is why we root for the "good guy" and applaud when the "bad guy" gets his comeuppance. I think in this day and age we try so hard not to think of a person as "bad", instead they are a person who has made bad choices. But there is still good and bad in this world. We want to be the good guys fighting the evil. And I think that games are a natural part of that. Are our children wrong to play Cops and Robbers? They practice meting out justice instead of love and forgiveness? My personal opinion is that this is not wrong, this is a Godly characteristic that He simply has not called us to show the world at this time, that time is coming later. But if playing these games helps us to understand more about it and to remind us that good should always prevail than so much the better.

Are there games out there that glorify evil? Yes. Some games have no redemptive value. And some games that do have some ability to teach a moral lesson require someone to play the "bad guy". Again, I gotta say I don't have a problem with this. Each Easter there are a couple hundred if not thousand good Christian men asked to play the part of Judas at Easter pageants around the world. My guess is the guy playing Judas learns just as much, if not more, than the guy who gets to play Jesus who, lets face it, is always played by the guy with the best beard not the best Christian example.

God may call me to love the bad guys instead of fighting them. But times they are a changin'. There will be a day when evil will be abolished. On that day I plan on being ready, because I practice being the good guy and I know what it's like to be the bad guy. And the good guy always wins.