Gary Gygax and Christianity: Dungeons & Dragons creator was a believer

Yesterday I posted about the death of Gary Gygax, who co-created Dungeons & Dragons and is regarded as the founder of the role-playing game genre. Lots of people who are around my age will probably remember that Dungeons & Dragons aroused considerable controversy in the early Eighties because a lot of Christians claimed that the game promoted witchcraft, demonic worship, suicide, and pretty much every other undesirable practice that you can think of. Many of these people wanted the game to be banned completely.

It wasn't enough to stop publication of Dungeons & Dragons but the game has never completely shaken-off the stigma that it is somehow a breeding ground for followers of Satan.

This afternoon I received an e-mail from a reader of this blog, and I learned something quite fascinating: that Gary Gygax, the mind behind Dungeons & Dragons, was a born-again Christian. That link takes you to a discussion that Gygax took part in with the Christian Gamer's Guild in 2007.

And then there is this e-mail that Gygax sent to a fan a month and a half before his passing...

Thank You, Michael,

All I am is another fellow human that has at last, after many wrong paths and failed attenpts, found Jesus Christ.

Via con dios,
Gary

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

I thought this was worth making a whole separate post about, because Gygax and his work did suffer a lot of unfair criticism over the years. It's said that the Christian army is the only one that shoots its own wounded. Well, looks like that happened here too.

And so far as some of the more tragic situations involving Dungeons & Dragons that have happened since the game's inception go: yes, this game unfortunately became an idol to some and in their minds more than it was supposed to be. But that same dark potential can be found in practically everything else in life too, whether it be sex or sports or television or whatever. Anything taken to excess becomes a thing that diminishes us and hurts our relationship with God, before it invariably destroys us. In that regard, Gary Gygax certainly did not add anything new to the equation.

And after the past month's sabbatical, some of which I used to study and contemplate what it is to seek after Christ, I now have to wonder if much of the so-called "Christian counter-culture" that I see around us is doing far more damage to the cause of Christ than rolling some dice in a basement ever accomplished. And I'm absolutely serious about that.

But really, this is all still seeing through the glass darkly. The thing that matters most is that yesterday morning, Gary Gygax did "miss his saving throw" as some have joked... but he still won the game before going Home.

Categories: christianity, deaths, dungeons and dragons, games, gary gygax