Makes ya think, doesn’t it? This will be a new bi-weekly segment on my youtube channel Dragon House Studios. Feel free to request the next game I do, but do know that it’ll be through a Godly lens, so, don’t expect me to find a way to say something nice about Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoners!

Good morning all. As some of you may have noticed, it’s been quite quiet on both this and my gaming blog, http://www.xeawnsgamingcorner.com. The reason for this, is that I’ve been on a fast (that will last for another week, ending on the 20th). Part of this fast, in addition to the food bits, had the following rules, or covenants:

1) Limit your exposure to music that is not Christian
2) Limit your exposure to television that is not Christian
3) Limit your exposure to other forms of media (see: gaming) that is not Christian

Along side these rules, there were the usual food related ones. Limit the amount of meat you have, between certain hours (in our case 12 am to 12 pm) only consume water, tea, juice or coffee, come together to break your fast with your family, etcetera. Only…yeah…the Holy Spirit has a way of convicting us all differently, and for me the covenant read more like:

1) No music that is not Christian
2) No television that is not Christian
3) No other forms of media that are not Christian
4) Nothing but water between the hours of 12 am and 12 pm
5) One small meat dish for dinner
6) You can have an apple and an orange or two apples or two oranges at lunch…also a sandwich.

Yup, the Lord was hardcore on a brother! Now, interestingly enough, around two in the morning on the second day the Lord was like “You can read Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Narnia, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien were Christian writers. Their books were allegories for the Bible, so, Tolkien/Lewis books, movies, games are okay” which was nice, as I’m a pretty big gamer. The day after that, I was allowed to drink juice. The day after that I was allowed to drink tea. Also, on the second or third day I was allowed to listen to piano and string symphonies, which was super nice because I am not a fan of contemporary gospel.

Thus far I’ve maintained only watching Christian movies and television, which has been a bit of a challenge as well, and I’ve of course maintained the food part of the fast. This second week of the fast (it’s a fourteen day fast) I’ve been allowed more things by the Holy Spirit than the prior. I started out with just Ruzzle, a fun competitive word game that I play with my sister, later was allowed, or rather sunk to the level of playing, Bejeweled (I feel sick to my stomach that I got really, really good at that “game”…), later Tetris, and spent a good bit of time with Lord of the Rings: War in the North, a.k.a. the only good one.

Well, no, Conquest was decent. I guess. I stayed away from the Narnia games though. There are no good Narnia games…

Later I spent a bit of time with games such as Earth Defense Force 2017 for the Vita that weren’t Christian, but also weren’t antisemitic the same way, for instance, Gran Turismo would be. Except, ya know, EDF is an actual game and not a really pretty simulator that claims to be one. ZING!

In addition to the fasting, my sister and I have been doing the 90 Day Bible Plan, and each of us has been convicted in different areas. My father, for example, had no conviction with seeing Tom Cruise’s new action movie on a date night with my mom, pastor and pastor’s wife. The Holy Spirit convicts us all differently, and the covenant of the fast did say to “limit”, not to abstain from.

I didn’t really give it second thought why the Lord was being so hardcore with me on this fast; I’m generally of the frame of mind that when God gives you orders, you don’t question them, you strive to fulfill them. Of course, part of a fast is praying and seeking to understand God’s word and will in your life. I realized through prayer that a large part of why God was so strict with me, was to show me quite starkly how barren the harvest of the Lord is for out of the box Christians.

A bit of background on myself and my town, I’m from and live in Anchorage, Alaska. By and large, if you don’t drink, club and party, there isn’t a lot to do here if you aren’t the outdoorsy type. We have bars, strip clubs, movie theaters, and that’s really about it. If you don’t hike, hunt, fish, etc., you’re pretty hard pressed to find something to do around here.

My musical tastes are as follows:

A) Jazz
B) Swing Jazz
C) Lounge
D) House
E) Piano
F) Chamber Orchestra
G) J Rock
H) J Pop
I) K Rock
J) K Pop
K) Hip hop
L) …….SOME dubstep
M) Anything by Daft Punk and most things by Digitalism and Shinichi Osawa

So for me and Christian music there’s…..nothing. I’m not a fan of old school hymns; they’re too slow and…slow for my taste, and I’m not big into the usual kick up your heels organ styles of contemporary gospel. I was able to get into some Mary Mary, some Canton Jones and some Lecrae, but I also don’t do pop and thug/gangster/club rap, so by the second week I wanted to chuck my MP3 player at a wall!

I don’t really watch much TV, but I’m a fan of:

A) Film Noir
B) Romance (not “I love this guy but then I met you and now I’m torn”, I mean real romance)
C) Martial Arts
D) Asian Horror Cinema
E) Drama
F) Fantasy
G) Speculative Fiction

Presently my favorite American TV shows are

A) Once Upon a Time
B) Adventure Time
C) Regular Show

and I’m watching a number of anime as well. This brings the number of Christian movies and TV shows I can watch to a resounding…zero. There’s Lord of the Rings and Narnia, but I can’t take any of the Narnia movies seriously and you can only sit through the Lord of the Rings movies so many times. I did enjoy Run On, a comedy show involving the testimonies of three Christian actors, magicians and comics, and Six: The Mark of the Beast. I also saw Spirits Among Us…with all the production values of a someone with a camcorder.

Books? Fantasy, Speculative Fiction and Noir. Books for me? None save for Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. See what I’m getting at here? If you don’t fit into the mold of the contemporary conservative Christian, there is not a lot of gospel to be found. Spending this period of time away from

Oh wait! Video games. Yeah, there’s no Christian video games. Quite a ton of spitting on Christianity and God, mostly from Japanese game developers (sometimes European ones), but no, no Christian video games. Well, Lord of the Rings and Narnia, but again, Narnia video games are AWFUL and the LOTR ones aren’t much better. Exodus on the NES, a Gauntlet clone, was pretty decent…

So yes, if you don’t fit into the mold that the church tells you to, then there’s nothing for you. God’s word does not need to change, God’s word is just as relevant today as it was yesterday as it ever more shall be, but the way that the church seeks to deliver His word is irrelevant to the youth and young adults of today. We don’t like the style of your music, we can’t find Godly movies that aren’t cheesy and don’t have poor production values, there’s no Godly video games, there is nothing for us!

And is the solution of the church to find creative and innovative means to deliver the Word of God without sacrificing its meaning and purity? No. The solution of the church is to condemn us, to say our music is too loud and is unholy, to say our video games make us violent and unsociable, to say our movies are sacrilegious while you still get enjoy yours in the shadows.

Not every church is like this. Not every Christian is like this. But, enough are that the case for Christ is far harder won than needs be. Imagine, what if there was a Christian dubstep artist? I’m not a huge dubstep fan (unless I’m writing an intense fight scene and I feel like being angry, because dubstep pretty much has that effect on me :P), but lots of teens and young adults are. If there was Christian Dubstep people would be all over that! What about Christian lounge music? What about Christian horror movies? What about good Christian video games? I’m not talking about the four hundred different quiz games out there, I’m talking about games that depict the warriors of Chronicles, games that put a sword in one hand and a fireball in the other and have you cutting down armies of demons! RPG’s in sprawling fantasy worlds, shooters battling demons from another plane, fighting games, racing games, the whole nine yards!

And you don’t even necessarily have to throw a cheesy hallmark moment into the mix to get the point across! Simply say “God” instead of “Gods/Goddess”, simply say “Faith” instead of “Magic/Sorcery”, simply say Companion or Pet instead of “familiar”, it’s not that hard! You can do a ghost movie or a movie with demons after the heroes without offending Christianity! You can have action movies that don’t all revolve around a microchip or some documents with the mark of the beast, you can have fantasy movies with elves and goblins and trolls and swords and magi and be completely Biblically sound!

Youth, young adults, Christians everywhere, if you have an outside of the box ministry that the church is trying to stamp out, so long as you are sound by Biblical doctrine, pursue your dreams nonetheless! Do you want to do Christian metal? Do it! Do you want to write Christian fantasy? Write! Do you want to make Christian action movies! Do so! Your worship and your praise need not reflect the conservative views of the church as it is today, because the church as it is today is relevant by the Word of God, but irrelevant in many ways by its execution!

After all, if we kept everything by the “way it’s always been done”, we’d still be in turbans and sackcloth worshiping outside with clanging drums and veils a la the Book of Exodus. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but hey, I live in Alaska; IT’S COLD!!!