Role-Playing in the Heavenlies: How Giving Up Dungeons and Dragons Turned Me into a Nerd

By Rev. Daniel Woodring

The armor of God is God’s armor, worn by Christ. We also wear it, but only because we, through Baptism, are in Christ Who wears it.

Admitting that I was into Dungeons and Dragons as a teenager will undoubtedly make obvious the nerdy tendencies of my youth. Still, I must admit it. It was fun, and I had a fascination with dwarfs, elves, and warriors since I’d read The Lord of the Rings. We knew that it was make-believe, and it seemed quite harmless. It was just a game.

When my friend Erik told me that D & D was satanic, I could hardly believe it. But after hearing stories about players who became murderers and Satan worshippers, I was convinced. Suddenly, being a nerd was the least of my worries; I could go to hell!

Erik had gotten rid of his D & D books a couple of years earlier, and convinced me to do the same. But simply tossing my Advanced D & D Dungeon Master Guide and other materials into the trash couldn’t possibly counteract the evil they contained. Into the burning fire they went, and I was surprised not to hear blood-curdling screams as my D & D stuff burned to ash.

Thus ended my days as an elvish warrior. However, I found myself a “warrior” of another sort that was just as exciting. No longer was I wandering through make-believe caves and castles looking for treasure and orcs. Rather, I entered into a “spiritual” world where demonic forces were lurking behind every corner and controlling cities, territories and even buildings.

No longer armed with swords and wizardry, I could combat these forces by prayer, claiming authority over them, and rebuking them “in the name of Jesus.” Encouraged by the novels of Frank Peretti, I stepped upon the battlefield of spiritual warfare, where modern-day believers like me could help the good angels fight against demons.

Twenty years later,“spiritual warfare” is still the rage among many “evangelical” Christians, a system of belief about good and evil in which God struggles in a cosmic battle against Satan and enlists our help to defeat him.

Don’t misunderstand me: I am not denying the existence of the devil or the power of evil in our world. However, Scripture never talks about Christians going to war against the armies of hell. Even in Ephesians 6:13-17, the prominent “spiritual warfare” passage, the armor of God is not given to us so that we can fight, but to enable us to “stand.” In this passage, St. Paul is using the language of Isaiah about Christ: “He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head” (Isaiah 59:17), and “truth will be the sash around His waist” (Isaiah 11:5).

The armor of God is God’s armor, worn by Christ. We also wear it, but only because we, through Baptism, are in Christ Who wears it. Being far from a manual for “spiritual warfare,” Ephesians 6 simply teaches that because we are baptized into Christ, we have His protection from the devil because we are clothed in Christ’s truth, righteousness, salvation, faith, and Word which enable us to stand.

In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis writes, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve their existence. The other is to believe and feel and excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist and a magician with the same delight.”

Ironically, I became more interested and focused on the devil and demonic forces after giving up D & D. In the same way, many Christians give the devil undue credit and attention when they see satanic conspiracies behind Halloween, Harry Potter, D & D, the card game Magic: the Gathering, the television series Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch, and even The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Certainly, Holy Scripture admonishes God’s people to avoid witchcraft and satanic arts, just as it also forbids murder, greed, and selfishness. Does this mean playing monopoly is sinful because the object is to drive your opponent to bankruptcy while you take possession of his property? Would we really suggest that reading Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or The Wizard of Oz to children is seducing them into the occult because some of the characters are witches?

As Christians who live in the world, we are surrounded by books, movies, games television shows, and music shaped by a way of thinking that runs counter to what the Word of God teaches.Watching a movie characterized by vengeance and killing is one thing, but it is sinful when, in real life, you fail to love your enemy and do good to those who persecute you. In the same way, reading stories or playing games in which sorcery plays a part is not necessarily evil unless you engage in blasphemy and witchcraft in real life.

Many Christians fail to make a distinction between things which are part of the occult in the real world, and things that are harmless and innocent because they are make-believe. Often, as it was in my experience, this leads to even more dangerous errors. The first is to believe that there is a cosmic struggle between God and the forces of hell. In reality, “even the devil is God’s devil” (Luther), and is powerless to counter God and His will. The second error is to believe that evil is the result of these battles in the spiritual realm, rather than the hereditary sin which infects all children of Adam, and results in mankind’s rebellion against God.

It turns out, that my journey from fighting dragons in makebelieve dungeons to spiritual warfare was a step in the wrong direction—a step away from Christ and the all-availing victory He has already won. I substituted one fantasy that I knew was makebelieve, for that I was totally convinced was real. If that isn’t being a nerd, I don’t know what is.

Rev. Daniel Woodring is the executive director of Higher Things.