Religion and Games

Hello! Do you remember me? Probably not. I´ve been gone for around 11 months. If my calculations are correct that´s about a century in Internet Standard Time. If you do remember or don't or haven't read it at all, feel free to take a look at my old stuff. I´d love to hear more of what you think. It should be easy to find, but here´s how, just in case. (M:I don't remember how to see people´s previous blog posts so if you could include a brief how to do that it would be cool). Before we begin, let me just say, Thank you. You've proven to me what a wonderful, positive, enlightening place the internet can be. It is truly inspiring to talk with and be with you. Your feedback was insightful. Your comments and words always brightened up my day. One of my regrets is that I didn't get as active with the Kotaku community as I should have.  So, thanks for giving me a little more of your time. Thanks for letting me do such fulfilling work as writing about the things I love.

You may wonder, as I am now wondering, why I haven't written in so long, if writing was truly so important to me. Trust me, there is a very good answer, it will just take a little explaining.

I am currently serving a two year mission for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; more commonly known as the Mormons.  I know that that sentence carries a lot of weight. I know that it has all sorts of cultural connotations, both fair and unfair. I know that by claiming this, I have a lot to answer for. So, first of all, I just want to clear the air. I want to make sure that we understand each other, and then I'm going to talk about video games. And their importance and worth. So please, be a little patient with me, okay? Okay.

A mission is a period of two years, if you're a man, and 18 months, if you're a woman. Our purpose is to help people come closer to God. We do that, mostly, by explaining the doctrine and principles that make up our religion. We like to meet with people in their homes, or at the church to teach them about God. But, in order to teach people, we have to find people to teach. We talk to people on the street. We knock on doors. We call people who used to meet with the missionaries. We do everything that we can, and that is morally and legally right, to find people.

As for the teaching itself, we really want to give people the opportunity to know. To know what the teachings of the church are, and what they mean, but also, to know that it is true. We cannot persuade people to believe us. I could tell you with all the eloquence of this world that this church is true, and it wouldn't mean anything. So, we explain our doctrine simply and clearly. We testify of the hope, light and truth it has given us. Finally, and most importantly, we give people the tools they need to find out if it is true. The most important one of those tools is the Book of Mormon. It is a book of holy scripture, comparable to the Bible, that was brought forth by the power of God. The short version of the story is thus: Joseph Smith, a young man growing up in New York State in 1820, had a question. He wanted to know which church was right. There were, and still are, a staggering number of different churches, and all of them preached different doctrine. Joseph knew that not all of them could be correct, but how could he find out which one was true? After reading the words "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God" in James 1:5 in the Bible, he went into the woods and simply prayed to find the answer. After this simple, humble prayer, God, the father, and Jesus Christ appeared to him. Jesus explained that there was no church with the authority of God behind it, but that he was called as a Prophet so that Christ, through Joseph, could restore the church.Some years later, Joseph was given the Book of Mormon, which he translated through the power of God.

The Book of Mormon is a record that tells of God's relationship with ancient people. It explains how God works through us and what we can do to come closer to him.

There is a fairly obvious question behind this story. Is it true? Was Joseph Smith a prophet? We invite all people to pray and ponder about the Book of Mormon. So that they can find out for themselves if it is true. Our ultimate goal is to help people follow Christ, by finding faith, by repenting, being baptized and joining the church. There´s a lot to talk about with a mission, because it takes up the space of life. It is tragic and beautiful, gleeful and mysterious, and absolutely insane like any other thing in life. But in end effect, the purpose of a mission is simple: We help people come closer to God, any way we can.

I want to make something very clear before I continue, both for missionaries in general and for me personally. I do not talk about God with you, or with anyone else, because I want to convince you or because I want to "save" you. I talk about God with you because my belief in him is part of me. Because I really, truly believe. Maybe that makes you uncomfortable or angry, or... I don´t know. But I do know this, if I were to hold back on my belief in God, or if I were to retreat or censor my thoughts and feelings, I would be lying. To you, to me and to God. The world wants us to deny who we are. It wants to retreat, to hide, to wrap ourselves up in a cocoon of "acceptability". Even as I as I write these words a hesitation fills me. "What are they going to say?", it says. But I don't want to hold back who I am, and what I believe, because I'm afraid. Fear is the mind killer.

But that still leads to the question, why? Why would you do such a crazy thing, as leave your home, and almost everything and everyone we've ever known for two years? Since I can't speak for the over 80,000 other missionaries in the world, I will only talk for myself.

In the Book of Mormon, a prophet, Alma, speaks to a people that desire to know how to find faith. He explains incredibly well.

26 Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.

27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith,yea, even if ye can no more than a desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.

This passage proves two things. One: That God understands how difficult faith can be. He doesn´t expect to have a perfect knowledge. Rather, he wants to us move forward with the strength that we do have. Knowing that we will have an assurance that what we are doing is right. Second: When we apply "the seed" into our lives, we will know it as good. That is a clear promise. The seed is good or the seed is not good. It is true or it is not true. We can only really find out by taking Alma´s promise to heart and trying.

That´s just what I've done. I grew up a member of the church. So to be sure I've had no shortage of opportunities as well as more negative pressures. However, I know that word is good. I feel it everytime I open the scriptures. I feel it as others tell me of their faith. I feel it in the words of my parents, as they write me every week. I feel it in the deepest parts of me. Because it has, and will continue to, „enlarge my soul“ and „enlighten my understanding“ This time on the mission, when I have been most immersed in the word is when I have learned and understood the most. This is very simple. There are no angels and chariots of fire in this story. However, it is more than enough to do what I do. I do not know everything, but I know God is love. God loves us so much that he made a plan for us to be happy. If, unbelievably, unimaginably, my whole belief in this church crumbled. If it was fractured, splintered and destroyed in a mess of unknown horror. I would still know one thing, that God loves us. That he has a plan for us. That we, someday, somehow, through things that are perhaps impossible to comprehend all we will be made right and we shall overcome. This knowledge gave me a desire. A determination to share what I know with others.

It was that determination that brought me here. Before I left, I was scared, even terrified. I did not know everything, but I knew that I was doing the right thing and had a determination to see it through.

This may not seem like it has a whole lot to do with video games, but this determination can help us understand why video games are of worth and importance. Let me start out with yet another history of the Church. Soon after the Church was founded. It faced much persecution, mostly due to misunderstanding. In an effort to combat this, Joseph Smith wrote 13 brief paragraphs, each one summarizes a part of our faith. The whole list can be found here(http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/a-of-f/1?lang=eng), but I want to focus on the 13th in particular.

"13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

Look at that word "seek". That is not a passive word. It implies action. We must move, strive, fight, kick and claw into order to find or create good things. In short, we must have determination. This determination comes from experience. I think we are all where we are, because we've had experiences. I'm on a mission, because my experience with the LDS church has been positive enough that I want to share it with other people. We're here on Kotaku or on this blog, because we love video games enough that we want to talk about it with others. Our experience brings us to determination enough to do something. To be sure we must sometimes filter our experience. We must ponder and think about what our experience actually means, and judge it before we act. However, the wonderful experiences we have are given to us to bless others. That would include video games. The experiences we have are not temporary things, they are what we carry to the afterlife. We will have forever to think about how we used them.  We can use what we know to bless and help others.

Readers, I want to ask a simple question. What do we know is good that we are not doing? What are we holding back?

On my mission, I have learned that there were so many good things that I could have done. If only a little fear hadn't held me back. Far too often we let petty, silly reasons get in the way of our potential joy. If we truly want to "seek," we must do so with all the passion and force of our hearts and not let fear destroy that determination.

Christ, in one of his many bold claims, proclaimed that "Perfect love casteth out fear."

I think this is a promise that is for all of us. When we have a perfect love of people, of what is right, even of God, we will find the courage to do what is right. That could mean several things. It could mean picking up the controller more often. It could mean picking it up less. It could mean starting commenting on this website. It could mean being more open about what you believe and who you are. It could mean spending more time with your family. It could mean repairing a cherished, but broken relationship. In whatever thing we need to work on, I know that when we love we will find the courage we need to do what is right.

I hope I can show you this love. I hope through that that love, I can have the courage to do what is right.  I hope I can be more determined to use what I love to bless and help others. I hope this post is a step in the right direction. You can let me know in the comments. I love you all, and wish you the best.

Side Note: As for the future of this blog I'm not sure what form it will take. I've very little time to write and less brainspace (It took me a grand total of 8 1/2 months to write this post). But nevertheless I've got plans, I'm hoping to expand the blog and make it much bigger when I return. You can also look forward to a blog post about my experience with the Mass Effect video games. Whether it comes sooner or later, I cannot promise, but I know that´ll write it. Have an wonderful day!

NOTE: This is the authors brother, I am posting this for him and will relay any reception and stuff to him. I also I made the title so if it sucks my bad.