Subject: Catholic anti-D&D (1/2) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc From: [d--c] at [wbb.com] Date: Tue, 07 Feb 95 00:39:48 EST T R A C T S U N S U S P E C T I N G P E O P L E R E A D The Rise and Fall of a Joint Religious Catholic/Anti-Catholic Anti-D&D Tract That Just Wasn't Kosher by Pierre Savoie (InterNet: [d--c] at [wbb.com]) Feb. 1995 I am offering the following testimonial as a focus on religious tracts which demean the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, made by TSR, Inc. The Catholic tract I cite is only a small part of many religious anti-D&D tracts, books and even videos which vilify the hobby, and in fact it is the only example from the Catholic sect that I could ever find. But all religious tracts cite from the same sources, even if in this case the result was disastrous for the religious integrity of the tract. In 1984, the Daughters of St. Paul (50 St. Paul's Ave.; Jamaica Plain; Boston, MA; 02130; tel. (617)522-8911; and 25 other branches) published a tract entitled GAMES UNSUSPECTING PEOPLE PLAY: DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, written by Louise Shanahan (who for a time was also a columnist for the [Canadian] Catholic Register). This pamphlet had a catalog number PM0798, had 22 internal pages and a green cover, 6"x4". It had no "imprimatur" (approval from a diocese that the material conformed to Catholic teachings). Here are some excerpts from this tract, which is now no longer sold: [beginning, masthead] When a student steps into the fantasy quicksands of _Dungeons and Dragons_[*], his life can be irreversibly altered--and the lives of his parents and other family members can be deeply affected. Would your son stop going to Mass on Sunday and drop out of Catholicism because of a game which has lured him into a snare with many gods? Would your son admit to you that his grades are plummeting at school because he has discovered a fantasy world in a game that is much more important to him than his grades? Is it possible that your mild-mannered, easy-going high-school or college-age son has gradually isolated himself from the rest of the family, and as his parents you are deeply concerned? It is not drugs nor is it alcohol; you are certain of that. In subtle ways your son has changed. Then, one day when you are straightening his room you find a _Monster Manual_ carefully concealed under a stack of school books. You, as parents, are about to make a discovery which will dismay and frighten you. You have just discovered that your son has joined the legion of unsuspecting students who have become victimized by a master con-artist: Gary Gygax. [...] A MALE PRESERVE The bait used to lure the unsuspecting male deeper and deeper into the mazes of _Dungeons and Dragons_ is as old as human nature: adventure, power, conquest; all is possible in this fantasy world where a player's imagination reigns supreme. It is important to understand that while some young women may become involved in _Dungeons and Dragons_ (perhaps because of a boyfriend's interest), the game appears to be primarily a male preserve. And as improvisations on the theme of adventure, power and conquest are unfolded, _Dungeons and Dragons_ becomes more distinctly masculine terrain. [...] There follows an attempt at "explaining" the game, a claim that it's as dangerous as drugs or the cults, a re-hash of the phoney James Dallas Egbert case of 1979, and many other examples, including Leon Wheeler, who dropped out of school, lost his job and home, but hung on to his D&D "paraphernalia" [a "D&D hobo"?]. The tract ends with: To date no de-programmers have surfaced to aid worried parents whose children have become D&D cultists. While _Dungeons and Dragons_ has been compared to the organized cults, there is no professional group in Canada or the United States which has acknowledged the game as an addiction. Mental health clinics generally are not concerned with it.[**] Thus more families must become informed of the hazards of _Dungeons and Dragons_ in order to prevent its introduction into the home, neighborhood and school. An absolute prohibition of the game must be maintained. Admittedly there is no easy solution or "quick fix" to _Dungeons and Dragons_. However, when parents and community organizations spread the word about its dangerous side effects, then the battle for our children's minds will, at least, be contained, and eventually more groups will join in the effort and convince families and schools of its hazards and harmful effects. [*] text flanked by underscores (_) is italicized in the original. Also, the correct trade-mark for Dungeons & Dragons does not spell out the word "and". This may be a clue that the critic has never directly read a copy, in any version. [**] Since this was written, the Hartgrove Hospital in Chicago set up a Center for the Treatment of Ritualistic Deviance, a psychiatric unit for teens supposed to be involved in Satanism or cults. "Cult cop" Jerry Simandl of Chicago provided training to the staff of this unit, organized by Dale Trahan. In the 80's there was a wave of Satanism seminars attracting law enforcem e were organized by the Cult Crime Impact Network (based in a CHURCH in Boise, Idaho) and the religious affiliation was never made clear. The Center's brochure advises parents what to look for in susceptible teens, a check-list including "heavy involvement in fantasy and role-play games". [from IN PURSUIT OF SATAN by Robert Hicks (1991, Prometheus Press, p. 309 ff.; as I keep saying, an excellent book to debunk the "Satanic panic" of the 1980's)] I immediately knew something was wrong with this religious tract, because Louise Shanahan cited as her sources the Rev. John Torrell, of Christian Life Ministries (now called European- American Evangelistic Crusades; P.O. Box 41001; Sacramento, CA; 95841) and Albert James Dager, who published a newsletter called MEDIA SPOTLIGHT and published a MEDIA SPOTLIGHT Special Report [on D&D] in 1980. Both of these are openly and notoriously anti-Catholic. The Rev. John Torrell, on D&D, has said "[These kids] just go nuts with it! They start to confuse fantasy with reality." This is ironic in view of the Rev. Torrell's own religious newsletter, THE DOVE, where he said that Ronald Reagan secretly surrendered his country to the Soviet Union at the Iceland Summit of Oct. 1986, and that the U.S. had only 5 years before the Soviets assumed open control (Fall 1987). He also opens his newsletter to articles and reprints from different authors, including R.A. Cotter, the actual author of some 1980 flyers against D&D, as well as articles from Ken Anderson about the evils of preservatives and food-chemicals. Torrell in subsequent editorials bemoaned the conspiratorial group which adds formaldehyde to fish, which homogenizes milk "so that when you drink this it will be like having your heart and arteries 'sand blasted'", and steals all the enzymes from canned food so that "the body cannot digest them. On top of this a drug has been added called White Sugar, plus other preservatives." He says this food-tampering is done to stupefy the American public so they can't think straight, and that the conspiracy has its own secret food markets where healthful food, NOT laced with toxins, are sold to members. This man Torrell is around the bend! Even worse, Albert James Dager in his anti-D&D article compared the "evil" of D&D to the "evil" of what he calls the "Babylon Mystery Religion". This code-phrase is used by some Fundamentalist Christians, referring to their belief that Catholicism is a mix of true Christianity and pagan Babylonian rites such as pagan forms of communion and the confessional. When examined, about half the Fundamentalist Christian groups opposed to D&D are also anti-Catholic. And yet this totally escaped Ms. Shanahan when she wrote her own anti-D&D tract! In a direct way, two Catholic magazines and a Catholic publisher were religiously subverted, which constitutes the sin of "apostasy." I confronted the Daughters of St. Paul with the original sources cited by Louise Shanahan, and suddenly the tracts changed, adding a disclaimer-sticker that the tract was a re- print of an article in THE FAMILY magazine of November 1984, originally published in OUR FAMILY MAGAZINE published by the Oblate Fathers, in Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada; Oct. 1983. Later, when I insisted, the Daughters of St. Paul wrote back (Oct. 3, 1987) and muttered something about a change in editorial board since then, that they "could not defend the tract," and that they would no longer accept any manuscripts from Ms. Shanahan. It was pulled off the bookstore shelves; it is no longer sold. However, the Daughters of St. Paul had 25 bookstores of their own in North America, from addresses listed in the tract itself, and traded these anti-D&D tracts to many other Catholic bookstores over a four-year period. The ideas were widely propagated and were cited by another Catholic author, Marc Gauthier in his small 100-page book WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING (Companions of the Lamb; P.O. Box 4070, Station "E"; Ottawa, ON; K1S 5B1; Canada. publ. 1986). This book has many small chapters about corrupting influence from non- Christian cults, and D&D is Chapter 5! He cites only the Shanahan tract as well as the anti-D&D book PLAYING WITH FIRE by John Weldon and James Bjornstad (Moody Press, 1984). When I confronted him over the phone, he appeared displeased at what I was saying about the Rev. Torrell, and identified himself as a "Pentecostal Charismatic Christian." When I said, "What, not a Catholic?" he replied, "Well, yes; a CHRISTIAN Catholic..." He appeared increasingly uneasy, and hung up on me. Far from being worried about the subversion of Catholics by ideas from non- Catholic groups, he seemed to be participating in the process himself... I was no doubt the first to get at the roots of this particular tract. I did so because there was a spectacular ban on D&D in a school board, widely reported in local media. 1985 is a year that I consider the blackest, for anti-D&D media reports (including CBS' "60 Minutes" of Sept. 15, 1985, which faked the suicide of the Erwin brothers of Lafayette, CO as a "D&D double-suicide", despite the parents (who were never shown on camera) who angrily denied this a day later and presented the actual motivations, but that only in local media.) Of course, after NBC's "Cruel Doubt" mini-series (aired in 1992 *and* 1993) where a forged piece of artwork was presented as belonging in the pages of the AD&D Player's Handbook, 1st edition, visibly pasted in the pages, one can place no trust in any fairness of the media; there is too much temptation by these to lie about AD&D in form AND content to make it look horrific. In that year, the Metropolitan Separate School Board of Toronto ["separate" means a Catholic school board, in the Canadian tradition], which is Canada's largest single school board by number of students (then 95,000), had a new D&D game club at Neil McNeil High School brought to its attention. This school has a good academic reputation and is where the late actor John Candy graduated, among others. The school board's trustees asked for an internal report on D&D to be written up. At a June 20th meeting this report was presented, and it had NOTHING to say against D&D. However, the Board heard from 7 demonstrators against the games, who re-echoed media reports of D&D murders and suicides. Their names were: Tony Teresi, Father Fred Perna [now deceased; provided a media quote saying "There is no D&D-player who is not in need of some form of deliverance."], Doreen Hare, Ian Cruickshank, John Aldorasi, Dr. Joseph P. McKenna, and John McRae of "Global Beacon Community". This information was VERY difficult to obtain, since names of speakers and motions are filed separately in the board's bureaucratic records, and two years of asking for the names were never responded to until I involved the Toronto Star newspaper's "Star Probe". Whatever these people said in two hours of discussion convinced the trustees to vote for an amended motion changed from "further study" to a full ban, in the following wording: "[Resolved] That Dungeons and Dragons and any other games involving the occult not be permitted on the property of MSSB schools." This policy has never been amended since, leaving the impression that D&D games are bad and that some CATHOLIC authority said so. In fact, there is direct sedition through a widely scattered source of "information" on D&D that in fact derives from ANTI-Catholic groups. One should not just laugh at how this proves some Catholic tendency to "follow the leader" without questioning who the leader is, or even if this leadership in an issue is really Catholic! This example applies to other religious denominations as well: the original flyers found in the Rev. Torrell's literature (anti-D&D circulars authored by R.A. Cotter) and the Albert James Dager article, are the roots of all other religious tracts, endlessly quoting each other in circles for their D&D "information". Mrs. Patricia Pulling of B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) was convinced that her son committed suicide because of the game, by a policeman on the scene who had been reading the wrong religious tracts and who TOLD her D&D was "Satanism". References to the Torrell/Cotter and Dager tracts appear again and again, in such sources as the book PLAYING WITH FIRE; or TURMOIL IN THE TOYBOX I and II (books by the Rev. Phil Phillips), or many others. Regardless of your denomination, it ALL goes back to them. This information may amuse you, but I hope that it may also inspire D&D-players to fight back and confront sources of misrepresentation DIRECTLY, no matter how lofty the anti-D&D religious authority seems to be. Such people have no case, as it turns out, not even in vague theological arguments. There is a temptation to agree with generalisms about how D&D could be "obsessive" for some people, when one is religious, simply because this ties-in to theology against gambling or other "sins". But religious D&D fans should especially resist such specious arguments "by analogy". D&D and role-playing games are something TOTALLY ORIGINAL, not seen on this planet before the late 1960's. They defy facile classifications. Fans should skip through anti-D&D fluff, and point to the unpleasant and realistic facts about the origins of anti-D&D ideas, and not shirk from doing so, to make people understand what is going on. --Pierre Savoie