This last
week for my lesson to my deacon’s quorum I talked about video games.
Not these kind of deacons…
But these…
Before I go any further let me warn
the reader that this isn’t a happy or short blog post so feel free to move on
or delete it. In fact it is a little
unnerving and quite unhappy and these musings are the opinion of the writer and
not doctrine backed by the LDS church.
As I was preparing for upcoming
lessons I found a couple articles (
https://www.lds.org/youth/article/addicted-to-video-games?lang=eng
-
https://www.lds.org/youth/article/game-over?lang=eng
) talking about violent video games and their effects and so I wanted to share
with my young men what I’m doing with video games (and movies?) or at least am
going to try to do.
Originally I was
just going to read the two above articles and then share any insights, but then
the more I got thinking about it I thought about some scriptures I came across
in Sunday School last year that I wanted to share with them as well as an
excerpt from another article I read recently.
So I’m going to share all of this in close to the same order I shared it
on Sunday and then some and hopefully it all ties in for you.
I shared that Satan works little by
little. He doesn’t start us off with
the worst sins/deeds. This goes for
every type of sin I believe, which would include violence and murder and
war. Now what does that have to do with
little deacons? Video games. Now are my deacons about to commit
atrocities? Maybe. WHUH??!?!
Check it out. Ether 15: 15 in the
Book of Mormon:
“And it came to pass that when
they were all gathered together, every one to the army which he would, with
their wives and their children—both men, women and children
being armed with aweapons
of war, having shields, and bbreastplates, and
head-plates, and being clothed after the manner of war—they did march forth one
against another to battle; and they fought all that day, and conquered not.”
Now I don’t actually think my kids
are going to go to war any time soon in this fashion because they want to, but
it isn’t outside the realm of possibility with all the gun grabbing going on
and the coming collapse we’re facing that we are indeed dealing with civil war
and war with other countries who are pissed that we bankrupted their savings
through inflation and money printing or default on our obligations (see
unfunded liabilities portion on
www.usdebtclock.org).
And should our kids need to fight in this
manner I have faith our prophet will tell us what we should do.
So!…I started out telling the boys
this quote from William Tecumseh Sherman in his address to the graduating class
of the Michigan Military Academy on June 19th 1879:
I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely
natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and
desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible
aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and
homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead
faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!
So if war is hell, ought we to mess
with it at all? The short answer of
course is no. However these days kids
have X rated material unleashed on them in pg and pg13 movies all the time in
the form of violent deaths, wars, murders in movies, and without a doubt video
games are the same.
So what I did next in my lesson was
a scripture chase of sorts. I started
with this one. In Mormon 4:11 it says:
And it
is impossible for the tongue to describe, or for man to write a perfect
description of the horrible scene of the blood and carnage which was among the
people, both of the Nephites and of the Lamanites; and every heart was
hardened, so that they adelighted in the shedding of blood continually.”
What I
pointed out to the boys is that these people delighted in the shedding
of blood. Was it possible, and I shared
this with the young men, that these people said, “Whoever can sink the most
arrows, knives, axes, into the target the fastest wins and the rest are
losers.”…long before they actually went to war or wanted to? Yes.
Was it possible that this was delightful, or as I said to the boys in a
word they’d understand, fun? Are the
video games that are out now…fun and delightful? I can tell you from experience that they are yes.
What
follow is a progression from delighting in bloodshed to…i.e. Satan gradually
upping the ante…
The
next scripture I shared was this.
Moroni 9:3 And now behold, my son, I
fear lest the Lamanites shall destroy this people; for they do not repent, and
Satan stirreth them up continually to aanger one with another.
I pointed out to the young men that first Satan made the games
they might have been playing back then “delightful” (fun). Then he started stirring them up to
anger. Now comes in an article I read
from Gerald Celente. He states in the
Trends Journal of 2013:
“In the case of video games,
a new study from Ohio State University found that those who play violent video
games for three consecutive days show increases in aggression and hostility
with each day played. http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/violgametime.htm.”
I’m not sure which it is and if it even matters, but one
could muse on whether they delighted first in the games and violence and then
were angry and aggressive or vice versa.
The cause and effect is
there. Video games, violent ones, lead
to bad behavior and if left ‘untreated’ can fester into something none of us
want to see.
So
first came delighting in “video games”, then aggression, then…?
Moroni
9: 5 For so exceedingly do they anger that it seemeth me that they
have no fear of death; and they have lost their love, one towards
another; and they athirst after blood and
revenge continually.
We read the above scripture next. So first the video games are fun, but they
make
you aggressive and then you, naturally
I believe, lose your love for others.
Why wouldn’t you if you were just blowing people away 24/7 online and
knifing them in the back and boasting of your accomplishments in doing so? I found this very very interesting as it
states in the first underlined portion that they have no fear of death. Originally when I found the scripture and
went to share it with the young men I was going to share it for the purpose of
pointing out how the people had lost their love for one another.
When we were
in class however and we read the scripture, what popped into my head (The Holy
Ghost’s prompting I think) was that “they have no fear of death” is exactly
true when it comes to video games. I
mean think about it. If you die, you
immediately “respawn” or “load from your last check point?” or lose a couple
“hearts” or your Lego man magically re-builds itself and you keep on fighting
the good fight. What is truly scary
about that? Honestly? Nothing.
So here I’ve got Satan who is the father of all lies, right? Why wouldn’t he lie about video games and
desensitize us to death? Why wouldn’t
he play down how harrowing and destructive and final death really is as it
relates to the mortal body?
Who would be
more scared of death before they went to their first day of boot camp cause
world war three just broke out? The young
man or woman who never played a day of video games and never experienced
“respawning” or the the young man or woman who just got finished getting high
winning capture the flag on the latest first person shooter game where they
“died” 15-20 times? The answer is very
easy to see in this context. Clearly
one could see how warped one mind would be in comparison to another in this
example and allll the unintended and bad consequences of this
After reading that last verse I walked the young men
through the following scripture chain to paint the picture for them what bad
things happen in war…
Mormon 5:8 And
now behold, I, Mormon, do not desire to harrow up the souls of
men in
casting before them such an awful scene of blood and carnage as was laid
before
mine eyes; but…War is Hell!….
Mormon
4:14 And they did also march forward against the city
Teancum, and did
drive
the inhabitants forth out of her, and did take many prisoners both women
and
children, and did offer them up as asacrifices unto their idol
gods.
Mormon 4: 21 And when they had come the second time,
the Nephites were
driven and slaughtered with an
exceedingly great slaughter; their women and their
achildren were again
sacrificed unto idols.
Moroni 9:7-10 And now I write somewhat concerning
the sufferings of this
people. For according to the
knowledge which I have received from Amoron,
behold, the Lamanites have many
prisoners, which they took from the tower of
Sherrizah; and there were men,
women, and children.
8 And the husbands and fathers of those
women and children they have slain; and
they feed the women upon the
aflesh of their husbands,
and the children upon the
flesh of their fathers; and no
water, save a little, do they give unto them.
9 And notwithstanding this great
aabomination of the
Lamanites, it doth not
exceed that of our people in
Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the
Lamanites have they taken
prisoners; and after
bdepriving them of that
which was
most dear and precious above all
things, which is
cchastity and
dvirtue—
10 And after
they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most acruel
manner,
torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they
devour
their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts;
and
they do it for a token of bravery.
So the
question I asked myself is, “Is playing these fun games worth it for the
momentary pleasure when the potential consequences down the line are this
serious?” Now for the scripture chain
analysis that made me think of sharing all of the above in the first place with
these young men. By the way I totally
botched linking this chain altogether for my mother the other day when we were
in the temple, but I figured it out now hahaaa!!!
Last year in Sunday School we
studied The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Towards the end of the year we came across
the following verses:
Mormon 7:
1 And now, behold, I would speak somewhat
unto the
a (Lets check out this
footnote in a sec!!!!)remnant of this people who
are spared, if it so be that God may give unto them my words, that they may
know of the things of their fathers; yea, I speak unto you, ye remnant of the
house of Israel; and these are the words which I speak:
2 Know ye that ye are of the
ahouse of Israel.
3 Know ye that ye must come unto
repentance, or ye cannot be saved.
4 Know ye that
ye must lay down your weapons of war, and delight no more in the shedding of
blood, and take them not again, save it be that God shall acommand you.
When I
originally read this I thought, “MAN!…I wish my country would
friggin’ listen to this guy and that instead of writing to the “remnant of this
people” I wish he was writing/directing himself to the gentiles. Well…he did. We’ll get to that in one second.
What I found interesting about these verses is that one he identifies
the people for them (remembering where we came from is essential to know who we
are and where we’re going). Then he
tells them to repent. What I found
interesting is what the first thing he says they should repent of FIRST. To reiterate verse 4 says, “Know that ye
must lay down your weapons of war, and delight (there’s that word
again…) no more in the shedding of blood, and take them not again, save it be
that God shall command you.(more on this in a later post)” Wow!
So what
major issues do we have going on that this prophet of the Lord saw for our
day? We have abortion, pornography,
drugs, lying, and stealing (http://bbrockontheblock.blogspot.com/2013/03/256-grand.html)
to name just a few. Many of these would
be considered, I think, those oft referred to “abominations” that are in the
scriptures. And yet he doesn’t start
out telling them that they should repent of any of those things first…. To avoid complete and utter destruction he
says to stop the warfare and lay down the weapons of war (http://bbrockontheblock.blogspot.com/2012/11/1-against-26.html). Here is one of the last writers of the Book
of Mormon who just witnessed/is witnessing the ENTIRE destruction of his
people. Were I a writer of this book
and had just seen my family, community, and country literally (Moroni
9:10) torn to shreds through murder and war and I knew that whatever I wrote
would be read by millions of people later on and perhaps some of my immediate
family and I only had a little space to write a warning to the future I’d try
and pinpoint for those future readers what single thing (or so) to avoid so as
to ensure their survival. I’d make it
the first thing to do. I’d tell them
specifically what it is they should do, which if you think about it is very
poignant if you’ve ever read the Book of Mormon cause there is an earlier
statement that was edited by the guy who wrote this verse to be included in the
BoM that says the prophet can’t tell you all the ways you can sin cause there
are so many ways you could do it.
I find that extremely
interesting. Maybe you don’t and you
feel like you just wasted 10-15 minutes reading to this point. Ok.
Now for the link to us as gentiles via that Mormon 7:1 footnote. That footnote a leads to Mormon 5:9 that
says:
And also that a knowledge of these
things must
acome unto the remnant of
these
people,
and also unto the Gentiles,
who the Lord hath said should
bscatter this people, and
this people should be counted as naught among them
So there you have it. Those Mormon 7:1-4 verses and beyond were written and
directed to us. Lay down your weapons
of war people! How do you (I!!!!) do
that as an individual when you aren’t in charge of putting down the rifles,
tanks, and nukes? You start by
cultivating a spirit of peace in your self.
Then you cultivate it in your home by what you allow in your home. Start with music. Then move on to books.
Then move on to video games.
Then movies. Then you quit
supporting those that are in charge of the military (typically
corporations/private interests that control the politicians) and walk away and
walk your own path. If you and your
kids don’t you will face the same outcome/result/destruction as this historian
was a part of. I will be the first to
say that this won’t be easy and I’ll be updating my blog I’m sure with how I’m
doing with it. In the meantime I’m
going to ask my voluminous readers to hold off on the invites to the bloody
movies and game nights of call of duty and halo.
I also welcome evidence/comments below to the
contrary. Show me how massive buildup
of weaponry doesn’t eventually mean they get used. The only possible case I’d consider coming close is the work done
by the guy who they created the movie with Russell Crowe in A beautiful Mind
about won a Nobel peace prize for his work on war game theory and mutual
assured destruction during the cold war.
I liked this quote by Chris Duane,
“If you want peace, cultivate peace in your home.” Look for things that you are exposed to or perhaps your kids that
are X-rated. I was over at my brother’s
house for something and on their TV was star wars the cartoon. For disclosure sake, I’ve seen all the star
wars and watched this show while it was on AND with the thought of this blog
post too. What I realized though while
I was watching the cartoon, during which seemed like it was the longest battle
ever lol, was that though blood and guts and brains weren’t getting splattered
everywhere…every one and their comrade was getting vaporized and cut in half by
light sabers etc (massive desensitizing on a kid level). Now I know that the sabers effectively
cauterize the wounds hence why no blood J, but still put/edit
that back in and it would’ve been one heck of a bloody movie everywhere you
looked.
Now I of course don’t think my
nephew or brother were or are evil for watching it. In fact I remember thinking, “Man why didn’t cartoons look this
good when I was growing up?” I did
realize though that the cartoon was quite x-rated and didn’t hit me as such
till after a little bit and I felt a little uncomfortable. Now maybe this post is so long my brother
and his wife won’t read it, but if they do…I’m not judging you!
So there you have it. My long long looooong blog post on War,
Satan, Mormons, Gentiles.
