Virtual Sin and Our Desires

I’m starting to like the Christ and Pop Culture blog.  I certainly don’t agree with them, but it is good sharpening for me and a motivation to learn how to communicate some of my deeply held convictions.  In a recent post,  Alan Noble asks

Does a sin committed by a digital character constitute a sin on the part of the player?

That is a great question!  I believe it comes down to a case-by-case basis, but I’m grateful the question was posed and hope that others consider it as they choose their media and entertainment.  As in all things, what doesn’t proceed from faith is sin, so it is a question we all must be able to answer for ourselves.  Is there an objectivity that must be dealt with?  Certainly, and I’ll continue to think about it over the course of the next week.

Finally, the comments have been vigorous, and one from The Dane stood out to me:

To use a popular example here, despite not finding Rowling’s Potter books to be really of any positive moral value, I read them and thoroughly enjoyed them because they succeeded in their art. Their story was engaging and I wanted to know what would happen. If the story and characters weren’t engaging, I wouldn’t have bothered – even if the values portrayed in the series were intimately entwined with my own.

Of course I would not disagree.  And I would likewise hold my tongue when speaking to youth and young adults who exposed the same ideas.  Yet, I would ask myself, for my own accountability, why it is that I desire these things so much.  What does that reveal about my heart, and what should I do about it?

Biblically stated, the question we must ask in everything that we do is this: In this activity, how can I do it to the glory of God?  I surmise that not only are we settling in our activities for what we want to do and finding excuses for it, but we aren’t honestly answering this question.