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I still occassionally play D&D and still enjoy my fantasy metal quite a bit, I can speak from experience. It CANNOT be harmful to kids reading and playing such stuff, with or without family support and Christian teachings. There quite simply is nothing pro-satanic or pro-pagan in them.

These statements are intellectually dishonest. I saw the process in action as a kid and observed how people could get caught up in the escapism. As for the "pro-satanic/pro-pagan" elements, they are definitely there. I practically memorized the "Monster Manual" and "Deities & Demigods" books as a kid. I know what they contain.

(if you've listened to Iron Maiden then you know whenever there's someone treating with demons and such in their songs then something very bad is about to happen to that person).

In many cases, yes. But these same songs glamorized the "bad things" that happen. I mean, come on! Their mascot was a giant walking corpse who they "killed" repeatedly on stage to the screaming joy of their fans. There was a dark fascination with death and evil that pervaded their music completely absent any Christian undertones. I'm very happy to be rid of it. Palestrina and Tim McGraw has made for a much happier life.

No the problem is people that see something that isn't there and embarass their own faith by warning about non-existent boogiemen.

Riiiight. You just keep believing that and ignoring the testimony from people who've managed to escape from the dungeon.

Having been on the convention committee of a sf/f/horror convention for the past decade

That explains much.

Yes there are some that are hostile to Christianity, there are also some that are devout Christians.

You can count the "devout Christians" at any of these cons on one hand, and have fingers left over. Having been one of those fingers many times in the past, I commonly attended the "Religion" panels, particularly those which disussed Christianity. They ALL could have been entitled "Why Christianity S#cks" or "Why Christians are Morons." As I don't hide my Catholicism, I was called a "Nazi" on more than one occasion at these things.

About the only demographic you aren't going to find at a convention are people that don't like sf/f or horror, which makes sense.

Not true. The only demographic areas who still bother with these things are as follows: 1.) Pimple-faced teenage boys who are fascinated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer; 2.) Unhygenic teenage girls who are fascinated with Buffy the Vampire Slayer; 3.) Aging female hippy rejects from the 1960s who dress like Stevie Nicks; 4.) Aging male hippy rejects from the 1960s who are trying to score with 1, 2, and/or 3; 5.) A couple pasty-skinned middle-aged guys who spend 80% of their time playing computer games; 6.) Vendors trying to extract money from the above groups. That about covers it.

I have no problem exposing kids to these people, they're just people like anybody else, maybe a little wierder, but at least they're avid readers which puts them in what I consider to be a superior minority in our current society.

I thought that too--until I had a sequence of very disturbing conversations with different folks who couldn't resist telling me about their bizzare sexual practices. When this kind of thing started happening at every con, it was clear that this stuff wasn't for me.

There's nothing intellectually dishonest about it at all. Yes kids can get caught up in escapism, but they can just as easily get caught up in the escapism of an imaginary friend as the escapism of D&D, and at least in D&D there's the chance to learn some creative problem solving skills.

I still have my DD because it was the precious 1st edition that had Cthulhu and Melnibonian, before Chaosium got the game rights to both of those worlds and TSR was forced to take their pantheons out of the book. Yes D&D included stuff from various myths, but no where did it include encouragement to worship them in real life, there is no more pro-paganism in D&D than there is in Bulfinch's Mythologies.

No they did not glamorize "bad things", bad things were bad and the perveyors of bad things suffered. "Tell me why I have to be a power slave" "Can't you see it'll lead you to ruin" "this can't go on I must inform the law", that's not glorification. Yes they killed Eddie, of course Eddie is a demon, what's wrong with getting the fans encouraging you to kill a demon? Yes there is a dark fascination with evil and death in the music, like James Hetfield says "we can't all write songs about puppies and happy stuff", but songs can be about dark things and not be PRO dark things.

I know it first hand. Your kind drove me fleeing from Christianity because you were constantly trying to tell me I was a bad person because of my music and my games. It wasn't until I found a Christian that shared the same interests that I learned I could exist in both worlds. I escaped from the dungeon myself, the dungeon people like YOU put me in.

Sorry, my duty for the past 8 years has been setting up the panels and we've never had one of those panels. We have panels about creating a religion for you imaginary world, we have panels about earth bound religions surviving in space, and panels about religion in your character's lives. Go to the think in my bio page, the last couple of schedule are on there.

Very true. We also get scientists, writers, aspiring writers, artists, aspiring artists, successful business people, well read people looking for interesting philosophical discussions and a whole host of others. Funny how quickly you resort to crass generalizations and insults, very typical of the condemning Christians that drive people from the faith.

Yep there are wierd people in fandom, there are wierd people everywhere. Want to talk about people with wierd sexual practices, let's talk about some priests. Now it's unfair and rude to condemn all of Catholocism for the behavior of a few, and I won't do it, try doing me the same courtesy.