By Samantha Apanasewicz
Pop Culture Columnist
Recently, I have been introduced to the Wild West that is J. Serra.
I had heard rumors that there was a full-blown theatre in there, but I had never seen it myself. I can confirm that there are multiple theatres, all with flatscreens and plenty of seating. But I digress.
During several of my excursions through the J. Serra classrooms, I have seen students huddled around a table, laptops out, hyper-focused as they whispered to one another. They are not studying, like one might suspect; they were playing Dungeons & Dragons.
I had always been indifferent to the game. No one I knew growing up played it; I didn’t even know there was controversy surrounding it in the Catholic Church until I came to Franciscan.
So, as any good journalist would, I decided to investigate the connections between Church teaching and this faux-magic game.
What I found was disturbing, yet not surprising. Sometimes before you even type anything into Google, you feel your conscience trying to lead you to the moral answer.
In an attempt to persuade those who either play Dungeons & Dragons or feel as indifferent about the subject as I did, let me introduce an article I found, written by Trent Beattie and published by the “National Catholic Register” in 2012. The article is an interview with former satanist Deborah Lipsky, who talks about her journey away from Catholicism into satanism as well as her subsequent conversion back to Catholicism.
Lipsky had this to say on the topic of subjects to avoid as Christians: “Many things we should avoid are portrayed as fun and fashionable. Fortune-telling, horoscopes, Ouija boards, Dungeons & Dragons, tarot cards … are some of the things Christians should have no association with. These are tools of evil because they open portals to higher-level demons that are more eager and effective in derailing us from salvation.”
Lipsky said she considers all of the above activities to be related to the occult. All occult activities, Lipsky argues, are ways of inviting the presence of demons into an individual’s life, however covertly. Lipsky goes on to explain that, as a result of engaging in these activities, a dangerous sense of entitlement is cultivated.
“Anger comes through being hurt, and being hurt comes from having our sense of entitlement violated. Anger can be a very destructive thing because it attracts demons like blood attracts sharks in water,” Lipsky said.
By freely allowing ourselves to engage in these types of behaviors, we are also deliberately choosing to open up our souls to all sorts of unimaginable evils. This sentiment is at the core of what we refer to as spiritual warfare.
We must pray and protect ourselves from spiritual harm. Don’t enter the warzone unless you’re properly armored to fight.