Gaming

Virtual Morality (1)

Making real choices in a virtual world

Note: This is the first of two papers on similar themes. (Read the second here.) I wrote both in the second year of my MA in English at Bob Jones University, the fundamentalist Christian school I attended for my BA and MA. Both capture well the moral tenor of my upbringing and of my beliefs at that time. I was raised in evangelicalism and on a diet of Rush Limbaugh. But since that time and these writings, some of my views have changed in important ways. In regards to the argument of this paper, the most significant change is that I have lost my former confidence in the Bible as the absolute, objective moral frame of reference for humans. As a result, the core imperative of this paper no long works for me. However, I still to this day embrace and affirm the central observation that a person’s moral decisions in a virtual space or video game are not without implications for their real-world thinking about morality. I still believe what we pretend to think or do can affect what we actually think and do in the real world. (DL, Sept. 18, 2021)

In September 1987, Captain Picard’s Enterprise-D embarked on its maiden voyage. Captain James T. Kirk and his cronies had been replaced by a new crew with a new ship and new gadgets. Perhaps the most memorable of those new gadgets was a new kind of shipboard recreation chamber: the holodeck. A virtual-reality chamber featuring cutting-edge 24th-century technology, the holodeck used holograms, force fields, and semi-stable matter to create alternate realities indistinguishable from the real thing. It was a room where dreams came to life, and it quickly captured the imagination of Trekkers everywhere. Before long, the “holodeck” became verbal shorthand for the supreme realization of virtual reality.

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Poetry

The Primary Consideration?

The bearded craftsman smiled wide and ran
his hand across a burnished silver bowl
enriched with many gems a wealthy man
might never buy. A member of a guild
applauded for its art, he held a brand-
new, nearly finished, piece. (So skilled
was all its workmanship, that many new 
apprentices would study it with care.)
Selecting from a dirty pouch a few
anemic leaves of grass, he placed them with
fraternal care into the empty pan;
on top of grass he added earth and then
opossum hair. His work complete, he cried,
“Let’s celebrate!”, and gloried in his can.

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Politics

Taxes: more than duty

Note: This article was the staff commentary piece published in the Bob Jones University student newspaper The Collegian (Vol 12, No 12) on tax day, 1999. To this day I believe in and celebrate the citizen’s duty (and, especially in a democratic context, honor) to pay taxes. I find libertarian statements like ‘Taxation is Theft’ to be ridiculous and (especially when coming from a Christian) deeply disappointing. Historically speaking, we enjoy unheard of prosperity and freedom in America. Surely we should expect to have to pay for it. (DL, June 6, 2023)

It’s April 15, and many people have been thinking about what happens to their tax dollars. Some taxpayers are quite vocal in their disgust with government economic policy. Some criticism of the government is necessary to ensure accountability, but sometimes valid criticism can degenerate into an un-Christian, complaining spirit. When this happens, Christians commit a sin that resembles the Israelites’ grumbling in the wilderness.

When the Lord commanded men to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Mark 12:17), He made it clear that Christians are duty-bound to pay taxes. But paying taxes is more than a duty; it is actually an opportunity for Christians to serve God with their money. Paying taxes is equated with serving God in Romans 13. Paul says in verse six, “For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually about this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due.”

Governments are instituted by God. They are worthy of our tax dollars not because they are righteous, but because they do God’s work of governing. The Roman government did not spend tribute money entirely on enterprises that were pleasing to God. Tiberius, the Caesar to whom Christ was referring in Mark 12, used his fortune to support a perverted lifestyle. Yet Christ said to pay.

Obedience to Christ’s command requires more than an outward conformity to IRS policy. It requires a heart that joyfully submits to the Lord’s will. Moses referred to this principle of joyful service in his final message to the Israelites. He was admonishing them to serve the Lord. If you do not, he warned, curses will come “because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things” (Deut. 28:47). Moses said it was important to both serve with joyfulness and be glad for the Lord’s abundant blessings.

A complaining spirit is not only a failure to obey joyfully, but it also overlooks the benefits that our tax dollars bring us. Government money pays our firefighters, police officers and soldiers, Uncle Sam built the interstate system that helps many BJU students get home so quickly. “Your tax dollars at work” means air traffic controllers and effective sanitation. It means technology too. Thanks to the billions of dollars poured into NASA, we have everything from computers and communication satellites to velcro and solar-powered calculators.

We have so much to be thankful for. Let’s not forget our blessings and sin by grumbling as we pay our taxes.

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Poetry

I Do Love

You know, I know a guy who doesn’t like
his wife at all. He gets home Monday night
from making cars; she greets him. “Hello, Mike—”
He sort of nods at her and settles right
into his Laz-E-Boy to watch the game.
While Denver loses twenty-four to six
he heaves a sigh and places all the blame
for his unhappiness on her. A mix
of dirty shirts and unwashed pants is all
she really gets to see of him. She knows
he’d rather have some twenty-something (tall
and wrinkle-free) with fingers on his clothes.
Her husband trapped her on her wedding day.
She always folds his laundry anyway.

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Thoughts

Christian, consider what you read

Note: This article, my first ever piece of published commentary on any topic, appeared in the Bob Jones University student newspaper, The Collegian (Vol 12, No 7), for which I was a staff writer my third and final undergraduate year. I don’t remember writing the piece, and if I had not had the opportunity recently to peruse the bound back issues of The Collegian at the university library, it would have remained forgotten. It is a good snapshot of my mindset during that period in my life, and the core issue of avoiding moral poison while interacting with fictional worlds has continued to be of interest to me, especially in the context of video games and shows. My current feelings toward shows like Game of Thrones and The Idol closely track my feelings then towards Anne Rice and Stephen King. (I have reduced the number of paragraphs in the original to better suit the wider columns of this format.) (DL, June 6, 2023).

Almost everybody likes to settle in with a good book every once in a while and forget the frustrations of the day. A well-written book paints a picture for our imagination in a way few things can. Unfortunately, while enjoying the pleasures books have to offer, we sometimes drop our guard and forget to consider what we read. As Dr. Bob pointed out in chapel recently, the world likes to hide its philosophy in sentimental packages that even Christians may find appealing. While this is an often-noted problem with Hollywood films, it’s equally so with worldly books.

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Poetry

Their Motto

Commissioned warrior saints within a world
that groans and wails beneath a tyrant’s boot
sit idly with their battle banners furled,
and watch the tyrant’s minions rape and loot.
Their shining King has bid them boldly stand
against the hardened strength of all their woe,
but they in fearful sloth dodge his command,
avoiding confrontation with the foe.
Yet on their smooth and shiny shields, inscribed
in fiery letters all inlaid with gold,
there gleams a motto to them all ascribed,
an excerpt from the Law they’re to uphold:
“The wicked man will praise those like to him,
but such as keep the Law contend with them.”

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Academic Writing

Twitching the Mantle Blue

Note: I wrote this paper for a 500-level survey of Milton that I took in the fall of my second year as an English major at Bob Jones University. The class teacher was my favorite Bob Jones professor (and the favorite of many literature students at BJU), Caren Silvester. I took eleven classes from her over the course of my BA and MA studies, but I never received higher praise for any paper than I did for this one. She asked for a copy for her permanent file. The analysis in the paper demonstrates the habit of mind that characterized so much of my literary analysis while I was a literary student and so much of the rest of my thinking since–break a thing down into its constituent parts to understand how the whole operates. (DL, Sept. 19, 2021)

John Milton’s “Lycidas” is a pastoral elegy written upon the death of Edward King, a Cambridge acquaintance of Milton’s who drowned at sea. It stands squarely in the pastoral tradition of Theocritus and Bion. However, “Lycidas” is more than a traditional lament for a lost friend and peer. Milton uses the pastoral apparatus to illustrate the hope that arises from despair when the sorrowful look to Christ, the Good Shepherd.

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Fiction

What Happened One Christmas

Note: I wrote this story for my senior English class in high school. Reading it now causes me to cringe severely. It’s painfully bad in some respects, particularly in the way it mashes a hard Christian message on at the end despite being full of outlandish gore and alcohol consumption. It strikes me as very much the product of a Christian teen (it’s very teenagery) who was trying to cleverly push the boundaries while also maintaining a foot in the Christian camp. However despite it’s glaring flaws, it fascinates me because of how well it captures the creative and cultural influences that were active in my life during high school. The writing is heavily influenced in particular by three sources I clearly hear in the background of some passages: I hear the early Internet (particularly an old web series called Grudge Match) in the irreverent comedy and outlandish violence; I hear Tom Clancy, particularly Clear and Present Danger, in the descriptions of the elf commandos; and I hear Frank Peretti’s Christian supernatural novels (This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness) in the closing section. Rereading this now is a vivid reminder of how much I liked all three of those things then. A few months after this, I started my five years at Bob Jones University, during which time I turned away from the ‘worldly’ aspects of this story and began to invest ever more heavily both intellectually and emotionally in the Gospel elements captured in the closing section. I have not cleaned up any of the many typos in this piece. (DL, Sept. 19, 2021)

Once upon a time, there was an old, fat, philandering lawyer named Daddy Mack. Now Daddy Mack had two loves in his life, beer and guns,  a deadly combination at best. One Christmas Eve, Daddy Mack had been celebrating in his customary fashion, when he decided that he wanted to shoot himself a nice buck for Christmas dinner. Therefore, Mack trundled off to his gun cabinet to select the perfect weapon for the occasion. After several moments of reflection, he settled on his pride and joy, a mini-gun that he had purchased from some Arab terrorists after seeing Terminator 2. He loaded up a backpack with sufficient ammo for about 15 seconds of automatic carnage, and strolled over to his wardrobe, where he selected a black leather jacket, and motorcycle boots. He then grabbed his Terminator 2 soundtrack, stuffed it into his discman, donned his shades and headed for the garage. He loaded all his gear onto his Harley, kicked the starter, and crashed through the garage door, singing “Bad to the Bone” at the top of his lungs.

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Academic Writing

The Bass

Note: My senior-year English teacher in high school was dedicated and hard working. She cared about her students and was passionate about making us better writers. And at the time, I couldn’t stand her. She put great emphasis on helping us find our voice, and in the process (I felt) stifled our voices–or mine at least. After much frustration with negative feedback on my writing (this piece, for example, written at almost exactly the same time), I wrote a piece designed purely to make her happy. It was shorter than other things I had written, and I put very little effort into it, other than to parrot the style I felt she wanted–short sentences that communicated ‘feeling.’ My only goal was to make her happy, and I succeeded. This piece got an A and positive comments, and I’ve always hated it. (DL, Sept. 19, 2021)

I love playing the bass. When I play the bass, whether alone, but especially in a group, I experience a unique sense of rhythm and control. The bass is the root and bone of the music. Every chord is built upon the foundational note that the bass lays, and it is the bass rhythm that shares the responsibility of driving the music.

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Gaming

Frog blast the vent core!

Note: My first-ever attributed online post appeared on a website devoted to discussion of Bungie’s Marathon series (the direct precursor to the Halo franchise). The site’s administrator took comments from readers by e-mail, and would post them. On October 3, 1995, during the first semester of my senior year, an e-mail I had sent was published to the site. The topic of discussion was whether the player character (the game’s equivalent of Halo’s Master Chief) is a cyborg or not. 26 years later the site, and my contribution, are still online. (DL, Sept. 7, 2021)

David Lohnes <welohnes@got.net> writes:

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