Here is a little backstory on what I am about to write:

I performed a google.com search for "butter-da" It was mentioned in the latest Strong Bad E-mail on www.homestarrunner.com so I wanted to know what it was... well.. the search provided no answers, but it did lead me (somehow) onto something I hadn't thought about before. One fo the search results was for a christian anime forum. I have decided not to link to the site, but there is enough information in my post to find it for yourself.

Anyway... christianity and anime. I don't know whay I was surprised at all to find this website. Then again, I was all surprised to find that there are christian D&D groups... and groups of "reformed gamers" who only play video games that are in sync (or do not run counter) with their religious ideals. While it doesn't surprise me that people are christian and like anime.. or like D&D, it was always the way that the two meet that was a bit fascinating to me. The christian D&D group i knew of limited their player characters to Human, Good (usually Lawful Good), and limited classes to Fighter, Cleric, Rogue types.. no Mages. Their only alowed faith was christianity. So the cleric could pray to Jesus and be rewarded with some Cure Light Wounds spells or something to that effect.

On to the anime... On this particular site I found a thread about Neon Genesis Evangelion. To my pleasure there were several people who actually liked the series... though several were hostile towards it as being anti-christian.

Here is my thing. I have never seen a group that restricts it's anime/gaming that was not part of the christian persuasion. I suppose that there could well be a muslim anime coalition, or maybe even a hindu anime group... but I have yet to locate them.

I know of several wiccan anime fans and gamers, but they never exclude material that is non wiccan. It is not so much that they get together as wiccans to game, but rather they get together to game and just happen to be wiccan.

Well.. rather than have this be a rant, I want to know what people thing about belief systems and entertainment. Can a person still be true to their faith and also watch or participate in a fantasy world that runs counter to their own belief system? Or should you limit your involvement in anime and gaming to only that which agrees with your personal set of ethics?

My take is this: I can be true to my personal set of morals while enjoying activities not specificaly tailored to work with me. If I watch an anime that runs counter to my ideals it does not mean that I have compromised. I feel that it if possible to appreciate something without it chnaging who or what you believe in. I'm agnostic, so maybe that colors my thinking.

*Moved to the teahouse*

Can a person watch something that's counter to their beliefs? That depends on the person. There are people that are simply unwilling to cross certain lines. For instance, watching something that would show someone running around greusomly murdering everyone in town (with an exception to Ame ofcourse) is something I wouldnt feel comfortable doing.

It all depends on where you indevidually decide to draw the line, heh.

I'm atheist, doesnt mean I'm not without my own sense of morals and such. I dont believe in killing, but I play a good amount of First Person Shooter games. Its entertainment, and fiction, and fun. Also, I dont believe in being a dominating asshole that oppresses others for self profit....but look at Moritsune in the rkrp. Again, its fiction, not the way I would act irl, but its pretty fun being that type of villain in a RP.

I guess I'd have to agree with Lewi. Its really up to the person if they can follow a faith/belief and be part of a entertainment at the same time. It is all dependant on the person. The way I see it, its fiction and all...so yeah. I'd have to 'draw the line' if it was really offending somehow....(i.e a game where your a KKK guy killing minorities is a game I would NEVER play. )

As far as anime goes.....I like anime, I watch it. Its entertaining. Maybe its because I'm atheist, but it doesnt seem to disturb me. I can watch basically anything, without having to fear of something 'going against my beliefs'......eh its hard to explain.

I'm losing my train of thought, so I'll end my post here.

I watch just about any anime, it can contain elements that I don't actually approve of. an anime you're just passively watching a story unfold...but in a d&d game I wouldn't choose character type that would conflict my beliefs. the difference is when you roleplay, you ARE that character. its a different level of involvement...

Actually.. according to the rules of AD&D, you are NOT the character. Gary Gygax was very explicit that the character and the player should remain seprate. I do know that people break this rule all the time... and even those that doen't break it get wrapped up in their character... it happens.

I imagine it would be easy to get wrapped up in it. a game that can suck you into it so deeply seems like it would be the best sort of entertainment. I don't actually play d&d though it looks interesting. I like some of those fantasy type anime like record of loddoss war etc. =)

This thread's a tad old, but I'm just now seeing it and though about commenting, so here goes. n_n

I'm a Pagan, formerly Christian (it just didn't work for me, yeah) and perhaps can
comment on this in a perhaps semi-unique way.

I haven't really gone very far ever as to limiting what I watch, read or play.
Though how I was raised -has- effected me at times as to some things and am slowly but surely finding out on my own what's acceptable to me.

But growing up you'd sometimes hear family members talking about this
that and the other. Or pushing books which they thought good, "Turmoil In The Toybox" for example (among the books targets, Star Wars). People talking about how bad Mortal Kombat was and to steer clear of it basically. And of course there are games out there or were anyway, even for the SNES geared solely at a Christian target audience.. Games that I think would be not fun to play, I remember a Noah's Ark one that looked like some sort of first person like game with the goal of getting the animals in their pens I think. That's been a while though.. Now we have our current set of things in the entertainment world being targeted and thought (by -some- in the Christian community at one time or another) to be evil, the Harry Potter series is still a target. Some claims are that it would teach kids Witchcraft or get them interested. Although I think most would get bored quickly once they found out it's nothing like HP's fantasy-magic.. Too bad, a flying broom or apparating could really save me some time. =P Some don't even bother to read the books and then check into things or they'd know this (as well as the basic message is essentially secular (though they kinda celebrate Christian holidays, Christmas, not Yule)). Then of course there's the closer to home (in that people here watch anime) campaigns against Pokenmon which I think are dying down. Sure there's better anime out there (and ones that are less able to be marketable to the extreme, "gotta catch 'em all"), but evil? Pah.

I remember even someone I think at AG/AH someone starting a thread about them being saved from the evils of anime and something going bump in the night due to anime as well as saying that they were getting rid of all their anime.

I think it's important to say that the real problem is those being what might be considered extreemists (regardless of religious/spirtual issues).
I think what we have as current examples that are most visable (and happen/are reported fairly often) are of the Abrahamic religions. It's when people basically think, "if I don't do as The Almighty says or would like, to the letter, I'm not gonna go to paradise in fact I'm probably gonna get sent somewhere not so nice" and are told this at times too, which especially if they already think that it only amplifies the problems for the person. If God's basically telling you (no not you KK-sama) to do something, or so someone says or leads you to believe, then you're sure as heck gonna do it, a lil of the ole fire and brimstone to the people doesn't hurt either when going that route.

Some I know have basically said that imagination is a bad thing, like it can lead you to evil. o_O;

What I was just thinking though, forgive me if anyone takes this as blasphemous, I bet ole Yaweh'd play something like Unreal Tournament 2004. You know OT God was not a real nice deity, heavy on the smiting of, well, just about anyone and everyone that so much as looked at `im the wrong way.
So you just know he'd probably get a kick out of launching a Reedemer into a pack of characters or calling down the "Wrath of Heaven" with the Ion Painter (or perhaps the Target Painter, "The great Iron Angel flys smiting from on high, take that puny mortals!").. Yet there's people who might not play something like it because it's too violent. Ditto with anime and movies, just look at The Passion and how some who'd otherwise object to a violent film took their kids to see it.
And The Bible itself...Murder, rape, insest, genocide, torture, sex, adultery, etc..
You put some of the stuff that's in there in something else some of the same people who might encourage their tikes to read The Good Book, you'd hear complaints from some of the same people. Sometimes people also just like a scapegoat, popular things tend to work well.

Basically though I think the people have every right to choose to or not to watch whatever (as well as guidlines for what kids can and can't partake of), it's just amusing that someone would be encouraged not to watch or play something yet the same thing in the context of their relgious beliefs and it's fine.
I just think one shouldn't let someone representing any deity(/ies) or their beliefs (or laws supposedly handed down from on high) be the first and last deciding factor on things, especially for something like an anime or video game.

I'm a Pagan, yet I've watched NGE (not all of it mind) and it didn't really bother me before either. Dogma too, I know there's good humored Christians who'd have no problem with either (Kevin Smith -is- a Christian himself, he even portested the movie too with some not too thrilled folks n.n lol). I even remember that short lived series Roar which borrowed from Christianity with the Lance of Longinus (and Longinus himself I think) thing and you know what? I'd still like to watch the eps of that again..

It comes down to what you believe, how seriously you take things (sometimes too seriously, too literally for your own good and that of others) and what you find acceptable (also sometimes, how much of your decisions you're willing to let others decide for you). People who go funny in the head playing D&D (for example) or whatever were probably not well off in the first place.
There are nuts everywhere and not the fun kind, no matter the personal beliefs or religious/spiritual thing they ascribe to or not.

Reading or seeing things that don't exactly fit with what I believe isn't neccessarily going to do me any harm, in fact it's good to see other points of view/takes on things. Just my long rambling take on things though (congrats on anyone who made it through that one). n_n;;;;

One of the things I reall ylike about watchin Anime that has Christian elements in it is how it is treated liek mythology. Here is what I mean... If an American series involves Christianity it is usualy presented in a rigid "this is fact" type context. Yet if we have a series involving Wicca (like Buffy the Vampire Slayer) it is acceptable to twist the practices to make it more entertainment oriented. Well, the Japanese do the same thing with Christianity as exemplified in NGE most specificaly. Rather then being represented in a straight and rigid format, he Japanese borrow the interesting elements and make it fun to watch.

Sorta keeps all in perspective that Christianity is not a world majority religion.

I like anime/manga with Christian stuff, just because its so cool. Saint Tail is really cute. ^_^

In their case, I'd think it dumb that they would watch something contrary to their beliefs in the first place. If they are so "hard core" that they can't have mages, (who say's that's anti-religious, and ROGUES aren't? *cough*), then you'd think they wouldn't even think about watching Eva even to debate on it. I think that Eva questions religion, but not outright insults it or whatever.

Protesting Dogma is extremely silly, if you ask me. I know there were some messy ideals that could have been argued, but really, how can you argue about fighting demons for good?