This poem was originally posted on Ffnet about 18 months ago. When the collection it was in was moved to this one just vanished. I emailed the site administrators several times to ask if it had been removed because it was deemed offensive or something, but they never replied, so I'm going to assume it just got lost in the reorganisation and repost it here.

Fantasies and RPG's

She asked about fantasy and sci fi novels So I tried hard to explain About anthropomorphic personifications And a disembodied brain

"I don't believe in that" she said An utter non- sequitur As if the workings of imagined worlds Had anything to do with her.

If I had instead been reading An old-fashioned murder mystery She would surely not have said "I don't believe in Agatha Christie"

She believed that as a Christian She ought never read such tales Of Gods and monsters, magic and wonder A resolve that never fails

She also thought that the makers Of popular role-playing games Were Satan-worshipping lunatics Polluting innocent brains

Each right-wing Christian has a story Of a D&D game gone bad But personal experience of role-playing Is something that they've never had

Everyone should be encouraged To develop their imagination Why does this always seem to offend Adherents To the theory of Creation?
I'm not saying that all Christians think this way, just that this one did, and so do a lot of others I've spoken to. I don't understand why anyone would think that reading sci fi and fantasy and playing RPG's is in any way contradictory to Christian religious beliefs. Those stories you hear about Dungeons and Dragons (or other game) players going crazy and killing themselves are urban myths. It's always happened to a friend of a friend of a friend of the person you're talking to, never someone they actually know.