apparent(but unbelievable!) anti-Christian discrimination

[Theodophilus]

I've just recently posted this to another Christian Gaming forum, I didn't really have much info about such forums existing until my fiasco and I went about googling to see if other Christian gamers had had similar problems, below is my account:

Hello everyone!

I'm very new to LOTRO, about a month ago a gaming friend and myself, looking for a change, decided to try f2p LOTRO. In about a week of f2p, it was all golden, a really good experience, mostly mature helpful players, and the GMs did not even exist apparently, during this time there were occasional discussions and debates on the GLFF channel, such as of a political and religious nature, to which I would chime in my own views and move along, no harm no foul.

Because it was so mature and much of the profane behavior which plagues MMOs was non-existent there, I decided it would make a good cyberhome. I proceeded to subscribe and buy all expansions including Rohan Legendary, I am by no means rich in the Western sense of the word, and this pretty much encompassed my full entertainment budget for the year, and then some, but since it was going to be my only source of entertainment and it seemed worthy of supporting, I went ahead with this.

A few days ago, while on the character Theodophilus, the topic of religion came up in GLFF, including a pretty heated debate between a Mormon and an Atheist, I quickly expressed my own views then bade both the Mormon and Atheist that we should respect one another even in our differences and shouldn't be calling each other names etc, shortly thereafter I received a warning from a GM about spamming players or chat channels being against the rules, I asked if there was some mistake as I did not spam, a short while later I noticed my player name had been changed from Theodophilus to Thostoror. A couple of days of cold impersonal form letter responses and calls to account management and unanswered support tickets ensued. Finally, earlier this evening, a "Senior GM" engaged me in IM chat in-game, when asked point blank why my name was changed and after being reminded that Theod- was a valid Man-> Rohan name prefix, his official response that "It is too similar to the name Theophilus" which is a Biblical name. I expressed my upset, and how I would continue to try and find justice in this situation and "Thanks anyway" the chat ended and things moved along..

Perhaps an hour and a half later, the topic of religion and spiritual warfare came up in GLFF, among the represented groups there were atheists and at least one gnostic. I stated the facts and my personal beliefs on the subjects then the chat topic slowly changed to that of LOTR lore. While speaking with another payer about Tolkien lore, I received a black screen with a little sentence and button in the center, notifing me that my account was banned for three days and I could now exit the client.


My background is atheist, I know all too well that browbeating never saved anyone, I very much favor the doctrine and gospel of love, but the CoC as applied is obviously singling out Christians, and while it on the one hand seems almost an insult to the Third World and what our brothers and sisters endure there daily, on the other hand this very much feels like persecution.

You can be an atheist in-game and say that it's all make believe, fairy tales, and Jesus never existed, but if you're a Christian that simply says "Well if The Man said it, I believe it."ENDQUOTE, then you will be persecuted for His Namesake.

I know people may have mixed results here, I'm sure to some extent it matters which GMs are on duty, and which ones already loathe you because you wouldn't let an uncalled for forced name change drop, but nonetheless I'm very disappointed that I bought all the expansions for this now-unplayable game, and I'm seriously considering a chargeback before it's too late.

If the GMs are going to behave like this, my game will remain mostly unplayable. I will not go out of my way to push my beliefs, but I will stand up for Truth when topic comes up.

I'm prayerfully considering my course of action, and I would welcome any prayers regarding this situation.

I found this website while googling, I would humbly ask that any fence-sitters not respond to my post, if there are any of those here to begin with. Our fight is very real, and we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

With Love in Christ Jesus the King
Theodophilus

[Darius Tarminthor]

Personally, I wouldn't support such a disrespectful company, and would say that doing a chargeback would be a good form of protest of the treatment, as speaking with your wallet tends to get a companies notice more often than not.

[Uriah-]

Thanks for posting this.

I'm definitely going to be praying up a storm.

[Toryn Sinbane]

This concerns me greatly.

[shimeiraa]

i have had a few interactions with this kind of thing and eventually decided in order to preserve my own sanity and energy, im not going to take part in religious or political debate with strangers.

There are people i know that i pray for and try to be an example for, and for them i will try to show love and compassion but, to get involved in religious conversation with ppl that are clearly anti-christian is just a waste of time and energy.

and it spoils my game xp.

And since it was a GM, maby another gm would have reacted a bit differently. I would not lose sleep over it.

Marmite.

[Culan]

I have seen this type of thing for years now. Literally any faith (yes I include atheism in that) can say what they wish and get little push back. However, if a Christian says anything to defend the faith then what you described happens.


'Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. '

Matthew 5:10-12

[Evan Quill]

What happened really should come to no surprise as far as the response to speaking about God, Jesus, or the Bible. Christians apparently should just shut up whenever a conversation about religion takes place. When will we get that point?

I applaud you for speaking up. I also applaud you for taking it up with a GM. We are called to speak up, not sit idly. But always understand that there will be those who take issue with what you say and our "world" thinks we are foolish and nasty, which is kind of what Jesus warned us of.

I never had what happened to you, happen to me. But I have heard of this before, so it has happened. Next time I would screen capture or record the chat to rebuff a GM abusing his or her authority. It may not help, but it does make a statement that we will not go gentle in to the night.

[Toryn Sinbane]

It's a funny thing about history. It has a way of repeating itself.

In the early decades A.D. of the Roman Empire religious syncretism was in full swing. This meant that because of the vast disparities of cultures and beliefs which all intermingled in the empire in general, and especially in Rome itself, the Caesars encouraged a blending of the many different gods and religions which flowed through the city. In other words; "You have a different god than we do? Well, that's no problem at all. Just park him or her right alongside our gods and we'll worship together and have a great time."

Obviously, in an environment such as this any religion or belief system which held as one of its core tenets that there was only one true God and only one way to access Him was a serious cause for concern among the authorities. Enter Nero stage left, who used this as an excuse to paint the Christian population of Rome in a negative light and ultimately use them as scapegoats to apportion blame for the great fire of Rome. Intense persecution followed for anyone unwilling to compromise the integrity of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Syncretism is alive and well in 2012.

[jaytrust]

Culan wrote:

I have seen this type of thing for years now. Literally any faith (yes I include atheism in that) can say what they wish and get little push back. However, if a Christian says anything to defend the faith then what you described happens. 'Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. ' Matthew 5:10-12

Amen brother. I commend the origiinal poster for taking a stand.

WE are going to be persecuted since they even persecuted Jesus. DON"T STOP SPREADING THE WORD AND DEFENDING CHRIST WHERE EVER YOU GO!

Even if it means losing it all in a game world its worth it for CHRIST!!!

[Theodophilus]

Thanks everyone for your encouraging words, and for your fellowship.

I actually do have logs of this last event, the GM telling me the name looked too similar to a Biblical name, etc, I'm just unsure what to do with them at this point.

[SaintVassago]

So does that mean you can't use the name David? Or Micheal? Or Paul? Or Peter? Or James? Or Matthew? .....

What a ridiculous excuse.

[Theodophilus]

SaintVassago wrote:

So does that mean you can't use the name David? Or Micheal? Or Paul? Or Peter? Or James? Or Matthew? ..... What a ridiculous excuse.

Yes, I think it means if someone reports you for saying anything of a Christian nature, the GM would change your name if it is any of the ones you mentioned. There are many people walking around with various Judeo-Christian names, and I'd say at least 3 out of 5 names on that server are ridiculously OOC, like cutesy little names, minstrels having "heal" somewhere in their names, etc.

I'm starting to believe a lot of the problem there may be attributed to subtle acts of trolling, someone innocently asks you about your faith, waits for you to say something that sounds standalone, then rightclicks your name on that one statement and leftclicks support. If this is the case, then the GMs have a very poor understanding of the word "Investigate" when they auto-respond to the ticket that they will "Investigate the matter". (This is aside from the fact that the GMs I've had to deal with seemed to have a chip on their shoulder and it was a matter of pride and a silly powerplay for them to refuse to give me back my character's name....)

Christians are at a supreme disadvantage carnally here, because unlike the atheists, the pagans, the gnostics and so on, we are not going to report people for merely stating their viewpoints, and we are not going to troll/bait people, and we are not going to do anything to these people that we would not want them to do to us.

I've been there, I was an atheist, I was a "good person", I would help people, give people money, respect people, had a severe aversion to adultery or anyone that would commit adultery, BUT, when Jesus Christ of Nazareth was mentioned the demons screamed and I became a hating machine, vile, full of guile, deceptive to the core, on a mission to hurt the person or prove to them I was smarter than them.. -- heheh, so yeah, I've been there.

[pikamoo]

I think I would not worry about the GM or the game itself. Use teamspeak or another Instant Messenger or email. Can you invite the stranger or friend to party with you and join you in teamspeak? Or chat after you game for a while through email?

This only gives me ideas... like creating a web page that says everything you want to say about your faith... then just share the website... or invite them to the guild website sotor.guildlaunch.com

No matter how challenging it is in the game to share your faith... I'm sure there are other creative ways to share our faith in the game. I'm sure God knows tons of ways! Just keep trusting in him and stay encouraged!

[Jao Thaun]

Seems like I had something similar happen to me back a few years ago with Bioware's community managers... God won that battle