I'm in an exciting stage in life right now, the end of my college career. I get asked very very often what I would like to do after school, and I've been asked this often for the last 6 years of my life (I've been in college FOREVER). My general answer to this is that I want to make video games. I want to be a technical artist someday, someone who exists in the uncharted lands between programmer and concept artist. I love art, and I love programming, so it seems a natural fit for me. The reactions to this bit of information have varied wildly throughout the years, and I've more than once heard the question "Oh, you want to make Christian video games?"
The answer is a vehement no.
Despite the fact that anyone who has ever played a Christian video game knows they are horrific, I do not feel that my calling in life is to work with Christians to make a Christian product for a Christian audience. Don't get me wrong, I see nothing wrong with this. I currently work for a church, and that's exactly what we do, and I absolutely love my job. For years though, I've felt that at some point in the future, this wont be where I am. One day I hope to be working for a secular video game company making good art with appeal to a large audience.
For a long time I've felt God pulling me towards a career where I would be among people who rarely, if ever, have any interaction with Christians, and an industry that impacts a large amount of young people (and older) in the world today. No, I will not be making Christian media. Yes, some of what I may help produce may offend some of the church, largely due to the misunderstanding that video games are evil and violence inducing.
The distressing thing for me is that many people I have discussed this with do not understand, or outwardly oppose this calling on my life. Many have lazily slapped a bad label on video games altogether, claiming that they make people apathetic, prone to violence, immature, all the while hypocritically embracing all other types of media. Often as not, legalistic evangelicalism fails to see any merit in video games, and therefore write off any legitimate call to work in that industry.
1 Corinthians 9:19-22 says "Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many people as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”
I strongly believe that we as Christian are called to engage culture, not to subvert it, or replace it with sub-par Christian-ized media. There is beauty and evidence of God everywhere, and we should seek Him in all things, secular or not.
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I would recommend reading these two Relevant articles on art and Christianity. I think they are beautifully written and strong.
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