So I’m playing Everquest as Grimspell the troll and Grimspell is engaged in his usual debate with his fellow party members about why he shouldn’t consider the gnome members of the group as appetizers. Dorn (a rather infamous mob) suddenly spawns. He’s too tough for our group and since my troll is evil like Dorn I have no interest in fighting him anyway, so one of our group members sends out a shout to the rest of the zone to let others who might be interested in killing Dorn to know he’s around. But the group member mistyped it and ended up shouting, “Dorn’s pope!” instead of “Dorn’s popped.”
Now there are some good humorous angles to take advantage of this typo if one felt the need to do so. Though I suppose someone shouting back “You mean he’s Benedict IX?” is a bit much to expect from the Everquest crowd. No, instead someone shouts “Pope? Let me get my gun!”
This just didn’t sit well with me. I let the person who shouted it know that he probably shouldn’t be shouting anti-Catholic slogans on Everquest. He accuses me of being an uptight fundamentalist. Right. Me. Playing a magic using evil troll. The vampire masquarade GM. The guy known as darkgatherings on Yahoo. Yeah, I’m a fundie alright. So I get called several more names as Mr. Humor explains that he’s an atheist and therefore hates the Pope.
Maybe I’m oversensitive on the subject. I don’t agree with a lot of the things the current Pope says. But he has dedicated his entire life to his beliefs. And he has vigorously pursued peaceful solutions to the world’s conflicts. The Pope’s dedication to peace has a very useful and profound effect on the world. And considering someone has already tried to kill him once, someone else joking about killing him doesn’t strike me as funny.
So look dickwad, I have lots of atheists friends and none of them are any more obnoxious about it then I am to them about my hope that there is something beyond this mortal realm. I have to confess that I haven’t been the best of believers, so if the Fundies do turn out to be right, you and I might be spending a lot of time together in a very hot place. I think I’ll pass the time playing a game called “Will it pass?” which basically involves forcing you to swallow larger and larger objects, such as broken bottles, bowling balls, and the compressed piston of a 68 Mustang, and seeing if anything makes it out your other end.
I’m an atheist and I would never say that about the Pope. It’s simple. I respect other people’s beliefs and never say anything bad about them, hoping that they won’t say anything bad about me being an atheist (or agnostic, it depends on my mood, really). Of course it doesn’t always work that way, but I make them look immature if they’re trashing me and I just shrug and not say anything to them. But that’s just me.
I’m an atheist / agnostic as well and I have to say that if I turn out to be wrong, I hope to be able to have front row seats for that gave as it sounds fucking hilarious.
There’s a bit of a theological conundrum here, isn’t there?
I mean, we all know that atheists are a sinister conspiracy out to destroy Christianity and pervert our children’s precious bodily fluids. But, according to such deep Christian thinkers as Jack Chick and Ian Paisley, Catholics are a false idolatrous sect conspiring to take over the world, destroy Christianity, and pervert our children’s precious bodily fluids.
So, does that make it OK for an atheist to hate the Pope? Does the atheist get any spiritual credit for opposing the idolators, just as if s/he were a regular, God-fearing, heretic-burning Christian? Should we, as Christians, encourage this sort of thing? Suppose the atheists and the Catholics wipe each other out: who would we burn at the stake then? Oh, yes, of course - line dancers…
What was that? No, we don’t want to bring Christ into it. He’d only go around forgiving everybody and loving them all unconditionally. Between you and me, that Christ’s a bit of a liberal. We’ll have to send Jack and Ian round to have a talk with Him…
[sub]Health warning: this post may contain traces of sarcasm[/sub]
There’s something very Biblical about the fact that this took place in the Northern Desert of Ro, but I’m not quite sure what. I see Dorn B’Dynn playing the role of Satan somehow, with that old Negro spiritual “Lead Us, Lord, To The Oasis of Marr” playing in the background. Is Freeport Babylon or Jerusalem?
By the way, you do occasionally get sand giant spawns in North Ro, so don’t go insulting us elves or karma will get you.
Did you complain to a GM? Racial and religious insults are generally pretty harshly dealt with.
So when my necromancer casts Dead Man Walking and struts his stuff on top of the Ocean of Tears, and then whips up a skeleton called Jobobe… uhm, Lazaru… uhm, Lazabober, he’s really just got a Messianic complex?
As an atheist the pope really doesnt bother me that much, however he does kind of stand out a bit. Friend of mine said it best though, it doesnt matter if he is a good pope or a bad pope, he is the pope. I reckon he deserves a little respect for that even if it is simply because the institution he heads has been around for so long.
<Grimspell>
I would never insult elves. I love elves! I’m just trying to decide what type of wine to serve with them.
</Grimspell>
Being a troll, I’d rate the odds of Grimspell ever running across an elf that couldn’t outwit him as fairly low. And even Grimspell isn’t stupid enough to eat anyone that’s useful in keeping him alive in a party. Good natured roleplaying jibs at each other can be pretty entertaining. It’s pretty funny when Grimspell sits down and a pair of gnomes take up position on either side of him then pretend to peer into his ears and wave to each other.
I didn’t report the fellow. It is a commercially owned domain and Verant has the right (and to a certain extent legally the responsibility) to control what is communicated on their servers. But I prefer to keep speech as free as possible. As far as I’m concerned if the fellow needs to shout his hatred so be it, but I have just as much a right to communicate my disagreement with his opinion. (Although I did it directly, instead of broadcasting it for everyone to hear. Some folks are trying to play a game here.) I suppose if it had become a spamming issue, where he was shoving so much text at me that I was having trouble playing the game, I would have reported him. But the content of the spam wouldn’t be the cause. It would be because I can’t communicate with my group and play the game. For folks who have endured trama of one kind or another, be it racism, religous persecution, or sexual harassment, I could fully understand reporting behavior that made those folks upset. But I have been fortunate not to have been subject to such things and I don’t think my being irritated really required any more action than I have taken.
