Question:
Answer:
“Magic: The Gathering” is a game that has gone through different editions since its debut in the 1990s. Because some of its characters had demonic names, there was public backlash against the manufacturers out of concern the game might be promoting—or at least making light of—the occult.
As a result, “both the creature type and the word ‘Demonic’ disappeared from the game” in 1995. When the public controversy subsided over the ensuing years, a new edition debuted in 2002 and included “Grinning Demon.” Other characters with demonic connections have followed in successive years.
So does the game necessarily involve dabbling in the occult, as does the Ouija Board? Not necessarily, but we can’t recommend participation in the game. What’s the purpose of the game? As The Washington Post noted in its “Weekend” section in 1995, “The players, representing sorcerers, use the cards to “kill the other guy before he kills you, with spells, enchantments and creatures like Chaos, Orb. . . Bad Moon and Animate Dead. . . (May 27, 1995).
Devotees of the games, including Christians, will counter that the game is harmless fun and that—as with bad things on television—you can deliberately avoid the darker characters, including “Liliana the Necromancer,” an immodestly dressed female character who, as her name conveys, conjures the dead.
Others might argue that characters like Liliana are okay since the actual purpose of the game is to match wits with your opponent, not actually seek to have a séance or kill another person.
We disagree with that sentiment. Though make-believe, such games can open the door to participation in the occult, and at least encourage make-believe activities that are not edifying, including necromancy and nefarious sorcery. For example, when one uses the “Infernal Spawn of Evil” card, the game’s instructions direct:
Reveal Infernal Spawn of Evil from your hand, Say “It’s coming”: Infernal Spawn of Evil deals 1 damage to target opponent. . . .
In summary, there are many edifying activities in which Christians can participate. This game, with its various drawbacks, is not one of them.