HELP Confronted About Pokemon *long*

[sagespring]

Hello Anime Forum:

I was wondering if anyone here has ever been confronted about playing Pokemon or about their kids playing with the cards?
I use to not let my boys play with them, but, we live in a neighborhood where all the children do.
The boys love these cards. They haven't turned evil or possessed as a result. My oldest son once playing cards with a neighbor kid. The boy was pretending to bow down to a card. My son was like dude I don't worship anything besides God.
So my boys are fluent in Pokemon now. They have memorized the whole game and know all the cards. . .it's cool because there is so many details and I think it's good for their brains......they aren't fascinated with any power in particular.......

So an inlaw handed me a cassette tape and was like Pokemon is of the occult. I told her we allow the kids to play with neighbor kids and will play the harmless games they play as to not make ANY kid feel weird. We reach out and show God to these kids. They feel weird enough just experiencing our family, our house rules and the normalcy of our family.

I cringed and was happy at the same time when my son opened all his gifts, there were tons of Pokemon gifts.

Is there anyone on this forum that has experienced Christian family members coming against them for Pokemon in particular. I can see what the argument is, but, I haven't seen the negative effects. My boys were just as energetic, prone to play fight, and high energy before getting the cards. . . They aren't even obsessed with having more cards or more Gameboy games. The movies are borderline cheesy almost all the time albeit beautiful simple anime.

Our family has been raised on knowing Jesus and following him. Our boys are young, but they really have a grasp on who God is and what Jesus has done for us. They have been raised right so far, and we continue to raise them up in the way they should go. I believe that they are godly boys who are soft to his calling.

I think for our family, instead of focusing on something like a dumb game, we should welcome things like Pokemon, music, and culture to make us relevant to this world. This way folks will see that following Christ in our modern day and time doesn't mean you turn into a cultist who is an ineffective separatist.

Sorry this is so long, but, I want to talk to you all before I listen to the cassette tape that was handed me or whatever. I had occult and new age around when I was growing up AND this simple kids game is harmless in spite of all the things you could freak out on.

I actually get annoyed when they pretend play pokemon, the little creature noises can get on your nerves. Any other Moms who can relate?

I did say to her that I even though I am a musician and play rock and roll that I'm not going to stop because the roots are dark. I think God can redeem anything and use it to reach people.


Thanks for reading and I look forward to your replies.

 

[HeyHomie]

Tell your brother-in-law to mind his own business.

 

[Moana]

I have played the pokemon games and cards since I was 9. I enjoy it because it is fun. I never got into any fights over it or tried to worship a pokemon.

I have seen cards get stolen but, kids are kids. Kids at that yourng age are learning wright from wrong and make mistakes like everyone else.

What spooks out a lot of adults is the Dark and Psychic type pokemon. Those are their powers. It does not mean one cannot use a dark power for good. Besides it is just a show. Kids know it is pretend and is for fun.

Another thing that many parents worry about is violence. I can undertand from a parent's point of veiw that they don't want their child to be a thug. Pokemon has fighting in it but is more like a sport type of fighting like boxing, karate or fencing. Both combatants are agreed to fight for sport. That is why it is called a pokemon battle or match. And no pokemon do not die, they are koed or knocked out, just like in boxing.

I hope that helped.

 

[Duffy70]

vbmenu_register("postmenu_37559111", true);I too played a LOT of pokemon growing up and I turned out totally fine. I can see why people would be nervous, but like Moana says, the kids do know it's fun and the 'dark' powers don't mean that they encourage evil. If I remember correctly, there is a very strong good vs evil theme running through the nintendo games and they say that you have to treat others with respect and love on numberous occasions.

I dunno, I think your in law is just being paranoid and that you're very right in raising your children so that they can relate to those outside their faith.

 

[sagespring]

hey moana, duffy and heyhommie :o)

thx for your replies.
you know, I am all about protecting my kids. . .i just want them to be able to experience things and not be total nerds. Of course I don't want them to be dabbling in occult. Who would want their kids to do that.

And I think Moana you said, KIDS know. . . I want to trust them and let them excercise their common sense. I think that the whole theme of Pokemon is good triumphs over evil. I don't think the dark is really glorified at all. Being strong, smart, and courageous seems to be a big theme.

Oh, and Moana, like you said too the fighting in it is a sport. It's totally like fencing or boxing.

Oh well, thank you for your thoughts. I guess this will just have to be another thing that makes us "different" Christians than the rest of my dh family. They are very, very conservative. Did I mention VERY CONSERVATIVE. teehee.

I welcome any other thoughts......
Any Moms or Dads who have experienced something similar?
And adults like Moana and Duffy that have played Pokemon?

 

[Qyöt27]

A lot of things get blown out of proportion. Some people see the devil in everything - for reasons I don't entirely understand and don't particularly care to. Maybe they do it to feel validated, or just because they've been raised to be paranoid in an atmosphere of hyper-spiritual interpretations of common things - this is the source of most objections to media on a 'spiritual' basis ('spiritual' being in quotes because I see it more as superstition, not spirituality). A prime example of this can be seen in one of the threads going on right now in the Secular Music area here at CF.

Pokémon just happens to be one of those things that gets caught in the crossfire even though it's innocent. A big part of it may be because those type of groups automatically assume that anything from Japan is A) evil, B) trying to proselytize Shinto, or both. B) is outright false - I don't know where people get that kind of stuff; more often than not Eastern religions are content to live and let live, not try to go out and draw in converts (not to mention that most anime that make use of Shinto or Buddhist elements only do so because it's a cultural norm, much like it's not strange to see churches and priests pop up from time to time in prime-time TV shows). A) strikes me as incredibly ethnocentric, to be honest, or at least very indicative of the bubble subculture that the modern church has built around itself.

 

[.Sabre.]

Playing pirates, knights, etc. and playing Pokemon....simply kids acting out a fantasy, what is the harm in that?

I loved Pokemon when I was about 10 and I never became possessed or a witch as a result.

 

[DragonDame57]

i personally love pokemon my self- not so much the card game anymore, but the videogame. it requires you to do a bit of thinking- perfect for training common sense in to young kids subliminally.

i say if one thinks that your kids will turn occult because of a card game, they obviously don't have much faith in your kids.

 

[SquarksMcCaw]

Well,it's not like there's any animal sacrifices in the game XD;I dont think you should be worried.As long as it's just harmless fun,let em' play I play the newer versions myself,and i'm not feeling anything bad comming from the game.If it's about the devil dog...yeah,just dont let him catch it.I wouldnt worry too much.

 

[DoctorShaft]

Pokemon is just another fad that kids get attached to. It does not talk about worshipping spirits or Pokemon, or anything else. If anything, Pokemon regularly trivializes such things and focuses more on being really good Pokemon trainers. That's it.

My brother was obsessed with Pokemon as a kid. Soon as he hit high school, we never heard from Pokemon ever again. It's like Transformers, or any other big thing. In fact, Pokemon only makes more stuff to sell to kids, just like Transformers. The kids don't understand half the stuff that is said in a cartoon, and Pokemon isn't even trying to say anything.

I think your kids will be fine. Don't worry, when they get older, they will drop Pokemon like a New York minute. My brothers cards, now that he is in college, sit on the floor somewhere in the basement, collecting lots of dust. He does not have strange behaviors plaguing him. He plays the Pokemon Gameboy game still, but only because it's the newest one, and he hardly plays that one. He could care less about who all the new Pokemon are, or what new cartoons are being made.

 

[PaladinValer]

1. Its pokemon; its a kiddy game and anime about a boy and his grand adventures.

2. Tell him that if pokemon is bad, then so St. C. S. Lewis.

3. Avoid his church like the Black Death.

 

[Nick102]

I will confess myself that I used to be OBSESSED with Pokemon back when it was so insanely popular in the 90's. I played the games, collected the cards, watched the movies and the cartoon, everything! I never thought about if I was part of some occult or marketing gimmick that was brainwashing kids (and if I had heard those things, I probably ignored it like the fan that I was), but the reason I lost interest in it now isn't because I thought or realized that but because I simply grew out of it. I'm grown up now and the Pokemon craze no longer has a hold on me. It actually became very old and tiresome over the years cause of more games, more movies, new characters, and too many new Pokemon to keep up with anymore. So if Pokemon was an occult of some kind, then repetitiveness became it's undoing. Now that I'm no longer obsessed with some huge gaming fad, I actually feel more closer in my relationship with God cause it no longer comes between us. Other cartoons might try to, but Pokemon was one of the big ones and that's now out of my system.

As for whether or not it's evil, the creator of Pokemon Satoshi Tajiri said that the whole game was originally based off of collecting bugs when he was a kid, so hopefully that proves that he didn't intend for it to be considered an occult.

 

[Riddik7]

I think the leading reason some christians have serious issues with pokemon is because many of the pokemon were based off of Japanese demons, spirits and gods for their design... but that is merely a design choice, there is nothing wrong with pokemon. Realy just imagine how many design choices were based off of non christian things. If this person celebrates halloween or plays any mmo's call him out on those, make a point.

 

[Netbug009]

The people who accuse Pokemon, for the most part, are either flocking cause somebody else said it's satanic or are being ridiculous.

But to answer the question, yeah, it's happened. I went to a family member's house and put it on, and she was like "Oh, we don't watch those things in this house." I respected her and turned it off, but I didn't get why. I love her, but in all honesty, It's kind of hard for me to take what she says as the end all of what smart Christians do when she uses the Lord's name in vain rather frequently...

I've also had a lot of the opposite though. My mom reads her bible when she takes me to the TCG tournaments (yes, takes, as in present tense. I'm such a nerd. xD) and she's had surprised atheists approach her and be all "Don't Christians all hate this stuff?" It's a nice opportunity to show that we're not all just hunting for something to whine about. xD

 

[Mankin]

^Hehe, you might have inspired me to buy more Yu-gi-oh trading cards. XD.

 

[Sphinx777]

^Hehe, you might have inspired me to buy more Yu-gi-oh trading cards. XD.

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