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Grand Theft Auto: Is it the Work of the Devil?
A Sermon Given
by The Reverend Roger Fritts
on August 11, 2002
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
As a parent, I struggle with what rules I should establish for my children to follow in our home. Some rules like, "do not play with matches," are obvious. However, many situations are less clear to me.
My maternal grandparents were more certain about rules. When I was a child, my mother told me stories about how her parents raised her in the 1920s in a Mennonite community in Idaho.
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For several generations my ancestors on my mother's side isolated themselves from the world around them. To be true to their understanding of the teachings of Jesus, they lived in reclusive communities in Europe and the United States. Mennonites developed a code of conduct they believed was consistent with the Bible. They prohibited participation in social activities with non-Mennonites, and encouraged intermarriage between cousins to preserve the closed society. As a child, her parents did not permit my mother to wear make-up or jewelry. They expected her to wear a prayer cap to cover her head in church, and to wear floor length dresses with sleeves to the wrist. Dancing, movies, circuses, theater, alcoholic beverages, and using tobacco were all prohibited.
As my mother became an adult, she found her parent's rules stifling. In her 20s, she stopped going to the Mennonite church. She moved to New York City, and met and married my father, who had been raised a southern Baptist. They settled in Phoenix, and joined the Unitarian Church, which had no taboos against make-up, jewelry or circuses.
Compared with my ancestors, I like to think that I live in a culture which has far fewer rules restricting the behavior of children. I like to believe that I live in a liberal, progressive culture. However, we modern progressive parents have our own rules.
The novel The Nanny Diaries, is on the bestseller lists this summer. In the fictional book a wealthy couple on Park Avenue in New York hires a college student to take care of their four-year-old child. The authors of the Nanny Dairies suggest that modern parents develop prohibitions, based on a mixture of science, fads, and indulgence. In their book they have included a satirical example of a modern parent's list of rules for a four-year-old. Today's child is:
- Allergic to dairy.
- Allergic to peanuts.
- Allergic to strawberries.
- Allergic to propane-based shellac.
- Won't eat blueberries.
- Or will only eat blueberries--sliced.
- Sandwiches must be cut horizontally and have crusts.
- Or Sandwiches must be cut in quarters and have NO crusts.
- Or Sandwiches must be made pacing east.
- He won't eat anything starting with the letter M.
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All servings are to be pre-measured--NO additional food is permissible.
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All juice is to be watered down and drunk over the sink or in the bathtub (preferably until the child is eighteen).
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All food is to be served on a plastic place mat with paper towel beneath bowl, bib on at all times.
- No food or drink within two hours of bedtime.
- No additives.
- NO preservatives.
- NO pumpkins seeds.
- NO skins of any kind.
- NO raw food.
- Or NO cooked food.
- And most important: NO FOOD OUTSIDE THE KITCHEN!
As I look at the rules of my ancestors, and the rules of a fictional Park Avenue couple, I wondered, "What rules should I set for my own children?"
I like to think that most of the rules I establish in consultation with my wife and my children are based on common sense. Rules like:
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Take your plate, your cup, and your utensils to the sink when you are finished eating.
- Each child has an assigned night to do the dishes.
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Bedtimes are set on the assumption that each child needs to get eight hours of sleep each night.
However, sometimes I am not sure what to do. For example, one area of rule setting where I have difficulty is with computer or video games.
As a person who has difficulty spelling I was one of the first to buy a computer in 1982 when they became widely available. For twenty years I have used computers to write sermons, balance my check book, and do my taxes. However, I have always found computer games as an incredibly boring, waste of time.
For the first few years that I owned a computer I would only allow my children to use it to play educational games. At first I was as strict on this as my grandparents were when they would not let my mother go to the movies. However, over the years my firm resolve on this weakened. In the late 1980s under pressure from our two sons Leslie and I bought a Nintendo machine, which came with a game called "Marino," and a shooting game called "Duck Hunt." It also came with a big floor pad and a game called "Track Meet." My wife and I rationalized getting the computer game in our own minds by hoping that the boys would get some exercise playing "Track Meet."
Over the past ten years, as programers designed more of these games to run on a personal computer, and as my children became old enough to earn their own money, more of these games have appeared in our home. Over the years my children have learned how to fly an airplane using a flight simulator, and about property taxes using Sim City. My daughter plays The Sims, which is the twenty-first century version of a doll house.
If the reports in the media are correct, my children are typical. According to The Washington Post, ninety-two percent of all youngsters between the ages of two and seventeen, play video or computer games. Computer game machines and software now generate more than eight billion dollars a year, more than the film industry. These past few months, while many industries have struggled to deal with the recession, the electronic game industry has continued to prosper.
However, like many parents, I am concerned about the trend toward increased violence and realism in electronic games. Starting in 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board has rated software according to five categories: Everyone, Early Childhood, Teen, Mature, and Adults Only.
Its effectiveness has been limited. A video game study conducted last year by an organization called CHILDREN NOW states that seventy-nine percent of games rated "E" for "Everyone" contained violent content. In half these games violence was significant to the plot. The same study noted that female characters account for only sixteen percent of all characters. Male characters are more likely to engage in physical aggression; female characters are more likely to scream, wear revealing clothing, and be nurturing. African American characters were typically athletes, and Asians were usually wrestlers or fighters.
Furthermore, my sons refer to the "Mature" and "Adults Only" labels as "Buy-Me" labels. Teens want to see everything that adults do not want them to see. Stores are uneven in enforcing the rule that children under the age of seventeen cannot buy software marked "Mature." Also, children can buy the games over the internet, whereas sellers cannot verify age claims.
Today the third most popular game in terms of sales is Grand Theft Auto. It is rated M for Mature. It has received many positive reviews. One writer said "Everything is rendered in terrific detail and the audio is equally amazing." Another reviewer said that he lost himself in Grand Theft Auto the same way he can lose himself in a great work of art such as a painting.
In the game you are an escaped prisoner working for gang leaders and organized crime bosses who send you on missions to kill people and steal cars. The game is bloody, violent, and sadistic, offering up an enormous simulated city in which nearly any criminal act is possible. Players are free to steal cars and beat up the local population for their money or their weapons. Players can visit prostitutes. After the simulated sex the players can kick the prostitutes to death and steal their money, and get points for these activities.
Because of its sex and violence for a time, the government of Australia banned the game. Senator Joe Lieberman gave it a "dishonorable mention" on his "Video Game and Violence Report Card." Unlike most violent computer games, the Grand Theft Auto offers killing in the name of evil, not in the name of good. The shelves of computer game stores are filled with games that simulate the player destroying evil. Grand Theft Auto focuses on shooting police or beating unarmed men and women to death with a baseball bat.
What is a parent to do? If I could resurrect my Mennonite grandparents, I suspect they would say, "This so called game is clearly wrong. It is totally inconsistent with all of Jesus's teachings in the Bible." They would advise me to do all I can possibly do short of physical violence, to stop my children from playing the game. They would tell me to shut off the electricity to the house if necessary. My grandparents would point that over the centuries most people survived without electricity. They would say that if my children needed to experience violence, they could go in the back yard and chop off the head of a chicken. My grandparents might tell me that my ancestors did not emigrate to the United States in the 1880s so that their great grandchildren could spend their summer days playing a game that involved stealing cars, killing police, and visiting prostitutes.
On the other hand, I suspect that the fictional parents in The Nanny Diaries would say that they do not have time to police their child's use of the computer. They would be too busy with work and other responsibilities, and leave the care of their children to boarding schools, summer camp, and child care workers. For the rest of us, who are neither as certain about things as my grandparents, nor as distant from our children as the fictional couple in the Nanny book, what should we do?
Social scientists have conducted some research on this issue. In 1994 researchers found that college students who had played violent video games had a higher heart rates, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts than those who had played a nonviolent game. (Calvert & Tan, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 15(1), 125-139)
In 1995 a study sought to identify effects of playing an "aggressive" versus "nonaggressive" video game on second grade boys. Boys who had played the aggressive game displayed more verbal and physical aggression to inanimate objects and playmates during a subsequent free play session, compared with those who had played the nonaggressive game. (Irwin & Gross, Journal of Family Violence 10(3), 337-350.)
In 1997 researchers asked third and fourth graders questions about a story after playing a violent or a nonviolent video game. The children who had played the violent game responded more negatively about the harmful actions of a story character than did the other children. This suggested that playing violent video games may make children more likely to attribute hostile intentions to others. (Kirsh, Childhood 5(2) 177-184)
Last year the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reported where more than two hundred college students played either a violent or nonviolent video game. They then gave the two groups a third game to play in which they had to set up a blast of noise their opponents would hear, if the opponents lost. Those who had played the violent video game set the noise blast to last longer than those who had played the nonviolent game, which the researchers interpreted as more aggressive. (Reported in the Washington Post January 6, 2002.)
Last December a report by the National Institute on the Media and Family found that one out of five adolescents is a compulsive video game player. The report noted that 14 and 15 year olds preferred more violent games, had more "hostile personalities," performed more poorly in school, and saw the world as a more hostile place. (Reported in the Washington Post January 6, 2002)
On the other hand, in 1999 the Censorship Ministers of the Australian government conducted a four year study, and wrote in their 1999 conclusion, "There is little evidence to support fears that playing computer games contributes substantially to aggression in the community." They went on to say that they "found no new evidence of widespread addiction although, of course, some children may experience periods of excessive play." (News release Australia Attorney-General, December 3, 1999.)
What is a parent to do? A part of me sides with my grandparents. A part of me wants to say to my children: "These violent games are so outrageous that I do not want them in my house." Part of me is tempted to say: "If necessary I will cut the electric power, to stop you from playing this game."
On the other hand, another part of me is familiar with the need for children to defy their parents to establish a separate identity. After all, after my mother became an adult she left home, and started using make-up and going to the movies. She did not return home for a visit for six years.
So instead of giving orders and issuing demands, I try to reason with my children. I sit with them and tell them how I feel about violent games. I trust their intelligence and I hope that I have lived my own life as a good enough example for them to follow.
Actually, a month ago none of my children owned a copy of Grand Theft Auto. When I decided I wanted to explore the topic of violent video games, my sixteen year old got a copy on sale. He played it for a week and then lent it to a friend. "It got boring," he said. My cello playing twenty year old tried it out. He said, "it is too much like a cartoon. It is to over the top in its stealing and violence. It is not serious enough to spend time on." "Besides," he said, "driving the cars is too hard. I kept crashing."
Of course, I am in the process of letting go of my children whom I love so much. Each day I am letting them make more of their own decisions, and praying to God that Leslie and I have prepared them enough so that they can survive out in the world. I know that in this changing and dangerous world preparing children to survive is more an art than a science.
Office@CedarLane.org
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