The controversy about Shadow Complex, Orson Scott Card, and gay rights – This is an important one for Christian gamers to pay attention to. Lots of interesting things going on here.

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Richard Clark

Richard Clark is the Founding Editor of Christ and Pop Culture. He is also the managing editor of Gamechurch and a freelance writer for Unwinnable, Paste, and other outlets. He lives with his wife in Louisville, KY and has a MA in Theology and the Arts from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
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2 Comments

  1. I think this becomes more amusing when one considers that the game’s writer, Peter David, has (if memory serves) a portfolio containing many gay-friendly characterizations. In short, he couldn’t be realistically seen as supporting Card’s anti-homosexual stance at all.

    Chick’s response to David’s admonition that those opposing Card’s perspective “can display the sort of tolerance for someone who is different from them that they feel is lacking in Orson and thus prove they’re better” is, frankly, inadequate. He misses David’s point by creating a false dichotomy, positing that one can only respond with either blanket intolerance or blanket tolerance. Never mind the option of offering tolerance while offering critical discourse and persuasive discussion.

    The gamers who boycott over Card’s connection to the game (despite the lack of offending content within the game itself) are behaving just as irrationally as those Christians who boycotted products advertised during NYPD Blue episodes or those that refuse any Disney products based on Disney’s employee benefits program.

    I guess the newsflash here would be: PEOPLE STILL BLINDLY INTOLERANT OF THOSE WITH WHOM THEY DISAGREE.

  2. You’re right. This whole debate has discouraged me quite a bit and left me wondering if there’s room at all for a game critic who refers to himself as a critic.

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