Erick V. Berdúo

ARE GAMERS GIGACHADS? (🧵) @LizzieMarbach started the latest online brouhaha over whether or not men who play video games are attractive to women. A few quick thoughts on the whole topic. 1- this is clearly an area where there is Christian liberty. You can’t say that it’s a sin to play video games any more than you can say that it’s a sin to watch a movie (though it should be obvious in both cases that some movies and video games would be inherently sinful and that there would be a level of addiction or idolatry that would be sinful, which would be true of any hobby). 2- the question of whether something is attractive is related to the question of whether or not it is good, but it is not identical. For example, there are a lot of feminist women who would not be attracted to patriarchal men. Doesn’t mean that the Biblical structure of the home is wrong. The goal of life is not to maximize attractiveness. That being said, when something is broadly unattractive, it does lead to the question – why? Is this because something is wrong with the culture, or is it because there is something inherent to masculinity or femininity that this contradicts and is therefore unattractive? 3- it is OK and even good to have recreational hobbies. Part of living humbly as mortals is acknowledging that we need time to rest and recover. God even commanded times of rest and celebration for His people. 4- just because we should not institute a legalism that dictates what hobbies people are allowed to have does not mean that we cannot honestly assess hobbies for their inherent worth- or lack thereof. This doesn’t mean that we need to create a hierarchy of hobbies and then pressure everyone to all be interested in whichever hobby comes out on top. We are all different, and that is OK. But we can and should honestly look at our hobbies through the lens of Paul’s lawful/profitable paradigm. Video games, weightlifting, scrolling Instagram, and playing the piano are all lawful hobbies. But are they equally profitable? Subjectively or objectively? It is a question worth considering honestly. (1/3)