Author: Ben Clapton

Bit of a controversial header there, but I believe every word of it. This comes from a news report on ABC on-line with the header “German gunman a ‘keen shoot-em-up gamer’” which says within the report “”We seized his computer yesterday evening and analysed it… On it are games that are typical for someone carrying out a mass shooting,” [Police Chief] Mr Michelfelder said.”

Sorry, what? Games that are typical for someone carrying out a mass shooting? It’s quite obvious what type of games he’s talking about. the “Shoot-em-up” games which are very popular. Take for example, the games available for multiplayer on 3FL – a gaming site which I visit due to its association with my ISP. We have:

• Battlefield 1942 – a “3D World War II First Person Shooter”
• Call of Duty – also based in World War II
• Call of Duty 4 – based in the “near future”
• Call of Duty: World at War – based in World War II
• Counter-Strike
• Counter-Strike: Source – Tactical Firstperson shooters
• Day of Defeat – Team based multiplayer First person shooter
• Enemy Territory Pro – Free Multiplayer FPS based on the Wolfenstein games
• Left 4 Dead – where you are one of four survivors fighting off hordes of zombies
• Team Fortress 2 – FPS video game, slightly more cartoony than the other games mentioned
• Team Fortress Classic
• Trackmania Nations Forever – A Racing game
• Tribes 2 – a sci-fi FPS
• Warsow – a multiplayer competitive FPS game

As you can see, only one game that is not a “Shoot-em-up” as the media would have us believe, though to be fair, there are many games here which I would not describe as shoot-em-up. Many of these games require skill, timing, patience, accuracy, and covertness, and are not the jump in and hold the trigger down type of game. However, the media would have us believe that any game of this type is the type of game that a mass-murderer would have, and lead the public into making the assumption that these games breed killers.

This is an outright lie, and should not be even promoted as a thought.

There are millions of gamers around the world who play First Person Shooters as their preferred games. Back in February 2008, Playfuls.com reported that 1.2 million copies of the FPS Unreal Tournament 3 had been sold for both PC and PS3, and this was just prior to the release of this game in Europe. So of course, you can expect more sales from Europe, and with the recent update and Titan Pack, Steam was offering a sale on this game, so you would expect even more sales just recently.

So we have millions of people that play FPS games. Yet, only a very small minority of these gamers ever do something outside of the game. It wouldn’t reach 1%. It probably doesn’t even reach 0.01% of all gamers.

Now I’m not saying that what this guy in Germany did was right. It’s a shocking thing, and I wish that it never happened. And I’m not going to say that FPS games may have played a minor part. We will never know for sure. However, the reason that most FPS players don’t go on massacres is because they are mature enough, and well enough in the head to understand that IT’S JUST A GAME. We do it to relax, we do it to entertain. I love gaming, and though I’m not very good at them, I really enjoy first person shooters. However, I could never hold a real gun – I’m a pacifist at heart. And I’m sure that the majority of gamers will never go on a massacre, and will be just as disgusted and appalled by this tragedy as anyone else.

The fact of the matter is that there were other factors in this guys life that lead to him committing such an atrocity. There were factors in his life that we may not know, things happening in his brain that he may have shared with no-one. It’s a shame that he felt this was the only way to solve these issues, that he couldn’t see another way, but gamers should not get blamed for this.

As Christians, we should be praying for the families of all involved, working tirelessly with those at risk individuals, and caring for and loving everyone that we meet, showing them that there is more to life and that it’s worth living.

Thanks to not having to work today, I enjoyed a lazyish morning. I watched a couple of Stargate episodes, then after lunch, did some work on my budget. While I had the cash to be able to cover my speeding fine, I decided that I really should try and recover the money if I could. So I decided that taking a bit of money from my various cash spendings each  month (things like Discretionary, fuel and clothes) then I could slowly (over 10 months) save up the money spent on the fine and also membership to the youth orchestra.

After I’d figured that all out, I went to pay the fine, do some banking, and pick up a couple of books for one of my students. There’s three music stores in Perth that are worth visiting – Zeniths, Theo’s and Tempest music. I rarely go to Tempest, as it’s south of the river, and not in my usual driving range, and often is more expensive than the other two. Zeniths is where I prefer to go, as it’s a bit easier to find what you’re looking for, but Theo’s often has better prices. Bit of a toss up really. Today, I had to visit both Zeniths and Theos, as Zeniths didn’t have one book, and thankfully, Theos did (and didn’t have the book I got at Zeniths).

Then some teaching, a few lessons, and then had dinner with my wonderful girlfriend’s Nanna and Pop. They are the most awesome old people, so it was awesome to spend some time with them and hear a few of their stories. After dinner, my gorgeous girlfriend dragged me shopping (I allowed myself to be dragged quite willingly hehe) to go shopping with her for youth group tomorrow. Gross Games. I’m not quite sure what I’ve got coming for me tomorrow, but it shall be interesting to say the least.

So, for tomorrow – Teaching all day from 830 to 430, then youth group at night. Now, want to write another post, reflecting on a news article I just read, then a bit of reading then sleep. Watch for a new post shortly.

Work again today. But unfortunately, on my way there I got picked up for speeding. Now this is odd, as my beautiful girlfriend calls me a “Grandpa” driver, because I always do the speed limit. So how’d I get pulled up? School Zones. Now I admit, I was in the wrong. I hadn’t seen the signs, and as such, believed that I was doing the speed limit, but I should’ve been paying more attention. School Zones are there to ensure the kids are safe, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I’d killed someone for going that fast. So while I don’t like it, and I’ll have to rework my budget for a little while, I’ll take the fine.

Meeting at work today, team meeting, making sure that we can all work together as a team. It’s tough when we work different days, not sure of everyone’s role, so it was good to clear that up. Other than that, bit of work on various stuff, including fixing a laptop that was not recognising USB devices. That was fun.

Came home for a bit of relaxation before teaching, and a bit of watching some NBA clips on youtube. Then my dearest girlfriend came over to discuss a bit of stuff. It’s so wonderful having her, because we’re both passionate about our faith, and we make time to pray together. Today, it was specifically about some issues that have come up in our lives, but we also make sure to do it when we don’t have those troubles and everything is just peachy. It’s lovely to be able to trust someone so much to share all your worries, your misgivings and more with, and then to be able to offer them up to God for help.

Tomorrow, normally I would have work but that was moved to this morning, so a bit of a lazy day. I should try and get to the doctors – been avoiding that, and need to get back to the Gym. Teaching in the afternoon, and dinner with my gorgeous girlfriend’s nanna and pop. Should be a good day. But now, I think I have some time to waste with God, read a few chapters of the books I’m working through.

As part of my work, I have to upload the fortnightly e-mail newsletter. The text gets sent to me, but I have to do a bit of formatting to make it look good. In our latest edition, one heading grabbed my attention – “St George’s Cathedral invites you to waste time with God.” A series of events at the Anglican Cathedral in Perth, inviting you to come and explore spirituality. I attended one just recently, a talk on Spirituality and music. Most fascinating stuff, however, I’m finding that the style of worship that appeals to me and enhances my soul, is no longer in the anglican tradition that I am familiar with, so as such I probably won’t attend many sessions unless the title really interests me.

But this idea of “Wasting time with God” really caught me. What a wonderful idea! I’m guessing that if you’re like me, sometimes you really want to just waste some time. It might be finding something to do instead of watching tv, or my personal favourite, spending time on Facebook. You might have a few minutes before you need to leave home for school but not enough time to get anything done. You might just need a break from whatever it is that you were doing. We all need these breaks that allow us to “waste time”. Often we’ll go to things like Facebook, twitter, or other things. How wonderful it would be to make a conscious decision that instead of wasting time on things like Facebook, you instead decided to waste time with God?

Got 1 minute? Say a prayer about something on your mind, or thanking God for a wonderful day, or thanking him that you can talk to him any time of the day. Got 5 minutes? Read through a Psalm, or choose a verse from Proverbs and see how it may relate to your life. Got longer? Read through a chapter from one of the books of the bible. I’ve recently decided that I want to make a concerted effort to read the bible, not just in my daily devotions, but actually reading a book of the bible from beginning to end. It’s a lot different to getting the readings in my devotional, where you just get bits and pieces. By reading all the way through, you get some context to what you’re reading which is awesome.

Anyway, if we start spending our wasted time with God, surely our lives will start to improve, as we live and learn in Christ, it can only be a good thing to waste time with God.

At work today, which is my “regular” job – Admin/IT work at the Council of Churches of WA. I run the website and e-mail newsletter, as well as whatever other admin work comes my way. At the moment, we’re getting ready for the AGM, so there’s a bit of work involved with checking attendances, getting reports ready etc etc. Today wasn’t too bad – it was constant work but not overly busy.

After I finished – only a half day, finished at 1pm – I headed off to the shops to deposit a cheque and to buy some clothes. Got some cheap towels that I’m going to use as sweat towels. Now I need to get myself back into heading off to the gym.

Bit of gaming in the afternoon – I’m trying to give myself about an hour a day where I can to game. It’s something I enjoy, and often go to LAN’s with mates, and figure that if I’m going to be spending money on these games, I should probably play them inbetween LAN’s. Hey, I might even start getting better!!

This evening entailed a board meeting for Chrysalis, which is a non-denominational christian youth retreat that I’ve been involved in over the past few years. I’ve just taken up a role on the board, and am still finding my feet and what I need to do. Tonight was the first meeting that I’ve managed to get to, and we had some good discussion about various issues we’re facing, and possible solutions. And I’m starting to get an understanding of what my role is. It’ll take some time for me to settle in, but I think i’m going to do alright, I’ve got some interesting and exciting ideas.

And now, I think I’ll turn on the cricket, play Peggle for half an hour, then get some sleep. Work tomorrow morning, with some teaching in the afternoon.

There are many different flavours of Christianity. Called denominations, each flavour is distinct, though with certain similarities, and each has certain function in a persons faith journey. These are just my own thoughts and observations, and as each persons faith is their own, their experience might be different.

To start with, I’m going to look at the evangelical churches. These are the ones like the Assembalies of God, the Hillsong and Planetshakers style churches, and the more modern Churches of Christ.  These churches are great at evangelism – reaching out into the community and bringing Christ into their lives, finding new followers. Hence, these are the ones who have the podcasts, the telecasts on TV of their services, the big name churches that everyone knows.

Then you have the more conservative staples of the faith. Churches like the Anglicans, the Catholics, the more traditional Churches of Christ and to an extent the Uniting Church. Here, their focus is more on nurturing the faith. Not attracting as many new Christians, new members to the Church often come from another Church, or from returning Christians who may have grown up in the Church but then left.

For a long while, this is where I pictured my faith – in the Nurturing area. Having grown up in a traditional Church of Christ, and then moving to an Anglican, it was this nurturing that founded my faith. Through the many sermons, the services, the bible studies I participated in, I explored my faith, discovering the nature of God. And through that exploration, it seems that I have found that this was not the end of the cycle. I have come to understand that while there is still more than I have to learn, there is another aspect of my faith to explore. That of service, of giving back to the Church.

This is not quite the place for me to share right now, but expect more on my new developments of my faith in times to come.