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What's The Truth About Pokemon?
By Cky J. Carrigan, Ph. D.
On the one hand, I generally caution people not to overstate the "dangers" of pokemon or anything else. I am referring to comments I have heard like, "Pokemon is the Devil." But on the other hand, I am very concerned about pokemon's negative influence on children for the following reasons:
1) It has occultic and psychic features.
2) It has evolutionary features.
3) It has eastern martial art features.
4) It is very much associated with an eastern philosophy and world view.
5) It involves role play in a world (occultic, psychic, martial arts, eastern philosophy, evolutionary) that is very much different from the real world or biblical world. Research has found that role-play is the most effective way to create and re-enforce a world view. In other words, role-playing is much more likely to condition a child to believe and behave a certain way, than merely watching other characters.
6) It is a marketing program that promotes obsessive-compulsive behavior and materialism.
7) It conditions children to select other, more directly occultic and dangerous, role-play games as they become older.
Can a child do the pokemon thing with no negative impact? Certainly, yes. But, several conditions are present that make it very probable that pokemon will help produce one or many unbiblical beliefs or behaviors in a child. Why take the risk?
My ten year old son and I have adopted an "aware separation" approach to pokemon. We did the pokemon thing as cautious participants for a while (awareness) until we learned enough about it to decide to set it aside in favor of other, more edifying, activities (separation).
See the following links to three very fine articles that can be found on the web. See also the text of a Baptist Press piece from 19 November 1999 entitled, "Pokemon gets cautious reception from Christian media analysts" by Debbie Moore. These articles should help one form their own opinions about pokemon.
crossroad articles pokemon 5-99
Copyright 1999 by Cky J. Carrigan. All Rights Reserved.