With life moving more and more into digital space, how we define and catalogue what is sin and a breach of the commands of God becomes infinitely more complex. It is easy to claim that fornication, and being promiscuous in person is a sin, but what about on Discord, Instagram, Tinder, and etc? If someone role plays sexually with someone does that fall under digital fornication or tantamount to writing a sex scene in a book or watching one in a movie that is integral to the plot? Well the response probably lies in the intent, if you are co-authoring a book or story, and in that there is sexual elements and you remained detached (is that possible?) that would be alright, but participate in erotica with someone for the thrill and that’s just a form of smut or porn with a person. Are those the lines? Another would claim, well neither of you participated in actual physical sexual acts, you were playing make believe, another will say “if you look upon a woman with lust..” but there is no looking, this is writing between two people or more in a trend that is called ERP (erotic role play). How do we define it? Is it sin? It certainly seems there, for the imagination conjures imagery in writing, but if we use Jesus’ maxim, “if you look at a woman with lust in your heart you have committed adultery with her,” (Matthew 5:28) can that be applied? I mean if you are playing characters who have alien features like in Star Trek, no one actually looks like a Klingon. But the heart is the part of Jesus’ words there with major application, because writing erotic role play would involve the heart.
If people are living digital lives, role playing either in a community or in dating ways, how do we redefine what is sin if it is not real? For instance if you play The Lord of the Rings video game and caste a spell against The Belrog, you did not actually caste a spell from a spell book (Acts 19:19). I imagine the verse, “do not even do the appearance of evil,” (1 Thessalonians 5:22) would be applied, but people dress up as Darth Vader and love Jesus, and people watch and play stuff that could be defined as appearing evil. Besides most translations do not say appearance of evil, “Abstain from every form of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:22). So unless you are a KJV only person, its not in your bibles.
This needs a serious discussion. People are moving into the digital spheres, and some actions fall into a very gray or difficult to fit in a Scriptural command to abstain from. I am not saying it isn’t sin to ERP or pretend to use spells in a video game, but it isn’t going to fit under actual in person formication rules in the Bible, nor real spells. Where ERP crosses a different threshold than say video games or movies, is the interaction is with another person sexually through writing. How is that any different than say phone sex or reading smutty novels? Do we need to place it in a tier with those because it is similar? And what are ramifications for adultery? Someone could be married and be writing erotica role play with other people, how is that not cheating on a soul and spiritual level? Does this open the floodgates to sin without ever having to suffer the temporal consequences? The anonymity of online allowing people to hide who they really are and where they live. Then there is the question of fragmentation, if you online writing romance with someone and then in your real life have a spouse, who do you really love? Which side of you is the real person? The in person person or the online person?
The rise of the digital world is challenging us as Christians to face that sin is changing, just like the apostle said, “They invent new ways of sinning.” (Romans 1:30). We must take a long look at the changing landscape, where sin is not as clear cut because its in the cyber realm. Perhaps an easy method would be to ask would you do that or post that if Jesus was sitting there on the throne watching you at Judgement Day? That probably is a good place holder while this gets sorted out, and we figure out how to navigate this digital new world with Scripture. Amen.
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