Is Gary Gygax a Jehovah's Witness?

Question

Gary Gygax created this game which is called Dungeons & Dragons. Do you think it is a harmless game or somehow dangerous just because it has some connection with occult? I'm just curious.

Can any JW’s confirm this if Gary Gygax is in fact one of JW's?
Jehovah's Witnesses only. Thanks.

P.S. I don't have that game, by the way.

Answer 1

Here are two facts:
1. Jehovah's Witnesses have consistently discouraged their adherents from entertainment which involves immersion into magic and mysticism, and have even mentioned "Dungeons & Dragons" specifically. In fact, Awake! magazine (March 22, 1982) contained an entire article on the game, including this quote: "Dungeons and Dragons is permeated by the ideas of Satan the Devil, who has always championed greed, violence and demonism."
2. Ernest Gary Gygax, the creator of "Dungeons & Dragons", occasionally cites his religion as "Jehovah's Witness", and occasionally thanks "Jehovah" in an interview or correspondence.


It would seem that Mr. Gygax chooses to identify himself as a Jehovah's Witness as an inside joke to those familiar with the religion's cautionary tone regarding his signature game.

One reason to question the sincerity of Gygax's claimed religious affiliation is that Jehovah's Witnesses consider smoking to be a serious sin. Yet Gygax unabashedly describes himself as "an avid smoker"; Gygax volunteers in several interviews "I love to smoke."

Interestingly, Jehovah's Witnesses' own 2006 statistics count about 1 million active Witnesses in the United States, but about 2 million associate themselves by meeting attendance. Secular surveys generally note that about 1% (or 3 million) Americans identify themselves with Jehovah's Witnesses. In summary:
...1 million practice
...2 million attend
...3 million identify

Clearly, there are many who identify themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses while having little or no formal connection with the religion. Thus, it seems possible that Gygax feels some sincere connection with the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses, even if his lifestyle is incompatible with the religion itself.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/20050508/article_01.htm
http://jw-media.org/beliefs/membership.htm
http://jw-media.org/people/index.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20060401/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/rq/index.htm?article=article_08.htm

Answer 2

I am so pleased you asked former Jehovah's Witnesses to answer this question. Otherwise, how could you ever find out why they left? There are some interesting answers from your spiritual brothers and sisters - but not one of them has come up with the obvious. While I was a Jehovah's Witness, I also thought I had the true religion and there was no way I was ever going to leave it. That would be really stupid, wouldn't it, to leave what you believed to be true that gave you peace of mind. Neither did I leave because I was immoral or someone stumbled me or I simply didn't want to live up to the Bible's high standards. I wasn't mixing with worldly people, I didn't take up smoking or drinking. In fact, I was pioneering and I was married to a pioneer. So why did I leave? You need to understand that my parents became Witnesses in the 1930's, and that I knew nothing other than what Jehovah's Witnesses believed. We were all expecting the end of 6,000 years of man's existence to end in the fall of 1975 (I can provide the Watchtower quotations if you doubt me) and that meant Armageddon would come soon after. My parents believed they were the generation that would see the fulfilment of the end-time prophecies in Matthew 24 and that they would be alive when the Millennial reign of Christ started. None of us made any of this up. We all believed what the Society told us. Guess what? This prophecy was false - we're still waiting, 33 years later. This is the reason I left - false prophecies about dates and predictions when 6,000 years of human existence will end. Any peace of mind I had was shattered when I realised the extent to which I had been mislead. I am now a born-again Christian with a heavenly hope and I praise God that, through the Holy Spirit, he brought me to a place of repentance and forgiveness. Religion does not save. Only Jesus Christ can do that.

Answer 3

Not a JW, but I'm going to butt in anyway. That's just how I am.

My impression of your people is that you don't play games/watch movies/read books having to do with magic or the occult. I assume that's because you think it's dangerous or forbidden. So even if this guy was a JW, why would you play this game? What would your friends and other coreligionists say? More importantly, why wouldn't you take this question up with the local leaders of your religion rather than random internet people?

I may or may not agree with your assessment of D&D, but I do think that people should follow the dictates of their religion or leave it. Don't be a hypocrite.

Edit:
misplaced mother, I haven't explicitly said that the questioner has played the game or will necessarily play the game, but since she's asking the question it does imply that either she or someone she knows has, will, or is thinking about playing it. Like I said, I'm keeping my opinions about D&D to myself, but playing it doesn't seem right from the JW perspective.

Answer 4

I'll answer the first part about D&D. Nothing as spiritual power in this world and games cannot cause you to be demon pocessed. However if you are an obsesive-compulsive type person and/or you become overly obsessed with it it might cause some problems. In this case it's not the game it' the person at fault, just like a gun is not the the cause of the crime, it was just used in the crime (crime existed long before guns).

The point is: inanimate things are not good nor evil it's how you use them.

Answer 5

Sorry, I have no imput on the game but I wanted to respond to JR and the facial hair comment.

My husband wears a beard and mustache and was baptized with it. It is up to the elders in each hall to councel or not on facial hair. It is about cleanliness and moderation.
In areas like Alaska (any where it is very cold) it is common for the brothers to have facial hair. We are in FL, he has always had a beard and was willing to change if it was a direction from Jehovah, we have researched this indepth with elders and overseers and there is nothing from the scriptures that says beard or no beard. We would never want to hold back from doing something Jehovah asks of us.

It has been brought out that being clean shaven was a way to set our selves apart when "hippies" and such were the ones with beards. Facial hair is not a social dividing factor any longer.

Once again, it is about everything in moderation. Nothing long, scruffy, dirty but short and well maintained.
Most of the men in our hall have a mustache. I noticed a few at assembly with short beards.

Jesus is always illustrated with a beard.

Answer 6

I don't know anything about any of those games. He may have been raised by a JW family, like Michael Jackson. He's listed as an inventor. Cathy: Whose question are you answering? I don't remember reading that anyone played the game.

Answer 7

Well I personally don't know Mr.Gygax. I have read that he is a former Witness, however, it is hard to know for sure. I imagine there is probably a website that says where to send questions about him to get an official answer. On that note however, I remember, I think it was Johnathan Taylor Thomas, being quoted in a magazine as saying that he took one of those "How well do you know him" tests, about himself and failing it. So ya never know.

As for the game, I know what the Bible says, and you might also. That is what I try to base my decision on about it. It is up to each of us to decide these things for ourselves.

Answer 8

D & D is known to be connected with the occult, and any real Jehovah's Witness would not have anything to do with it.

Answer 9

Based on his full set if facial hair, he isn't. So, I believe its just a rumor.

Answer 10

Well according to this site, he is.

http://www.nndb.com/people/918/000044786/