The topic has come up in almost every Chasing the Dragon podcast we’ve had: Satanic panic. That period in the eighties when good, virtuous mothers and churchgoers were warned against the dangers of Dungeons & Dragons. And the edition that brought on these accusations most powerfully was the exact edition that I’ve been reading, re-reading, playing, and podcasting about: First Edition AD&D.
Some of you may not know this about me, but I am a Protestant pastor in the Southern United States. I’ve been accused of being too conservative…and also accused of being too liberal, which is probably a good place to be. But as a Protestant pastor in a denomination that uses the word “evangelical” to describe itself, rest assured I lean right compared to a more liberal, mainstream Protestantism.
Why does that matter? Well, it seems that if anybody would be sympathetic to the Satanic panic of the ’80s, it would be this guy:
Yep, there he is. That evil gamer type again.