Hey all -- a friend e-mailed me the other day asking about the backgroudn of the Pokeman card craze. Couldn't answer him, but saw a clip on the TV news this evening where a preacher (denom?) from NC was campaigning against the cards, calling them satanic, and that the names came from false religions, etc. Of course, he didn't give any details of the names, or the false religions (or the TV news didn't report that part).

Any help here? Lots of young people are getting into these trading cards. Of course, the Care Bears and Smurfs were "of Satan" depending on who you listened to.

Darrell H Combs

-- Anonymous, November 04, 1999

Answers

POKEMON.....

Darrell....isn't that what the Jamaicans call the policeman in his car....you know......

"THE POKE.... MON!!"

ROFL!!!

-- Anonymous, November 09, 1999

I downloaded a lengthy article about Pokemon (Pocket Monsters) a few weeks ago. It is too long to post to a general list. Some of our group homeschool and think Pocket Monsters trading is definitely occultic even if it isn't *satanic.* Write me personally and I'll post it to your private E Mail. I saved it in ASCII. I've already sent one copy to darrell.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 1999

See Focus on the Family's site for a balanced analysis of the Pokemon craze. www.family.org

-- Anonymous, November 27, 1999

Saw the movie the other day. One real critique ... the animation stinks! It is an absolute throw-back to the Speed Racer type of animation of the 60's & 70's. Maybe it's making a comeback. But after seeing Prince of Egypt and Toy Story 2, The Pokemon movie really stinks. (BTW -- Toy story 2 is a hoot, and much better than even the first ... ya gotta see it).

A couple of observations of the content of the Pokemon movie:

1. One of the main characters ... Mew 2 (the evil clone of Mew 1 ???) is striving to find his purpose or place in life. That is the focus of the movie.

2. Near the end, one of the trainers has died, and is brought back to life when the evil clones and their original pokemons work together to bring him back to life. Their tears do the trick.

3. At the end, the characters explain how bad it is to fight just to be fighting ... sport is okay, but not fighting to hurt one another, etc.

This movie, coming from the far east, certainly shows the spiritual awareness of those who made it. Mew 2's spiritual journey to "find his purpose" as well as the yin/yang at the end with the combining of evil and good to work things out certainly bear this out. You might remember a movie a number of years ago called The Dark Crystal. At the end the evil creatures physically joined with the good creatures, and once that was done, all was cool --- very yin/yang in nature.

Just my observations ... I would be interested in yours, if you have seen the movie.

Darrell H Combs
-- Anonymous, November 29, 1999

I saw that movie too. it could have been very bad for my kids, had I not been with them. It actually opened up a great door for explaining the occult and what sort of things should be avoided.

I'm not so sure the "church" as a whole should be so gung-ho to cry "evil" over this pocket toy craze.

"This, too, shall pass!"

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1999

Lighten up. Do so many have such little faith in God and in life that they run terrified from a child's game? For goodness' sake. Well, I'm turning off these message boards and using the internet for other types of research. My two-day trip into message board land would be a waste of time except that I learned there are a lot of ignorant people out there that have computers. Good bye.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2000

Pokemon seems to have come from the blending of wonder for technology and everyday oral myth/religion on the Japanese islands. This is not to say that pOKEMON IS DIRECTLY from Japan's past. Rather it seems to be a mix of their own stories( i hesitate to call someone's belief system myth), their drive for technology ( the clean, manufactured edge or pokeballs and other equipment) and the fear/daily reminder of furious atomic power (see any godzilla moviee; and what's the deal with kenny in those things?) SIDEBAR: For years I have heard of the devaluation abilities of Role Playing Games. Let me provide individual examples of the worthlessness of such a focus-lacking statement. My friendss...Dan, public financier, moral, nonreligious, intelligent, ethical and steadfast for family and friends...mike, ethical, moral, hard- working, tried to be a firefighter(selflessness)...kim, intelligent, deeply spiritual,pacifist,comtemplative...david, bright, animal- loving,family oriented,etc.... the list goes on. Sometimes I wish that so-called christians would take a hard objective look at their own value system. Was it the will of Christ to be missionary to the point of mroally and ethically exclusionary?What's wrong with imagination? The stronger individual is the one one who decides for themselves what they can live with. Some people toss off the mantle of christianity not because they were warped by games or the devil. They just find no faith- only mindless responses to the dronings of mass/service. I am one of them RPG's did not harm me. did they teach me anything? they improved my grammer, vocabulary and problem solving skills. But it was just a game. To the few whom it becomes a problem, they would find something else anyway. There are people of that ilk in religious orders/sects/congregations all over the globe. It is not the activity. It is the individual. Please pardon the typing. My keyboard is about to fuse!

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001