What's Your THAC0?

As much as I love the Psalms in general, and Psalm 19 in particular, I have to admit that part of me cringes a little when I get to verse 7:

The law of the Lord is perfect,
   reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
   making wise the simple;

Not because I don't believe in God's law or it's perfection.  But because I can almost feel my unchurched brothers and sisters rolling their eyes and thinking, "Here we go again."

Because I'm embarrassed that my Christian brothers and sisters are so willing to tell each other that their understanding of God's law is the only legitimate Christian interpretation.

Because, quite frankly, I've seen God's law used as a weapon too many times.

Too many by far.

And this is one of those places where I'm tempted to uplift geeks.  To point out that when the rest of society looks down on the things we love, we band together and love them anyway.  To point out that because we know what it's like to be ostracized we're more likely to play nice than the cool kids.

But it's Lent, a time of introspection, and in my heart of hearts I know the truth—we can be just as horrible as anyone else.  We just have different triggers.

Take Dungeons & Dragons.  Folk who experienced 1st or 2nd Edition AD&D as their first experience of the game remember THAC0 (To Hit Armor Class 0).  In all honesty, I first learned to play with THAC0 and I found it to be more complicated than strictly necessary.  I'm not a number-cruncher kind of geek.  I'm more of a reading a paperback novel while I wait for my food to come in the restaurant kind of geek.  Yes, I was that kid.

Yes, I did.

In any case, I remember struggling to wrap my mind around THAC0 at first.  I remember the atmosphere in the group as my struggles slowed down the game, and how I feared that I would be deemed not smart enough to play.  And I remember how proud of myself I was when I finally got it.

At it's best, THAC0 was an initiation—a secret handshake you had to learn to be part of the group.

At worst it was a weapon to make people feel stupid.

Personally, I wasn't sad to see THAC0 go, it made it easier for me to pull people into one of my favorite pass-times.  And my saying that can still trigger a rather lively debate among certain groups of people!

(By the way, you can find the t-shirt here.)

I was going to use Macs vs. PCs as another example, but I really don't need to say anything more than that, do I?  Both kinds of machines have their advantages and disadvantages and in the end it's a matter of personal preference.

And yet people will still go out of their way to shame each other over their choice in the matter.

And so I find myself believing that both Christianity and geekdom have something to learn from Psalm 19.

If you're wielding THAC0 like a Vorpal Sword, you're doing it wrong.

If you're shaming someone for the brand of computer they have, you're doing it wrong.

If you're using God's Law to tear down your neighbor you are doing it wrong.

God's Law is supposed to be a beautiful thing.  Using it like a club makes it ugly.

It's supposed to be as great and awe-inspiring as the cosmos.  Claiming that you have the one and only true understanding of it diminishes it.

God's Law is pure.

It revives your soul and makes your heart rejoice.

If you use it with a heart full of hate, then what is the point?

In this geek's opinion, God's Law is just this simple:

Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
030315