Hello out there! Can you hear me?

[Writer's Blah]

Hi! I go by Writer's Blah, and it's a pleasure to (hopefully) meet you all! I just recently discovered this website yesterday off of a random Google search; it pleases my heart that there exists a community for Christian anime fans; it seems there tends to be a lot of misunderstanding and conflict between these two subcultures. I'm a youngin' also, just recently turned 20, so I find the multitude of older members here quite interesting; hopefully I can learn a thing or two from the lot of you. As my name implies, I do a fair bit of writing. To elaborate, I LOVE stories and memorable characters, and that has inspired me to try and take on writing stories of my own. I used to do fanficition when I was younger, but I've been trying to buckle down and write original stuff from here on out. Constantly revising the first chapter because I want it to be perfect.

Now, my Christian values. I've been a Christian for most of my life. I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior at five years of age, been raised by a Christian family with strong convictions, and have regularly attended church for the past three years (we used to church-hop a lot). I believe in the Trinity, with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit being three entities within the same person, I believe Christ is the only way to reach Heaven, I believe baptism should be practiced to prove one's commitment to their faith, but by the same token, I do not believe infants should be baptized, as self-awareness should be absolutely crucial. I also believe that gifts of the Holy Spirit such as speaking in tongues and dream premonitions are real (my grandmother has been living proof of it.) I think one of my more controversial beliefs (which has pitted me against some of my family and the church before) is that I'm an old Earth creationist. I believe the Big Bang Theory is not contradictory, but proof for God's creation of the universe, and the seven days as told by Genesis to be seven days only from God's perspective, and truly having taken millions of "current time" years for creation. I think the fact that flying and sea creatures being created before all other creatures might also be proof for evolution, though my faith in that area is still kind of shaky. I think the one Christian conviction that I struggle the most with might be God's views on homosexuality. Though I myself am definitely not homosexual (any friend of mine can attest to that), the fact that I have to hate homosexuality has never sat right with me, and may be the one area of my faith I'm weakest in.

To turn the conversation in the other direction, anime. I'm actually a very recent anime fan. I was introduced to it by my non-Christian best friend, starting with Dragon Ball Z Kai, Gurren Lagan, Miyazaki films, and Sword Art Online. (The latter of which I believe I enjoyed too much, considering the gaping problems it has) My much longer-standing passion has been with video games. I grew up with the likes of the Mario franchise (I was pretty much exposed to every major Mario game from SMB1 to 64 at childhood), Sonic the Hedgehog, Pacman, Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, Street Fighter, and so on. I recently got into more Japanese-style games though. Catherine was an experience I had with my best friend that I believe everyone should play for themselves, and I'm currently playing and obsessing over Persona 3. It is SUCH a good game, with really great characters, an interesting plot, and gosh, everything about this game is amazing. (My avatar is also Jack Frost, the mascot character for Shin Megami.) I've also enjoyed both Final Fantasy VII and XIII, and my bud has also introduced me to the MMO Mabinogi. I'm personally not much of an MMO guy, but it's been pretty fun so far.

One thing I think I should also establish about myself is that I love to overanalyze, like, everything. Reasons why people like what they like (or dislike), and how far objectivity goes when determining good and bad taste. Stuff like what people on this board think about the first couple episodes of Full Metal Alchemist, or the morally ambiguous setup of Black Butler. Where does conviction begin and end? When do people take it too far, and when do we not take it far enough? Is there a right and wrong way of feeling conviction? I read the Bible for clarity on these questions, but with so many people interpreting the Bible in so many different ways, is there any single "right way" of interpretation?

Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough. That is me. And now I've come to participate in your board which reminds me of when I used the Internet in the early 2000's. I think it's pretty charming imo. So who wants to break the ice with the freakazoid first?

[shooraijin]

Welcome, though one small word of caution:

Though I myself am definitely not homosexual (any friend of mine can attest to that), the fact that I have to hate homosexuality has never sat right with me, and may be the one area of my faith I'm weakest in.

As kindly but directly as I can put it, this is kind of a hot button topic for us and the site isn't here to discuss it. That said, welcome. I think you'll find a diversity of views on your other questions that you will find stimulating.

[Rusty Claymore]

o_o/) 'rasshai!
Er, welcome, rather. n_n Quite the intro, and I must say I'm intrigued to hear your reasoning for some of your stances. It's... kind of a hobby of mine, I guess, to understand how someone has come to believe in something. (I'll admit the motivation can lean toward the nefarious on some occasions n_n' ) However, if it's to come to that it'd be via pm.

Other than that, looking forward to seeing you around the forums! Review the CAA rules and post away! Be patient with us though, with all this age we've gotten a little slow. >_<

[Furen]

Hey, welcome!

I was like "Hey, he must like Persona!" then I saw you actually wrote it in your post, so I can't be magical and just "guess" you like it.

I see we share a few beliefs, but I'll keep myself from going on about old earth creationism, we have so SO much reason for the other stance (The literal Adam for example, but again, I'll stop here for now.)

Also, biblically, we're told to love everyone, and show them the love of God and Christ, so I think some texts on homosexuality may be confusing you (again, I'll stop for now, feel free to PM me if you want to talk about that)

Persona, Final Fantasy, and Nintendo. We'll get along fine.

Again, welcome to the site!

[shooraijin]

Yes, let's not continue on with those topics, but there are plenty else to discuss.

[Sheenar]

Welcome, Writer's Blah! Glad to have you here!

I look forward to seeing you around the boards!

[Kraavdran]

Welcome welcome!

Quite the intro, I must say. Like others have expressed, I'd be interested to chat with you further about your biblical views. Feel free to pm me as well, if you are interested.

Good to meet another over-analyzer! And fellow "person who thinks that Sword Art Online was better than it actually was." haha.

[Thunderscream872]

Hi, and welcome! Hope you enjoy yourself here!

Gurren Lagann is my second favorite anime. I am also a fellow "person who thinks that Sword Art Online was better than it actually was", lol. Though I can't seem to get through a day without my brother pointing out everything wrong with the show, so needless to say my opinion of it isn't quite what it used to be, but I still think it was pretty good.