In the middle of the first century CE, there were a series of letters written by a religious leader to some of the communities they oversaw. One of them in particular dealt with local cultural and religious norms and clashes.

This is a thread about accountability.

Corinth was a city-state about halfway between Athens and Sparta, with a thriving cultural exchange. One of the areas of exchange was spiritual: Corinth, like Athens, promoted inclusivity of worship, and fairly openly. I'm generalizing a lot, I know, but stick with me here.

Thanks in part to this openness, Corinth was one of the places that the fledgeling Christian movement would find a nest.

I am not here to debate actions, morals, ethics or history of Christianity in general. I have my own history with the church. I'm here to talk about meat.

One of the religious practices in Corinth was a humanitarian one: cults would offer symbolic sacrifices of expensive items to their gods, and often this would include food. Like meat. It would be offered up on the altar, the ceremony said, the priests accept it for the god.

After the god accepted the offering though, what do you do? Do you throw it out? That can't look good. Do you just let it sit there? In the Mediterranean? You don't want rotting meat in your places of worship.

No, you show your god's generosity by giving it to the poor.

This is a good thing! People who couldn't otherwise afford it get a meal, your cult looks good, happy people are generally a good thing to have around.

Enter the Corinthian Church, and a Problem.

First-Century Christianity was in a very odd place. On one hand, a large swath of it had roots in First-Century Judaism and the various practices and beliefs and traditions thereof, and on the other, many new Christians were coming from Roman territories. It was basically a mess.

This is still a thread about accountability, by the way. This is also a thread about RPGs and the companies and people who write them.

It's a long debate about whether First Century Christianity was Monotheist or Henotheist, but it certainly wasn't a Polytheist faith. The Big Number One Commandment from its parent religion was basically "don't show devotion to other gods". Kind of a big deal.

So, it's a no-brainer. Don't attend cult services for Zeus. Don't go drinking with Dionysus. Don't propitiate Pluto for success on your next business venture. Not super-hard, right?

And Corinth isn't even gonna hold that against you. They're pretty open, after all.

Problem: Many members of the Early Church were very poor.

Again, not talking about what's going on now, or later uses of church doctrine to justify abuses of power and massive theft and worse.

Just pointing out that these people could not afford good food easily.

But hey! Corinth has this practice going on where you can swing by after sacrifices and take care of the meat! Sure, it's been "spiritually" eaten, and it might be prepared in ways you didn't plan to eat it, but sacrifice meat is free food, and who's going to turn down free?

And here is where the rift opens: Some members of the Corinthian Church saw no problem with this. Meat is meat, and our people are hungry.

Other members saw a huge problem with this: eating the meat endorses the cult, and the god, to whom it was sacrificed.

I could speculate about the forms this argument took, I've been at the center of doctrinal debates before, but I've already taken a while to get to this point.

They fought. It got bad. Eventually, they wrote to the highest authority they could: a guy named Paul.

Paul is a figure of legend and controversy in his own right, and I don't have the space to go into everything here. I have my disagreements with the guy. But on this subject, Paul had some heavy words. Have a link to I Corinthians 8: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+8&version=NIV

In that passage, Paul basically says this:

Meat is just meat. Eat what you need to live.

But not everyone knows that instinctively yet. Some people don't have the perspective. Some people can't separate the meat from the sacrifice. Some people are hurt by your actions.

So, says Paul, the meat isn't gonna hurt anyone.

But YOU might. If someone who is fragile in their faith sees you eating Sacrifice Meat, that might hurt them. That might push them into doing things which ARE against the codes of the faith. And that's on YOU.

Paul ends this by saying "Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall."

This is a thread about Dungeons and Dragons. This is a thread about accountability.

I am not in a good place to talk about Mike Mearls, or any other missing stairs. I am tired, I am hurt, I am angry, I am traumatized - not directly by his actions or presence, but by how they've been echoed in my experience. You'll have to go elsewhere for details. I'm sorry.

What I AM in a place to talk about is accountability.

We are accountable for the effect that our actions and our statements have. We put them out into the world. What we say and do has more direct effect on other people than what we believe quietly to ourselves.

In the case of the company, that means accountability for the actions, statements, and support of employees and leaders. In the case of the individual, that means accountability for behaviors and abuse that was enabled. As an aside, no, I'm seeing none of that, and that hurts.

In the case of the fan, of the consumer, of the freelancer, of the independent?

I can eat food sacrificed to idols. It is not a sin. It's just meat.

But if doing that causes a fellow person pain, it is I who am accountable for that pain, not the priest who gave me the meat.

Sure. I can play D&D at home. It's not a sin. I can draw from whatever books inspire me, regardless of who wrote them.

But doing that sends a message. And my reach is tiny. I don't even know who's seeing this. I am very small. But it is still a message of where I stand.

It's not a boycott. My money is meaningless. But I'm drawing a line for myself. I am not going to hurt someone who is vulnerable. I am not going to give a company publicity while it dodges accountability.

I'm in a position where I don't need to eat meat sacrificed to idols in order to survive. I have the privilege of being able to say "no, that sends a message that I disagree with". That's why I'm not even playing D&D in my home games right now.