Saturday, October 31, 1998

What Would Jesus Do -- the game

By JUDY TARJANYI

Toledo Blade

While unpacking from a vacation, you realize that you accidentally put two hotel towels in your suitcase. You:

A -- Keep them. It was an accident and the hotel won't miss them.

B -- Call the hotel and ask if they want them sent back.

C -- Send the towels back anonymously.

What would you do? What would your friends do? What would Jesus do?

That last question, the one that's become a national mantra for young people who wear WWJD bracelets, necklaces, and T-shirts, is being posed in a new game that was developed with the help of a Toledo, Ohio, priest, the Rev. John Graden, who served as its theological consultant.

WWJD The Game presents 600 scenarios that challenge players to consider how they and their fellow players would respond, and what Jesus would do in the face of modern moral dilemmas. Father Graden said although part of the game addresses the WWJD question, its real issue isn't necessarily what Jesus of Nazareth would do. "It's we who are the body of Christ today."

Conceived by George Oess of Cadaco, the Chicago company that produces Tripoley, Bible Trivia, and Cats Eye, the WWJD game is aimed at teens and adults and uses a board, playing pieces, tokens, chips, and stacks of cards that present a variety of scenarios and two or three possible resolutions for each.

The object of the first level of play is to guess a particular player's answer to a given dilemma in one of four categories: world, community, family, and friends. Cards and tokens serve as rewards for correct guesses or for successfully stumping the other players.

WWJD The Game's second level deals with "reflection questions" in which the players try to assess what Jesus would do. For those, Father Graden has written a Spiritual Guide that players can consult for applicable Bible references.

The reflection questions tend to be more serious in nature and also more open-ended than the questions in the first phase of play. For instance, one such question asks how Jesus would advise a businessman to handle a decision to save a business financially by laying off employees.

Despite the weighty content of some of the questions, playing the game can be plenty of fun, Father Graden said. "Oh, we get tremendous laughs. People say, 'You wouldn't pick that, I know you wouldn't pick that' ... You laugh like crazy."

Father Graden is director of an organization called WORD Consultants and normally spends his time giving retreats and parish missions, instructing church lectors and Eucharistic ministers, recording prayer tapes, and speaking on behalf of the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging.

He was contacted by Cadaco after a fellow priest, the Rev. Thomas Helfrich, pastor of St. Mary of Good Counsel Parish in Adrian, Ohio, learned that the game executive was searching for a theological adviser for his latest project.

Oess of Racine, Wis., had gone to see Father Helfrich at the request of his mother, Esther Oess, a St. Mary's parishioner who was recuperating in an Adrian nursing home last year.

The game company president happened to mention his search for a consultant to Father Helfrich, and the priest suggested Father Graden, a fellow member of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.

"I got in touch with John and it turned out he was the perfect resource," Oess said. He had been looking for someone who was in tune with teenagers and knew the Bible well enough to match the correct reference to each question, but would not take a heavily denominational approach that might offend a particular group.

Via e-mail, fax, and conference call, the Toledo priest worked with a writer in Baraboo, Wis., and an editor in Racine, to make sure the cases on the game cards were theologically and morally sound.

Father Graden, who holds master of divinity and religious education degrees, said he spent about 150 hours on the project. He also enlisted research assistance from Sister Francein Herold, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame.

Before he took the WWJD job, Father Graden said, he had heard of the WWJD phenomenon, which started with a church youth group in Holland, Mich., and he even had purchased a couple of WWJD bracelets.

Oess first heard about WWJD at the 1997 Christian Booksellers Convention. "I asked our distributor what was hot in the industry ... and he said you ought to pay attention to WWJD."

After looking over all the T-shirts, bracelets, and key chains, Oess naturally asked himself, "Why don't I do a game?"

He thought of Scruples, a game that had done well in the secular game market a few years ago, and decided such a game would be appropriate for his company, which has produced other religious games over the years.

After focus-group testing with Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic youth groups, WWJD The Game came out in August and has been received well, Oess said. Some Christian radio stations, mostly in the South, are even playing the game on the air and giving it away as a prize.

Oess said the game, which retails at between $19.95 and $29.95, is available from major retailers and Christian bookstores.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)