In mass we publicly confess our sins, which includes being sorry “for what I have done and what I have failed to do”. In philosophy over the centuries, similar responsibilities for individual actions/failures to act have been recognized as well: the greater the knowledge we hold, the greater the responsibility we have to act within that knowledge. Finally, we have bible verses (sorry, can’t directly quote them at this moment but know there are several tied to this) that speak to our responsibility for our actions in terms of the example we set for our brothers…in the modern world of consumerism and media, this translates to “if he/she reads those books, it must be ok”. Acceptability of products, services, and our culture is very much based upon what others see us do and not do.
When deciding to frequent a business, in this case Neopets, one has to decide the degree to which their decision impacts others both directly and indirectly. A counter argument has been posted in this forum that a member frequents a pizzaria owned by a freemason, so let’s compare the two businesses together (direct outcomes of our choices) as well as the indirect outcomes of our actions (such as those people who are aware of our choices).
When we conduct business with a local business person, and that business is honorable (even necessary when it comes to meeting basic family needs such as food and shelter) we are actually acting in a Christian way by helping to support our neighbor. Small businesses are an integral part of the community’s culture and the residual effect of our choice to support a small business owner vs. a major chain (in this case, for comparison consider Pizza Hut) has many positive effects in the community as well. Yes, that person may tithe a smal percentage (usually not over 10%) to a religion that we do not believe in or is even anti-Catholic, but we must weigh the harm vs. the good of the action to make the choice. In this example, I would say that frequenting this pizzeria is quite ethical in both secular and Catholic terms.
To contrast, neopets is a large organization that is run and operated by a type of organization who may very likely be operating it (at least in part) to help promote their religious beliefs. It is hard to determine specifically, because of the secretness of the information (the lack of its public availability). As someone has mentioned, you must join to even see what the site is about. Hmm, sounds sort of like the Scientology organizaiton too!
With neopets, our actions would support a huge number of people purposely selected in part because of their shared religious beliefs…in other words, part of the purpose of this organization will include creating a scientologist workplace. This is no different than many Christian businesses such as evangelicals who purposely hire only other evangelicals as part of the mission of their business. There business has nothing to do with religion, but how they choose to run it does (Fundamentalist and Evangelical Christians running their businesses in this manner have come under fire in recent years because they mistreat employees who do not adhere to their precise version of theology). So now we ask, if neopets was run by the Seventh Adventists or an anti-Catholic evangelical group instead, would we object to it as much?
Going back to the philosophy that our responsibility for actions increases with our knowledge, we then must decide if Scientologists pose a greater threat than some of these other business (those with clear religion-related purposes as described above). Because scientology has been reputed to involve covert and psychological techniques to attracting and keeping its members rather than the God-driven approach we believe in, it can be viewed as more of a threat than the other examples given. And it can be almost certain that much more than 10% of Neopets earnings are going into Scientology somehow…this is how cults operate, how they keep in business.
Finally, we must consider the indirect residual effects of our choice to frequent Neopets and buy neopet related products, happy meals for kids, etc. There really aren’t the positive residual effects within the neighborhood and community that we see in the Pizzaria example. However, there are negative effects including the addictiveness of the fervor created with any online guilds and such, and especially one that may be expertly designed to create that addictive fervor.
Finally, we must consider the example we set for others when choosing to frequent either of these businesses.
It seems to me the freemason pizzaria is a good thing and an opportunity one-on-one to share the Spirit and raise the understanding of Catholicism with a neighbor. I do not see this realistically happening with the 100 scientologists employed at neopets.
Hence, I would say
for the pizzaria and no to Neopets
None of those things where I am at.
.