What the hell?
I no longer trust mainstream Christianity. I've been on the edge for a long time, and this just pushes me over it. This is utterly disgusting. Utterly.
Has anyone out there read The Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren? Mr. Warren is the leader of a gigantic church in Califoria, as well as the head of an international organization that he likens to "a stealth army of one billion Christian foot soldiers." Now Mark Carver, the international director of Mr. Warren's organization, is endorsing a video game called Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Tim LaHaye, a co-author of the Left Behind series upon which the game is based, also endorses the game along with its violent appeal. "We hope teenagers like the game," he says.
What is the purpose of this game? Well, the Rapture has happened and taken all the good Christians up to heaven, and the only people left around are the non-Christians who are trying to sort things out. Thus begins the final struggle between Satan's forces and God's chosen (before Jesus comes back with the cavalry and his sword-tongue, of course).
Okay, so there's a battle between good and evil. That's not so bad. Tolkien did it. Lewis did it. We like good and evil to fight. Particularly when good is going to prevail in the end. But this video game isn't about good and evil. This game is about appealing to violent kids who like the sort of video games that churches seem to abhor. It's about indoctrinating kids to think that Christians are good and non-Christians deserve to be punished (isn't that what you have to think in order to believe in hell?) It's about taking taking up your cross(hairs) and converting the neutral ones or blowing those away who oppose you. Where is the Christ in that?
Read More
- The Purpose-Driven Life Takers (the first article about it that I read, which has lots of references and likens the game to a joke game on the Simpson's where you fire bibles at heathens to transform them magically into card-carrying Republicans.)
- Official Game Description (involves such goodies as a game trailer and quotes like "Conduct physical & spiritual warfare using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world" and "Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices." Recover ancient scriptures, huh? Like the ones where Jesus says "Love your enemy as yourself while you're killing him. Or maybe they mean actual scraps of the Bible in the original Greek and Hebrew. You never know….)