Stumble it!Doing God’s Work… with Snipers
posted in Religion, Society by themaiden |Last weekend I posted about Dominionism and in that post appeared some comments about a rather violent Christian video game. I took some heat for that post; all of it concerned that game. Critics pointed out that other reviews painted the game as less bloody than did a source from which I extracted a quote, and that the makers of the game also describe it as being less violent than that source. I made some changes to the article to reflect what I thought were the valid criticisms.
Well, it turns out that on the day I posted that article, one of its advisory board members, Mark Carver, withdrew from his position and “requested that his name as well as the Purpose Driven name brand be removed from the Left Behind Games web site (which actions followed promptly), and Purpose Driven Ministries has promised not to distribute or promote the game.” Apparently this was in response to the criticisms leveled at the game by the Talk2Action article provided my description of the game. This leads me to think that perhaps Talk2Action was not quite so far off the mark as some suggested.
I’ve also found a few other reviews of the game.
One thing many gamers will likely find disturbing about Left Behind, though, is the black-and-white polarization of good and evil portrayed. The faithful are good, and the undecided are (decidedly) bad or evil. The only way to accomplish anything positive in the game is to ‘convert’ nonbelievers into faithful believers, and the only alternative to this is outright killing them.
Insha Allah… oh no, wait. Wrong religion.
“I will say some of the dialogue is pretty lame — people saying, ‘Praise the Lord’ after they blow away the bad guys. I think they’re overdoing it a bit. But the message is OK.”
Its true that soldier lose some ’spirituality’ everytime they kill, but prayer makes that better. I’m fairly sure that if an Islamic Jihadist whacked a Christian, then went to the mosque, few would argue that his ’spirituality’ was recovered thereby.
Talk2Action quotes another reviewer:
The good thing was, however, that as Satan, I of course had the United Nations on my side. As my peacekeeping Hummer and some of my followers rolled down Sixth Avenue, the Christians outflanked me and started firing, immediately taking out several of my nurses.
The apocalypse, I was learning, was a good excuse for Christians to just go nuts and unload a lot of pent-up stuff.
It sounds like I imagined it– brutality with a veneer of religion.
Talk2Action also quote Craig Unger on the tone of the books this game is modeled upon. I think it is worth repeating.
As befits the manifesto of a counterculture, the Left Behind series is a revenge fantasy, in which right-wing Christians win out over the rational, scientific, modern, post-Enlightenment world. The books represent the apotheosis of a culture that is waging war against liberals, gays, Muslims, Arabs, the UN, and “militant secularists” of all stripes — whom it accuses of destroying Christian America, murdering millions of unborn children, assaulting the Christian family by promoting promiscuity and homosexuality, and driving Christ out of the public square.
Far from being a Prince of Peace, the Christ depicted in the Left Behind series is a vengeful Messiah - so vengeful that the death and destruction he causes to unconverted Jews, to secularists, to anyone who is not born again, is far, far greater than the crimes committed by the most brutal dictators in human history. When He arrives on the scene in Glorious Appearing, Christ merely has to speak and “men and women, soldiers and horses, seemed to explode where they stood. It was as if the very words of the Lord had superheated their blood, causing it to burst through their veins and skin.” Soon, [Tim] LaHaye and [Jerry] Jenkins write, tens of thousands of foot soldiers for the Antichrist are dying in the goriest manner imaginable, their internal organs oozing out, “their blood pooling and rising in the unforgiving brightness of the glory of Christ.”
Hallelujah!
And finally…
For crying out loud, how much leadership does it take to stand up and decry the developers of a video game that lets children gun down infidels on the streets of New York, then switch sides, command the forces of the AntiChrist, and unleash demons that eat conservative Christians? Where is the leadership? Where is the word of witness? Christianity is not about mass killings; it is about doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly before God. No part of Christianity is about distributing violent video games in the church pews. No part of leadership is about vigorously sitting on one’s hands or keeping silent as children are indoctrinated that they are living in the End Times, and may soon be called upon to perform a deadly deed to defend their creed. This abomination is not hard to denounce.
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