This Sort Of Crap Makes Me Sick

[08 hawk]

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

 

 

 

The game, slated for release by October 2006 in advance of the Christmas shopping rush, has been previewed at video game exhibitions, and reviewed by major newspapers and magazines. But until now, no fan or critic has pointed out the controversial game's connection to Mr. Warren or his dominionist agenda.

 

 

 

This game immerses children in present-day New York City -- 500 square blocks, stretching from Wall Street to Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the United Nations headquarters, and Harlem. The game rewards children for how effectively they role play the killing of those who resist becoming a born again Christian. The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian).

 

 

 

 

 

Is this paramilitary mission simulator for children anything other than prejudice and bigotry using religion as an organizing tool to get people in a violent frame of mind? The dialogue includes people saying, "Praise the Lord," as they blow infidels away.

 

 

 

Could such a violent, dominionist Christian video game really break through to the popular culture? Well, it is based on a series of books that have already set sales records - the blockbuster Left Behind series of 14 novels by writer Jerry B. Jenkins and his visionary collaborator, retired Southern Baptist minister Tim LaHaye. "We hope teenagers like the game," Mr. LaHaye told the Los Angeles Times. "Our real goal is to have no one left behind."

 

 

 

The game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is based on scenes from the first four novels in the series. The game was developed by a publicly-traded company called Left Behind Games, according to SEC records. The developers obtained the license from Tyndale House, the Christian publisher of Left Behind.

 

 

 

As part of its marketing pitch, Left Behind Games hypes the realism with which it portrays the neighborhoods of New York City. There is, for the most part, a remarkable verisimilitude except for one detail - all of the ambulances have 911 painted on their roofs. In the reality-based world, most ambulances have a red cross on top. Yet the game designers make prominent use of these 911 ambulances to evoke the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The historical context of 911 is invoked as if to say, We are living in the End Times, and Muslims are among the kinds of infidels whom you should fear, whom you should be prepared to kill for your cause.

 

 

 

For game enthusiasts, there is also a multi-player mode, in which you can go online and battle to take territory from other players. If you happen to blow away a neutral party - and collateral damage is inevitable in the End of Days - then you will lose "Spirit Points". But you can power back up with merely a brief timeout for prayer, or by converting one of New York's terror-stricken citizens.

 

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/29/195855/959

 

How hypocritical. They hate all those violent games out but they go and make a game where you can shoot anyone who does not follow their beliefs.

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

Sounds like a fun game. Way better than the one where you get to be Joseph Mengele at Auschwitz, but probably not nearly as fun as the one where you get to be a catholic priest and finger little boys in the confessional. If you can get the roofie from the drug addicted nun on the third level there's a bonus round where you get to take pictures of little Timmy in buttless chaps. How can you beat that?

[Lycorth]

Sounds like a fun game. Way better than the one where you get to be Joseph Mengele at Auschwitz, but probably not nearly as fun as the one where you get to be a catholic priest and finger little boys in the confessional. If you can get the roofie from the drug addicted nun on the third level there's a bonus round where you get to take pictures of little Timmy in buttless chaps. How can you beat that?

 

That's probably a hidden level within the Left Behind game

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

And to think if this was made by a bunch of Muslims, the makes would be executed for treason the second the game's existance was revealed. My question is where is the Catholic outcry against this game (let alone the moderate Christian one)? Especally given how conservitive this new pope is.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Now that I think about it, this reminds me of something the Nazis pulled when they were gaining power by creating anti-semadic children's books.

[Asimov]

I don't see anything wrong with this game.

[-Demona-]

The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian).

Awesome!

 

Otherwise.... blah.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

I don't see anything wrong with this game.

 

I know GTA isn't all that much better (morality-wise), but what makes my blood run cold is that it's nothing more than hate propaganda. Where Grand Theft Auto is more of a satire (when you think about it), this game rewards killing innocents for no other reason than being of the wrong faith or don't fit in the "good guy's" narrow-minded mind set. And given the militristic attitude of a number of fundies these days, that they'll probably encourage their kids to play it, and the demonization of outsiders and lack of free-thought in fundyism can make for a dangerous combination. I'm not saying this game will automaticly create hundreds of future Jesus-Nazis, but it reminds me a little of the anti-sematic children's books the Nazi's made to help convince children that Jews were monsters.

There are games made by Nazis where you can kill Jews and minorities and get rightfully viewed as the hate-mogering it is, how come it doesn't apply to these guys. Sadly, like the Nazi-made games, there is nothing that we can really do about it. It's "nice" of them to let you play as the demons, it almost makes you wonder which side is the more evil.

[AgnosticBob AtheistPants]

I'm buying it!

 

IF it actually is released. I somehow doubt it will ever come out.

[Guest Yams What I Yams]

It's Billy Graham's Bible Blaster! YAAAAAAYYYY!

 

"I winged him, he's a Unitarian now."

[The Sage Nabooru]

My question is where is the Catholic outcry against this game (let alone the moderate Christian one)?

 

The Catholic Church has matured a lot in recent years - one of the reasons it's one of the few Christian denominations I have no problem with for the most part. It's put up with so much anti-Catholic hate-mongering for the past two hundred years or so, this is just another drop in the bucket.

 

IF it actually is released. I somehow doubt it will ever come out.

 

Me too. If it is released it probably won't be sold in stores, but be a special download or order off of Left Behind's site.

 

Also, most video game geeks aren't exactly Christianity enthusiasts, so they probably won't have the shining stars of the industry working on this one. Even if it does come out it's probably going to have crummy gameplay, too many bugs, Play-Doh controls, etc.

[Dhampir]

My one gripe is that it appears to be marketed for children and teens.

[Lycorth]

My one gripe is that it appears to be marketed for children and teens.

 

Ditto - it's an obvious piece of uberfundy Xian propaganda.