No One Left Behind… Literally
Jonathan Hutson, Talk To Action
The Purpose Driven Life Takers
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.
[…]
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.
The designers intend this game to become the first dominionist warrior game to break through in the popular culture due to its violent scenarios and realistic graphics, lighting, and sound effects. Its creators expect it to earn a rating of T for Teen. How violent is that? That’s the rating shared by Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory, a top selling game in which high-tech gadgets and high-powered weapons - frag grenades, shotguns, assault rifles, and submachine guns — are used to terminate enemies with extreme prejudice.
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.”
[…]
Freedom of speech and anti-censorship laws exist in this nation to protect our ability to hold civil discourse — even when it’s in the form of twisted, violent, crusading game narratives aimed at our children and marketed through the tenticles of the mega-church.
The redeeming factor behind the development of this specific game, is that the motive of the religous right is on display for the world to see. Too often their hatred becomes cloaked in motive numbing rhetoric — placating tales of Jesus’ love for all humanity as long as humanity devotes itself to Jesus. Over the past 20 years, such rhetoric has masked their intent, allowing them to gain a strong, political foothold in America — specifically with moderate Christians.
So when the religous right’s arrogance is responsible for removing their own metaphorical hoods, we need to gaze into their hateful, soulless eyes and take detailed notes.
The “Up In Arms” Crowd
It’s interesting to note that historically, church groups have been the most active in denouncing hip-hop music and video games for their violent content, arguing that they influence kids to become violent, misogynistic, or even worse, question authority.
Left Behind: Eternal Forces is scheduled to release in October 2006, just four months away. Where are these vocal groups now? Is “bling” and “bitch” rhetoric more deserving of protest than marketing to children a programmed, interactive virtual reality for cleansing non-Christian people from the face of the earth?
Hillary Clinton railed hard against the Hot Coffee mod, a locked, sex scene found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (a scene that only a slight percentage of geeks even knew existed) in a move that smelled of pandering to the family values crowd. Where is her outrage?
It’ll be interesting to see how long Left Behind: Eternal Forces flies under the radar of both the church and Hillary Clinton.
It’ll actually be quite telling…
Tags: activism, America, Buddhists, Catholic, Christianity, discourse, free speech, gaming, Hillary Clinton, Hip hop, Jewish, military, Muslim, New World Order, New York City, politics, religion, rhetoric, technology, theocracy.
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The report is very inaccurate, especially the reference to Talk2Action. The game does not have the player try to establish a theocracy or kill people who don’t convert. In fact, you are penalized for killing people, even though Christian forces are fighting against the anti-Christ’s army.
See more about the nature of the game, with quotes from secular reviewers who have actually played it:
sorry, still not my cup-o-tea. from your post:
so *this* is what kirk cameron has been up to! i didn’t think his banana gig would be able to sustain him.
ok, so the game… you score points for conversion?… fight anti-christ security forces (a replacement for the UN?) who are trying to kill them?… man. the only good use for this game would be to use it to ween catholic priests off of little boys.
sorry, but in a world wrought with so many divisions of faith leading to intolerance, hatred, genocide and terrorism, this game is sick no matter how you try to spin it.
SC,
Wasn’t trying to promote the game, just trying to expose some of the hysteria being promulgated about it.
It’s not my cup of tea either.
All the best,
Layman
There’s a rebuttal of “Layman’s” assertions on Talk To Action.
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/6/9/32014/83270
Excerpt:
”
Layman repeatedly states on Wikipedia that his core concern is Talk to Action’s report that the Christian militia - called the Tribulation Force in the Left Behind novels, graphic novels, and video game — uses the power of prayer and modern military weapons to conduct physical and spiritual warfare, which means converting or killing New Yorkers.
“It is inaccurate, untrue, not factual, to say the game calls for people to `convert or kill.’ That’s simply anti-Christian propoganda [sic],” writes Layman. “The secular reviews by people who have played the game completely contradict the nonsense espoused by Talk2Action.”
Enough. Let’s go fishing for facts - in the very waters where Layman claims to have caught his “whopper”. Let’s see if we can catch a real whopper. Layman has searched Technorati.com (a web site that aggregates information about blogs) for days, he says, posting on dozens of blogs that Talk to Action has spread inaccurate information, and this is his key contention, his claim to fame. Layman thought he hooked the big one, and he’s bragged to everyone about it for days. Let’s see what kind of whopper he really reeled into the Christian Cadre boat.
Layman asked for reviews by credible people who have actually played Left Behind: Eternal Forces, and which document the “convert or kill” claim. Here are two.”
But, I’m a visual thinker - the issue seemed fairly cut and dry simply from the promotional images of the game as it’s being played that were released by the game’s makers :
Those image quite clearly depict paramilitary forces firing close range at civilians with civilians dropping - apparently from being shot.
Here’s a collection of images:
http://www.talk2action.org/comments/2006/6/7/41835/37829/5#5
I cannot wait until the rapture and the end of days. All the “Christians” will go to heaven and leave us alone. Any “Christians” left will really need to shut up and live in the heathen world as they are obviously not chosen.
Just for the record, Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory was rated “M” by the ESRB, not “TEEN”. Just wanted to clear that fact up.
This statement is posted from an employee of Left Behind Games on behalf of Troy Lyndon, our Chief Executive Officer.
There has been in incredible amount of MISINFORMATION published in the media and in online blogs here and elsewhere.
Pacifist Christians and other groups are taking the game material out of context to support their own causes. There is NO “killing in the name of God� and NO “convert or die�. There are NO “negative portrayals of Muslims� and there are NO “points for killing�.
Please play the game demo for yourself (to at least level 5 of 40) to get an accurate perspective, or listen to what CREDIBLE unbiased experts are saying after reviewing the game at www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/controversy.com
Then, we’d love to hear your feedback as an informed player.
The reality is that we’re receiving reports everyday of how this game is positively affecting lives by all who play it.
Thank you for taking the time to be a responsible blogger.
I am a Christian and a Pacifist. The LB Games “spamâ€? insinuates that there’s something wrong with this. This is the same thinking that led to the crusades and the inquisition. Doubtless, this is where these people want to lead us again. Through this game they’ve shown their hand. They are leading us to the Christian equivalent of jihad.
Jesus Christ was the ultimate “Christian Pacifist” - He laid down His life. It is disturbing that some acting in His name are willing to twist this around to sound evil.
i’ve received their pr spam on the other post i wrote that mentions the game as well. they just don’t seem to get that this is sick and twisted. i’m not a practicing christian, but it disturbs me — especially when i think about kids in super-religious homes learning life lessons from this crap.