Just in Time for Christmas!

[bizorky]

Screw that "peace on earth" stuff; time for some convertin' and killin' - just in time for Christmas, too!


Wal-Mart urged to pull Christian video game

Dec. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM

DALLAS—A Christian video game has become the latest battleground in America's "culture" wars, with its maker claiming it promotes prayer while critics charge it carries a message of violent religious intolerance.

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces," is a teen-rated PC strategy game based on the wildly popular Left Behind Christian book series. Set in New York City after millions of Christians have been transported to heaven, its players are charged with recruiting, and converting, an army that will engage in physical and spiritual warfare with the Antichrist and his evil followers.

Yesterday, a U.S. advocacy group that monitors right-wing religious activities called on retail giant Wal-Mart to pull the game from its shelves.

Critics describe it as "a violent video game in which born-again Christians aim to convert or kill those who don't adhere to their extreme ideology."

"After you kill somebody you need to recharge your soul points and to do that you need to bend down in prayer ... I think the message is extremely clear," said Clark Stevens, co-director of the advocacy group Campaign to Defend the Constitution.

A spokeswoman said Wal-Mart would continue selling the game online and in stores where it expected demand.

The game's maker dismissed criticism.

"The reality is that our game perpetuates prayer and worship and that there is no killing in the name of God," said Troy Lyndon, the CEO of Left Behind Games Inc. who describes himself as a "follower of Christ."

"There is killing, of course. It is a video game," he said. "But the basis of the game is spiritual welfare."

REUTERS NEWS AGENCY
---------------------------------------

There's no killing in the name of God, just in the name of spiritual welfare.

 

[prometheus the supremo]

it's not a game, it's reality.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEhaA9BU9as

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVjJBBsOKl4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeUz5ZihaqA


it raises a good question. is it better to be exposed to lead paint chips at a young age or to have your mind infected with a virus?


if seeing an invisible person, getting instruction from that person and hearing voices in your head could be considered a mental disorder, why isn't religion? it's probably best not to deem it a mental disorder because then people could get away with murder. they're already justifying it.


sorry if offended anyone. i used to be religious my self before i realised either god doesn't exist or really doesn't give a shit. i totally regret my religious past. but of course, don't listen to me, god just put me here to test your faith because i'm the devil.


:evil <- see.

 

[wyliepoon]

Globe and Mail

Link to article


Christian game glorifies violence, critics say

DAVID CRARY

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Targeted largely at conservative Christians, it's a violent video game with a difference: Combatants on one side pause for prayer, and their favoured interjection is "Praise the Lord."

Critics say "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" glorifies religious violence against non-Christians. Some liberal groups have been urging a boycott, and on Tuesday they urged Wal-Mart to withdraw the game from its shelves.

However, Troy Lyndon, CEO of Left Behind Games Inc., defended the game as "inspirational entertainment" and said its critics were exaggerating. He expressed greater concern about poor reviews from some video-game aficionados, saying the company would offer a free technical upgrade by Dec. 24.

Lyndon's company, based in Murrieta, Calif., has a license to develop games based on the popular "Left Behind" novels, a Bible-based end-of-the-world-saga that has sold more than 63 million copies.

Lyndon, in a telephone interview, said "Eternal Forces" has been distributed to more than 10,000 retail locations over the past four weeks. He said sales were going well, but declined to give specifics.

The real-time strategy game has received a T (for teen) rating, as its makers had hoped. It offers more violence than an E-rated children's game, but less graphically than M (for mature) rated games that have often been criticized by conservative Christian groups.

"Our game includes violence, but excludes blood, decapitation, killing of police officers," the company says on its Web site, noting that a player can lose points for "unnecessary killing" and regain them through prayer.

The game's story line game begins after the rapture, when most Christians are transported to heaven. Earth's remaining population is faced with a choice of joining or combatting the Antichrist, as embodied by a force called the Global Community Peacekeepers that seeks to impose one-world government.

The game's critics depict the ensuing struggle, set in New York City, as one fostering religious intolerance.

"Part of the object is to kill or convert the opposing forces," said the Rev. Tim Simpson of Jacksonville, Fla., who heads the Christian Alliance for Progress. "It is antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

Simpson, whose group was formed last year to counter the influence of the religious right, joined in a news conference Tuesday at which he and other speakers urged Wal-Mart to discontinue sales of "Eternal Forces".

Wal-Mart indicated it would continue selling the game online and in selected stores where it felt there was demand.

"The product has been selling in those stores," said spokeswoman Tara Raddohl. "The decision on what merchandise we offer in our stores is based on what we think our customers want the opportunity to buy."

The game's makers contend that the violence from the good side - the Tribulation Force - is exclusively defensive, and should not be seen as contrary to church teachings.

"Christians are quite clearly taught to turn the other cheek and to love their enemies," the company Web site says. "It is equally true that no one should forfeit their lives to an aggressor who is bent on inflicting death."

Lyndon said he and his fellow executives hoped to ease critics' concerns.

"They're good-minded people," he said. "They want to keep us from making games that are jihad in the name of God."

Simpson, a Presbyterian Church USA pastor, said he was dismayed by the concept in "Eternal Forces" of using prayer to restore a player's "spirit points" after killing the enemy.

"The idea that you could pray, and the deleterious effects of one's foul deeds would simply be wiped away, is a horrible thing to be teaching Christian young people here at Christmas time," Simpson said.

Anther participant in the critics' news conference, author Frederick Clarkson, argued that "Eternal Forces" - though less violent than many other video games - was more troubling in some ways.

"It becomes a tool of religious instruction," he said. "The message is. ... there will be religious warfare, and you will target your fellow Americans, people from other faiths, people who you consider to be sinners."

Clarkson faulted Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based Christian ministry often critical of violent video games, for publishing a positive review of "Eternal Forces" on one of its Web sites.

"Eternal Forces is the kind of game that Mom and Dad can actually play with Junior and use to raise some interesting questions along the way," wrote the reviewer, Bob Hoose.

Other online reviewers - writing for hardcore gamers - have been less impressed.

"Don't mock 'Left Behind: Eternal Forces' because it's a Christian game. Mock it because it's a very bad game," wrote GameSpot reviewer Brett Todd.

*****

As a Christian, I think it's a shame for Christians (at least those who claim to be so) to put out a game like this. After all the Bible has said about "all who draw the sword will die by the sword" and "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established", here comes a game that seems to contradict both statements. What I really don't get is how other Christians could be falling for this stuff. I agree with the game's critics... I think this is a simulated Christian "jihad".

I think the Left Behind people should stick to making movies. At least the message is better in those movies, and the movies are always shot in Toronto. (where Metro Hall is portrayed as the Antichrist's headquarters )

 

[bizorky]

As a Christian, I think it's a shame for Christians (at least those who claim to be so) to put out a game like this.

The sad fact is that they (the producers) probably don't care. And they don't care if their crappy attitude sucks you into their mess of stupidity.We are, after all, talking about people who clearly have troubles with the concept of nuance.

where Metro Hall is portrayed as the Antichrist's headquarters

And you probably can still find people around who still hold such a belief - and it has nothing to do with religion.

 

[janschot]

Antichrist

When they rename the square in front of Metro Hall after Paul Godfrey, that portrayal will seem disturbingly prescient. Toronto civic square names: ¡No man-child Left Behind!