Mr. Purpose-Driven Life is involved with the production of a videogame based on Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind books that rewards players for killing those who resist becoming Christians. From Talk2Action’s piece, The Purpose Driven Life Takers (also up as a DKos diary):
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.
(Emphasis mine.)
Note to conservative Catholics who’ve been cozying up to the Christian Right and the Dominionists on issues of abortion and gay marriage: this is what they think of you. Come the theocratic revolution, you’re going to have to convert or die.
Note also that simply changing “Christian” to “Muslim” in the above-quoted paragraph would have pundits and lawmakers and a hell of a lot of other people up in arms. Theocracy is scary and only something to get upset about when it’s Muslims who are doing it, right? Christian Dominionists are good Americans, and the only interesting thing to Newsweek about the game is its chance for success because of its high production values, violent content, and megachurch distribution network:
The game revolves around New Yorkers who are “left behind” after the rapture. Players scour the streets for converts, training them into a work force to feed, shelter and join a paramilitary resistance against the growing forces of the Antichrist.
Left Behind Games CEO Troy Lyndon, whose company went public in February, says the game’s Christian themes will grab the audience that didn’t mind gore in “The Passion of the Christ.” “We’ve thought through how the Christian right and the liberal left will slam us,” says Lyndon. “But megachurches are very likely to embrace this game.” Though it will be marketed directly to congregations, Forces will also have a secular ad campaign in gaming magazines.
Nowhere does this Newsweek piece mention that the “growing forces of the Antichrist” are those New Yorkers who didn’t convert, and that the goal is to forcibly convert them or kill them. The Newsweek writeup sounds so benign, as if the players are just being community-minded in the face of an alien invasion instead of killing their fellow Americans for not being the right kind of Christian.
Where is the outrage? I can guarantee the tone of Newsweek’s piece would be far different if this were an Al Qaeda-funded videogame being distributed in the Arab world and advocating the murder of Christians as infidels. Just imagine the outrage at a game just like this one, but with a Muslim rather than Christian focus:
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.
This would not pass the media’s smell test if the dialogue included people saying “Praise Allah.” But because it involves Christian themes, it’s being marketed to teenagers, with high hopes that it will be a mainstream hit and a big Christmas-season seller.
Interestingly, some conservative Christians have been critical of the game because of the violence (James Dobson, who has been outspoken about the evils of videogame violence, has not publicly stated whether he will make an exception for killing infidels). Others are fine with the violence because it’s not “gratuitous”:
“There’s an audience here,” said A. Larry Ross, president of a Dallas-based Christian public relations firm that helped to market Gibson’s “Passion” and three movie adaptations of the “Left Behind” books.
“In addition to the youth audience — that’s the primary target — there are parents who are concerned about what their children are exposed to and are encouraged by products that are biblically based,” Ross said. “I would assume, if there is violence, it’s the cosmic struggle of good versus evil, not gratuitous violence.”
And others are offended that the game allows you to switch sides, so that you can turn the tables on Christians:
Not surprisingly, Left Behind Games’ attempt to make Christianity accessible to youngsters through the use of lethal firepower has its critics. Thompson, for instance, said he severed ties with Tyndale House in a dispute over “Eternal Forces.”
“It’s absurd,” the video game critic said. “You can be the Christians blowing away the infidels, and if that doesn’t hit your hot button, you can be the Antichrist blowing away all the Christians.”
Yes, payback’s a bitch, ain’t it?
The real forces behind the creation, marketing and distribution of these games are the same megachurches that make Dominionism palatable by stripping it of the scary language and sacrifice, and have gathered huge followings:
Christian-themed games historically have had limited appeal. Developer Digital Praise has sold a reported 30,000 copies of its most popular product, a Christian title called “Dance Praise.” By contrast, “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” has sold 5.1 million copies worldwide.
” ‘Left Behind’ has the Antichrist, the end of the world, the apocalypse,” said co-creator Jeffrey S. Frichner. “It’s got all the Christian stuff, and it’s still got all the cool stuff.”
That’s why industry watchers predict that titles like “Eternal Forces” will find a broader audience in the same way Christian houses of worship like Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in Lake Forest have attracted followers — in part by not being overly doctrinaire.
“The reason that I think this game has a chance is that it’s not particularly preachy,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. “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.”
It’s OK to kill non-Christians. Good to know.
We’re on our way to Gilead.