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June 28, 2006

Christian Leaders AWOL on Violent Video Game

In his latest installment in a series of articles addressing the Christian killer video game "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," J. Hutson criticizes prominent Christian leaders who have refused to condemn the game.

One of the main reasons why the Rev. Jerry Falwell co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979 was to decry the corruption of America's values. For decades, the Southern Baptist pastor has hectored Hollywood, trash-talked TV, been het up on hip hop, and spouted vitriol about video games. But this once bold, big lion who strode the stage popping off about pop culture lately has been reduced to a peewee church mouse. On his claim to fame, Rev. Falwell's got no more game. When it came time to denounce Left Behind: Eternal Forces -- a Christian supremacist video game that one Republican attorney has characterized as "the worst example to date of how the corrosive pop culture has conformed the Church to its image" -- the broken down old culture warrior has cut and run. And he's not the only one to show such cowardice.

In fact, only one Christian leader has protested the game. No, it's not James Dobson or Rick Warren, who, like Falwell, have made a career of warning parents against violent video games and other pop culture dangers. And, of course, it isn't Southern Baptist Pastor Tim LaHaye, co-founder of the Moral Majority and author of the bloody "Left Behind" series. It's Republican attorney and video critic Jack Thompson.

Thompson wrote a letter to Falwell last week (and copied it to Dobson, Warren, and LaHaye) saying LaHaye had "lost his mind" and become "part of the problem," and saying the game "makes a mockery of the witness of all of us." He went on:

"This is dangerous stuff, not only because it legitimizes the use of violence to Christian kids, but also because the last time I checked we were in a War on Terror, in which the other side claims we are engaged in a latter day "Crusade" against Islam. Now we have a Tyndale House-blessed killing game that glamorizes just that. What a rhetorical gift to radical Islamists. I can hear Al-Qaeda now: `America is producing a video game that trains Christian children to kill Muslims and to enjoy doing so.' "

Falwell has not responded to the letter, nor have Dobson, Warren, and LaHaye.

Thompson also lists (and describes) "Seven Woes" (a term from the apocalyptic book of Revelation) that "unite gamers and Jack Thompson in agreement, and mark Left Behind Games as set apart for scorn by gamers and conservative Christians alike."

The First Woe: Pushed by a Bible Publisher

The Second Woe: Alienates Its Core Audience

The Third Woe: Spyware in the Software

The Fourth Woe: Exploitation of 9/11

The Fifth Woe: Left Behind Games Hurts the War on Terror

The Sixth Woe: The Game Offends People of All Faiths

The Seventh Woe: They Shoot Nurses, Don't They?

Yes, they really do.

Posted by Becky at June 28, 2006 10:07 AM