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Please join with JewsOnFirst and CrossWalk America in a petition drive for the recall of Left Behind: Eternal Forces video game that teaches religious intolerance Left Behind:Eternal Forces is a video game that arms players to kill those who resist conversion to fundamentalist Christianity. (How sick are these fundie wackos? What kind of garbage do they teach their children?)
JewsOnFirst is joining CrossWalk America, a progressive Christian organization, to request the recall of the game because it teaches religious intolerance to young players.
What I'm interested to know is if the Dobsons, Wildmons, and Falwells of the world are equally as appalled by this game. I'd like to think this is something we can all agree on, but I'm afraid that their response will be silence even if they wouldn't buy it for their own kids.
posted by Steve - Geneva, IL, at
12/08/2006 3:04 PM
It's strange to see people protesting against video games for promoting religious intolerance, when there's a much more powerful influence promoting religious intolerance: it's called the Old Testament.
See what the OT says about religions not endorsed by Yahweh!
posted by Anonymous, at
12/08/2006 4:09 PM
Well, the Left Behind books are hugely popular. They feature a lot of violence. A devout Christian family I've known for many years have six boys. Three are young adults now, but the younger three are still in grade and high school. But I know for a fact that this family limits the entertainment these boys can be exposed to. Except for action movies and video games. Their teens were big fans of the LB series. I doubt the video game would be far behind in what they can have.
Remember when the owner of the Utah Jazz and the Crossroads Mall cineplex banned Brokeback Mountain, but allowed "Hostel" for screening.
Violence, is obviously far more acceptable than gay people. Even better if they are on the receiving end of it. The Anti Christ in the LB series is gay. And exemplified by every stereotype that Christians like this have of gay people.
However, if the situation were reversed, and say Islam had a game with equal violence pointed at Christians...you know what would happen.
How religious intractability on both sides can result, gets lost on the lot of them. Falwell, Dobson...and Wildmon have said nothing about this game. And how it parallels the Jihadist violence against non believers.
posted by Regan, at
12/08/2006 7:27 PM
1. It reminded me of this Simpsons episode when Maud Flanders died. After the funeral, Marge suggested that Bart comfort Rod and Todd. In the Flanders boys' room, Bart is seen playing this Christian game whose objective is to convert pagans and heathens (a la Doom and Duke Nukem).
2. It's not the first time Christians made awful video games. Is anybody familiar with the Wisdom Tree games that are (illegally) played on the NES?
3. Quotes and some rebuttals...
-(when asked why the Left Behind game was set in New York City)
"New York is the location of United Nations headquarters. The Left Behind series' Anti-Christ is a Romanian dictator who leads a United Nations force of global peace-keepers. This is the enemy in the game, which also warns players against activists, rock musicians and non-Christian medical professionals."
A few pointers: *When's the last time Romania had a dictator? In reality, the UN is led by a Ghanaian. *Do "Christians" hate peace? In this game and most of the church nazi community...yes!
A sociological study done around the time that the Passion of the Christ came out revealed that evangelicals watch (and enjoy) more violence than the rest of us. It's amazing how the teachings of their religion's founder (Jesus) have been so utterly corrupted, and twisted to the point that it's now almost 180 degrees from what it's *supposed* to be. They dont seem to understand that it's their own inner rage and poison projected onto 'the other' (Gays, Jews, liberals et. al.) that is behind all the intolerance and love of violence. They will NEVER be happy or satisfied with the world around them until they clean up their own spiritual interior. A quote from Hitler that I've mentioned before on this blog: "if I didnt have the Jews, I would have had to invent them". Replace Jews with Gays in this quote, and it could just as easily be coming out of the mouths of evangelicals/fundamentalists. Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at
12/09/2006 10:07 AM
It's interesting, the people who created Left Behind beta-tested it with the secular gaming community. My 14 year old (okay, I'm not proud of this but it's true) is a huge devotee of games like Mortal Combat and World of Warcraft and beta-tested this game about a year ago. Unbeknownst to me, actually.
I guess he played it for a while but found it... from a gaming standpoint... really "eh." It just didn't begin to measure up to the technical standards of really popular games.
Now I'm not saying that I think this game isn't dangerous or that it's not a problem that it was made. But, judging at least from my son's experience, it's unlikely to become popular with the wider gaming community. There might be families that don't permit their kids to do any online games but will permit this one, and that could be a problem. Or, there might be people who don't game at all, but who would play this one. But it doesn't seem that likely that this game is going to take the country by storm, at least among people who don't have some other agenda for playing it.
I think it would be really funny if the game turned out to be a "gateway" for all these kids to start playing the really rotten games, like GTA...
I'm sure it's a horrible game, but as long as GTA is on the shelves, this should be too. And GTA should be on the shelves, because banning games on the grounds that young people might play them is short sighted.
Would you ban a movie or the books on the same grounds? Why then ban the videogame? What we need is a decent rating system and parents who understand that games aren't always suitable for kids. Censorship is not the answer.
posted by Willie Hewes, at
12/11/2006 4:52 AM
Well, it's like the late Sgt. Leonard Matlovich said: "They gave me a medal for killing a man, and a discharge from the service for loving one."
This quotation is from memory and is not exact. Matlovich was the guy in uniform featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1975 over the words 'I AM A HOMOSEXUAL: The Gay Drive for Acceptance". I was a senior in high school at the time, and it (obviously) left a deep impression on me.
posted by Parker House Rolle, at
12/11/2006 12:40 PM
As much as I think this game is sick and offensive, I don't for one second believe that I have a right to not be offended by it. I completely support the right of spiritually immature Christianists to release this game, and I will not sign any petition in an attempt to deny them that right.
posted by Alex, at
12/11/2006 1:26 PM
I'm not going to sign the petition for several reasons.
1. Freedom of speech. Just because I'm offended by the ignorant content of the game doesn't mean it shouldn't be released.
2. The whole world deserves to see how twisted and violent the ethos of fundamentalist Christianity truly is at its core.
I can only hope that this is released with an "M for Mature" rating. That would place it in the same category as "Grand Theft Auto", "Manhunt", and every "Mortal Kombat" game ever made. You know, all those games that the Left Behinders rail against all the time.
To me it's sort of a double edge blade-- I believe in the right to freedom of speach but I have a problem with endorcing games that teach hate & intolerence.
It's like recruting teens to be the (next) Falwels,Dobsons, Phelps ect.
posted by Anonymous, at
12/11/2006 1:52 PM
I just don't get it. I just don't get it.
posted by Anonymous, at
12/11/2006 2:37 PM
Hypocrisy Alert!
http://www.citizenlink.org/fnif/A000003377.cfm
New Study: Violent Video Games Adversely Affect Kids’ Behavior
by Josh Montez
Researchers at the Indiana State University School of Medicine brain-scanned kids who play the games, finding an increase in their emotional arousal and a decrease in the area of the brain involved in self-control.
Dr. Karl Benzio with the Christian Medical Association isn’t surprised by the study. He says the brain’s response to violent video games is similar to not exercising. If you don’t, your muscles atrophy.
“Not only are some parts atrophying, the parts that should be responding accurately to the situations, but we’re getting misfiring in the brain and it’s sort of short circuiting or bypassing the impulse control areas of the brain.”
Al Menconi Ministries tracks hundreds of studies reporting negative affects of violent video games. He wonders how many more it will take before parents take the hint.
“The sun is coming up tomorrow. We don’t need another study to figure out if the sun is going to come up tomorrow. Violent games lead to violent and negative behavior.”
Not all studies condemn video games, but enough do to give parents concern about what their kids are playing.
(don't forget about the "faith-based" killings of the Left Behind video game)
Not to make this a referendum on video games, but the whole thing about violent games producing violent kids doesn't ring true to me. I did the whole, "Dungeons and Dragons" thing in HS, when the most high tech video game on the market was Donkey Kong. We did the role playing bit and parents all over the nation were petrefied that we would all be deviant murderers or suicidal. That didn't occur for 99 percent of kids who played the games. And yes, I was a nerd, but that's beside the point. The problem is when we combine violent video games with religious zealot behavior. It can produce in susceptible teens, a desire to do what they think is God's will. I am a Christian; Definition: I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. But to think that all non-Christians are horrible people is so far beyond the teachings of Jesus. I have many friends who are pagan. These people are peace loving, nature revearing individuals who would never think to judge me. To think that some kid who is brainwashed and horribley misinformed could think to harm a person, just because they are wiccan or Druid is unthinkable. They really need to ask themselves: What Would Jesus DO? And instead of focusing on the games, we really need to focus on the kids, or their parents, or church leaders. They are the beginnings of the learning of our children.
posted by jekelhyde, at
12/13/2006 8:23 PM
Dude, I'm a huge homo, a flaming liberal and a heathen. I hate right wing religious hypocrisy and bigotry just as much as the next godless queer.
But I'm also a gamer and a believer in the first amendment. And as silly as this game's premise is, as long as the ESRB gives it a proper rating, people have the right to buy it.
Self-righteous assholes from both the left and the right have tried in the past to invade my privacy and tell me what games, movies or books I can or cannot have access to. Among my favorite games is Mortal Kombat, which was blatantly attacked by politicians who think they know what's best for me.
I'll never sign this petition. If you don't like the game don't buy it. If you don't want your kids to play it, do some parenting and don't buy it for them.
posted by Ryan Grant Long, at
12/13/2006 11:21 PM
