According to an article in the NYT, the fundies are having big Halo 3 parties where they are encouraging young men mostly, I would guess, as that seems to be the typical profile of a gamer to come to church and play Halo 3. So is it ok to kill people in a game at church, but there is too much violence in the media? Is it ok to not only kill someone in church in a game, but to do so violently and horrifically? This makes no sense to me. They condemn violence in the media and yet they encourage it at church. They want to ban sex education in schools, but they want to encourage violence in church. First and foremost, doesn't this break one of the ten commandments, Thou Shalt Not Kill. I know this is a game, but still this seems to be a blurry line. Is it ok to also have sex on a video game in church or to rape a women in a video game in church? This seems to be backward to me. I understand trying to attract a younger crowd, but really the only people you are attracting are those under 17 who cannot legally buy the game themselves. I guess the real question is, What would Jesus do? Would he play a violent video game? Would he try to attract people using values that you the church would not seem to support? Would he be a hypocrite? I love this quote and I think it cuts to the heart of the issue,
“If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it,” said James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a nonprofit group that assesses denominational policies. “My own take is you can do better than that.”
Now that is something that I could get behind, having porno and free alcohol at church for underage members. This is the next step in the evolution of youth groups and bringin young people into the church, first there were the WWJD bracelets, now Halo 3, next come Beers and Broads night at the local church. Whatcha y'all think of that?
Maybe because I am Jewish and so I did not have to read the New Testament I missed the part that said it was Ok to kill and maim in a video game, but I doubt it. Just another wonderful example of how hypocritical the fundies really are.
(h/t Jess Wundrun)
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7 comments:
Jesus likes the sports games not the shoot 'em ups.
As the resident liberal and irreverent practicing Catholic of this loose circle of lefty bloggers, once again I am horrified by the behavior of so-called Christians.
This really is beyond awful. I can't pretend to know the mind or heart of Jesus, but I can tell you this, I am not thinking this is even remotely ok. At all.
I actually do a lot of writing for my parish and even have a parish blog. This whole thing kind of touches on something I just wrote earlier this morning...
This notion of spirituality is just so lame. Well I did not use the word lame on my church blog. I must maintain some propriety there. But lame it is.
We Catholics have so many issues so please know I am not ignoring that when I write the following.
One issue we do not have is this "get more Christians get more points" mentality.
In many forms of Christianity it is thought that the more souls you save for Christ, the better poised you are to go to heaven.
God help me. That is so- well, frankly it is completely F*CKED!
It's not a contest... or a game, where "points" matter.
And to use video games that glorify violence and death. That is another layer of sickness.
This is so disturbing. So disturbing.
Ugh. WWJD? I think that he would, like when he overturned the moneychangers tables, do the same with the video games.
Did you see the episode of the Simpson where Bart goes over to play with Rod and Todd and they have the Bible Blasters video game? So funny. oh god. I laughed so hard "You just winged him and made him a Unitarian!"
I am surprised about the Halo 3 in church. Why that when they can just have them play the Left Behind game? It seems so much more topical....
franiam, you so nailed it. Forgive my presumptuousness, but I imagine Jesus would tear that shit up and kick some Violent Gamer Ass.
Then he and I would sit down for a nice game of Pong.
I mean hell, even Jesus loves Pong!
...and GG, I missed that (no TV,) but hooted pretty hard at your "Unitarian" quote!
The Bible Blasters game on The Simpsons was so funny. It had stereotypical "heathens," usually a dark skinned man in a turban floating on a cloud, and the game player had to blast him with the conversion ray, whereupon the heathen turned into a blonde haired man in a full suit. Come to think of it they looked a little like Mitt Romney.
Speaking of Mitt Romney, if he should get the Republican nomination I hereby pledged to post on my blog my recipe for my semi-finalist entry for the Boston Globe "Create a Celebrity Sandwich" competition - the Mitt hamney!
The Simpson's approach to Christianity just works!
CR- I would agree on all counts!
That GG Mitt Romney look alike comment has me laughing a bit too hard!
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