Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence
Talk about warfare. A Christmas season turf war is underway over whether a new computer game, laced with violent virtual battles and spiritual messages stressing the urgent need for salvation, is authentically Christian.
An alliance of Christian progressive groups fired first, calling for Wal-Mart to stop selling Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a $39.99 real-time military strategy game based on the best-selling Left Behind Apocalyptic novels. Players battling the Anti-christ, the ultimate in evil, can pray to increase their strength, recruit converts to the Christian cause, even conduct exorcisms.
YOUR OPINION: Do you think the game should be pulled?
"It's faith-based killing that teaches God wants people dead if they don't see Christ as you do," says the Rev. Tim Simpson, head of Christian Alliance for Progress, who has played the game. "Jesus would turn the other cheek."
Shooting back in self-defense, conservative Christians and the game's producers say the computer game battles are all between good and evil, with no explosive blood or gore. They say it takes spiritual weaponry, not firepower, to win.
"These groups don't attack other violent video games. Their real attack is on our theology," says Tim LaHaye, co-author of the novels, who endorsed the game.
SEE THE GAME: The 'Eternal Forces' website | CEO's statement on the controversy
And the game isn't about mindless violence, says Jeffrey Frichner, president and co-founder of Left Behind Games. True, he says, "Players can engage in battle, fire guns, even kill innocents in the game, but there will be severe consequences. In fact, you can win this game without ever firing a shot, using weapons of spiritual means, such as prayer and worship."
If a player increases his force's spiritual strength, angels will even come to his assistance. But it's the action, not the angels, that has put the game in 10,000 locations, including Wal-Mart and Circuit City, since its November release, he says.
Spokeswomen for both chains said Wednesday they have no plans to discontinue sales.
"It's selling like crazy here," says Brian Bridges, a clerk at the Manassas, Va., branch of Family Christian Stores, where a $59.99 collector's version includes a Bible.
The Campaign to Defend the Constitution, an alliance of groups including Simpson's, launched its attack on the game this week. Simpson calls Frichner's descriptions "weasel words."
Simpson says it's true that "once you do a kill, it causes your 'spiritual points' in the game to go down, but all you need to do is pray and you're good to go again, as if nothing else happened," says Simpson.
He adds that the bad guys are non-Christians and that a stand-in for the
United Nations is portrayed as the army of the Anti-christ, the embodiment of evil.
Alliance co-founder Clark Stevens says they've rallied 26,000 e-mails so far to Wal-Mart, because the game "advocates intolerance toward other religions."
New Testament scholars have long objected to a literal reading of Revelation, the Bible's final book.
A violent video game for Jesus is ironic, says Craig Hill, professor of New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. "Jesus saw the great enemy as evil, which is in all of us, not something at which we can fire bullets."
Ultimately, the battle over the game may be a win for both sides, "in the real war, the one for attention," says Nancy Ammerman, a sociologist of religion at Boston University. Now's the time of year, she says, when people try to score points for their religious views.
Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY.COM
Contributing: Mike Snider
YOUR OPINION: Do you think the game should be pulled?
"It's faith-based killing that teaches God wants people dead if they don't see Christ as you do," says the Rev. Tim Simpson, head of Christian Alliance for Progress, who has played the game. "Jesus would turn the other cheek."
Shooting back in self-defense, conservative Christians and the game's producers say the computer game battles are all between good and evil, with no explosive blood or gore. They say it takes spiritual weaponry, not firepower, to win.
"These groups don't attack other violent video games. Their real attack is on our theology," says Tim LaHaye, co-author of the novels, who endorsed the game.
SEE THE GAME: The 'Eternal Forces' website | CEO's statement on the controversy
And the game isn't about mindless violence, says Jeffrey Frichner, president and co-founder of Left Behind Games. True, he says, "Players can engage in battle, fire guns, even kill innocents in the game, but there will be severe consequences. In fact, you can win this game without ever firing a shot, using weapons of spiritual means, such as prayer and worship."
If a player increases his force's spiritual strength, angels will even come to his assistance. But it's the action, not the angels, that has put the game in 10,000 locations, including Wal-Mart and Circuit City, since its November release, he says.
Spokeswomen for both chains said Wednesday they have no plans to discontinue sales.
"It's selling like crazy here," says Brian Bridges, a clerk at the Manassas, Va., branch of Family Christian Stores, where a $59.99 collector's version includes a Bible.
The Campaign to Defend the Constitution, an alliance of groups including Simpson's, launched its attack on the game this week. Simpson calls Frichner's descriptions "weasel words."
Simpson says it's true that "once you do a kill, it causes your 'spiritual points' in the game to go down, but all you need to do is pray and you're good to go again, as if nothing else happened," says Simpson.
He adds that the bad guys are non-Christians and that a stand-in for the
United Nations is portrayed as the army of the Anti-christ, the embodiment of evil.
Alliance co-founder Clark Stevens says they've rallied 26,000 e-mails so far to Wal-Mart, because the game "advocates intolerance toward other religions."
New Testament scholars have long objected to a literal reading of Revelation, the Bible's final book.
A violent video game for Jesus is ironic, says Craig Hill, professor of New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. "Jesus saw the great enemy as evil, which is in all of us, not something at which we can fire bullets."
Ultimately, the battle over the game may be a win for both sides, "in the real war, the one for attention," says Nancy Ammerman, a sociologist of religion at Boston University. Now's the time of year, she says, when people try to score points for their religious views.
Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY.COM
Contributing: Mike Snider
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