Articles of Faith: Ruth Gledhill's blog
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The Times
December 06, 2006
A video game that depicts a crusade of violence by Christians could be heading
for the bestseller charts this Christmas, even though it has been condemned by
Muslims and secularists.
The game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is set in post-apocalyptic New York and
features Gods army battling the Antichrist.
Based on Left Behind, the bestselling Christian fantasy book series created by
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, it puts players in command of brainwashed legions
fighting for Christianity.
Players are ordered to convert or kill to advance to the next level and remodel
America as a Christian-controlled state, and establish its world vision of
Christs dominion.
They pit battles between the paramilitary Christian Tribulation Force and the
grey, faceless, Global Community Peacekeepers of the Antichrist, said to be
modelled on the United Nations. The fantasy is based on what might happen if
the events of the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, happened
today.
Critics accuse its creators of mixing religion and violence to appeal to
teenage fans of violent games such as Grand Theft Auto.
The game was sold originally in the US. British outlets are releasing the game
for the Christmas market. The Left Behind books have sold more than 63 million
copies.
Muslim groups have denounced the game as portraying Islam as evil and accuse
its creators of insulting their faith. The Muslim Association of Britain called
for the game to be banned, describing it as evil.
It said: This game is irresponsible and highly racist. It demonises every
other religion which isnt Christianity. People must boycott this violent game.
Games like this poison the minds of young people.
Terry Sanderson, the president of the National Secular Society, said:
Fundamentalists on both the Christian and the Muslim side are creating this
kind of nasty, extreme propaganda and aiming it at young people. Im not into
banning things or censoring them, but I think most Muslims and most Christians
would recognise that this is crude and despicable hate-mongering and give it a
wide berth.
The creators of the game have dismissed the criticism, saying that the
religious story- line in the game is not taken from the Bible and is a creation
of the Left Behind authors, which should not be taken seriously.
Troy A. Lyndon, the chief executive of Left Behind Games, said: The game is
designed to be a classic battle between good and evil. We have deliberately
censored the blood and it does not gratuitously depict death or violence. Left
Behind is not taken from the Bible, it is a fictional story.
A meeting of fiction and theology
# Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkinss bestselling series of 12 novels started in
1995 with Left Behind: A Novel of the Earths Last Days
# President Bush is said to be a fan of the series
# The theological doctrine in the books and the new game is known as
premillennial dispensationalism
# Neither the Church of England nor the Roman Catholic Church has said
officially that it does not believe in this apocalyptic scenario
# Christians in both churches endorse their belief in it in the Nicene Creed:
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
Comments:
We all saw the recent disgraceful article in the Times which attempted to link
Blak-Stone to the Islamic political party Hizb-ut Tahrir, which also made false
allegations against Blak-Stone of indoctrinating the youth and leading them
down a path of Extremism.
I wonder what they will make of this game which blatently promotes Christianity
as the only true religion from God and all others as akin to following the
devil.
But one part of the game agrees with the reality and that is Americas Crusade
to establish a New world order specifically in the Islamic lands by the use of
violence and games like these are a cheap way to gain new recruits especially
since they are losing so many soldiers dead and wouded in Iraq and Afghanistan
on a daily basis.
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