The game is inspired by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' bestselling pulp fiction series about a blood-soaked Battle of Armageddon pitting born-again Christians against anybody who does not adhere to their particular theology. In LaHaye's and Jenkins' books, the non-believers are ultimately condemned to "everlasting punishment" while the evangelicals are "raptured" up to heaven.
The Left Behind videogame is a real-time strategy game that makes players commanders of a virtual evangelical army in a post-apocalyptic landscape that looks strikingly like New York City after 9/11. With tanks, helicopters and a fearsome arsenal of automatic weapons at their disposal, Left Behind players wage a violent war against United Nations-like peacekeepers who, according to LaHaye's interpretation of Revelation, represent the armies of the Antichrist. Each time a Left Behind player kills a UN soldier, their virtual character exclaims, "Praise the Lord!" To win the game, players must kill or convert all the non-believers left behind after the rapture.
(Ed's Comments: Brilliant thinking. Exactly the message we want to send to the Muslim world, that we're on a crusade and that God is on our side in the battle. But
wait, it actually gets worse:)
What's more, OSU's "Freedom Packages" include a copy of evangelical pastor Jonathan McDowell's More Than A Carpenter -- a book advertised as "one of the most powerful evangelism tools worldwide" -- that is double-published in Arabic. Considering that only a handful of American troops speak Arabic, the book is ostensibly intended for proselytizing efforts among Iraqi civilians.
(Ed's Comments: Unbelievable. )
I echo that. Unbelievable. Hearts and minds, indeed.
5 comments:
Oh Lord, 2008 can't come fast enough.
You know, there's a reason why I would - if I were ever fortunate enough to have a time machine - ship the entire lunatic fringe of the Religious Right off to Reformation Europe so they could witness the horrors of the Thirty Years War firsthand. Maybe seeing the conflict that helped inspire the Founders distaste of mixing Church and State might inspire a moment of awakening in them. (Yeah, yeah, unlikely in the extreme, but a girl can wish.)
wow.
I actually read a couple of those wacky books. I found them strangely addictive, although of course I don't put any credence whatsoever in any of it.
I remember reading somewhere (I think it was in my philosophy of religion course) that the majority of US politicians, including the current president, believe that Armageddon is going to happen within the next 50 years.
not too conducive to a commitment to ongoing society...
I laugh if they think that one of the worst games ever is going to do anything except make the soldiers think how christians ruin everything good... like video games.
Well, that's almost as amusing as the members of the Religious Right who wear "Bring Back the Crusades" Tshirts.
Did they fail to pay attention in high school where we learned that the Crusaders actually lost all but one of the major crusades? Or the part about how they killed more Eastern Orthodox Christians (and Jews too) than they did Muslims?
Well, that was a successful military venture.
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