"Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church"

[gallego]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/us/07halo.html?hp

Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.

At Sweetwater Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga., Austin Brown, 16, said, “We play Halo, take a break and have something to eat, and have a lesson,” explaining that the pastor tried to draw parallels “between God and the devil.”

Mr. Kenerly said the idea that Halo is inappropriately violent tostrictly interpreted the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” “I’m not walking up to someone with a pistol and shooting them,” he said. “I’m shooting pixels on a screen.”

In one letter to parents, Mr. Barbour wrote that God calls ministers to be “fishers of men.”

“Teens are our ‘fish,” he wrote. “So we’ve become creative in baiting our hooks.”

Tim explained the game’s allure: “It’s just fun blowing people up.”

I don't think playing violent video games makes you a killer, but it seems a bit contradictory to mix preaching and morality with violence, albeit simulated. If they're just pixels, why are other pixel games not as alluring? Why not sports? The violence in the game is indeed an important factor in its appeal, and if churches want to use the game as bait, they need to accept that kids do enjoy the violence of it.

 

[cubsfan6506]

My chuch had a video game night, when I was a child. We also had a laserquest lock in, and paintballing. Wow we were really violent.

 

[LightFang]

They're just pixels. Sheesh. That man is a smart man. He's not the Jack Thompson "MY GOD, video games send people to HELL!"

So good for him. He can be a fisher of men. If it works, the more power to him.

 

[Elrohir]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/us/07halo.html?hp

I don't think playing violent video games makes you a killer, but it seems a bit contradictory to mix preaching and morality with violence, albeit simulated. If they're just pixels, why are other pixel games not as alluring? Why not sports? The violence in the game is indeed an important factor in its appeal, and if churches want to use the game as bait, they need to accept that kids do enjoy the violence of it.

As a general rule of thumb, I'd say if you wouldn't do it with Jesus, you probably shouldn't do it in church youth group.

Personally, though, I'd play Halo with Jesus. Nothing says "I love you" like throwing a sticky grenade onto the back of your Lord and Savior. But really - what you do in Halo is kill fanatically religious genocidal aliens. Are you saying it is morally wrong to defend humanity against alien invasion? Traitor! What's wrong with that?

 

[warpus]

The Christian thing to do would be to approach them with a Bible instead, of course.

 

[gallego]

I feel that any moral philosophy should be able to provide a satisfaction that makes members engage with it for its own sake. If you need to use entertainment to attract someone to your beliefs, then you need to reevaluate what those beliefs are really providing to that person--are the kids really coming to church because they want the emotional satisfaction and comfort, or just to play Halo on big screen TVs with 32-person games and to blow stuff up with lessons of good and evil on the side?

I can accept the argument that maybe kids will become more interested in religion once they actually go to church and that the game can be useful in that aspect to get them in the doors those first couple of times. But if you need to continually use violent video games to get kids just to come and you incorporate them into the routine activities, then that means that the religion you are preaching isn't satisfying them enough by itself.

 

[Kozmos]

Somehow I think Max Payne 2 or Painkiller would not fit into so well if tried.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Somehow I think Max Payne 2 or Painkiller would not fit into so well if tried.

Bullet time would let you get in more preaching when he can't react against it.

As for this preacher, good on him. Getting kids in there is half the battle.

 

[Jawz II]

"In one letter to parents, Mr. Barbour wrote that God calls ministers to be “fishers of men.”

“Teens are our ‘fish,” he wrote. “So we’ve become creative in baiting our hooks.”

This story dosen't get interesting until they start fishing with dynamite. And by that I mean pot and beer.

 

[warpus]

And porn....

 

[Jawz II]

Well I was gonna say ugly girls with low self-esteem.

 

[Volum]

They should play Call of Juarez. I mean, that preacher guy there has a Gun in one hand and a bible in the other!

 

[Till]

They should play Call of Juarez. I mean, that preacher guy there has a Gun in one hand and a bible in the other!

Don't even think for a minute that i'm going to let you play this!

Also, are you sure it's a bible? My guess would have been that it's the instructions manual for the gun!

 

[Heretic_Cata]

They should try Postal 2 - you get to kill muslims and it says in the Bible that it's ok to do that.
Or maybe Manhunt.

 

[Elrohir]

They should try Postal 2 - you get to kill muslims and it says in the Bible that it's ok to do that.
Or maybe Manhunt.

Considering that Islam didn't come into existence until six centuries after the death of Christ, I'm pretty sure the Bible doesn't say it's OK to kill Muslims.

 

[LightFang]

The funny thing about Islam is that Christians still go to heaven if Islam is true, but Muslims go to hell if Christianity is true.

 

[El_Machinae]

It kinda waffles on the whole "Stoning False Prophets" though, which is what Islam is!

 

[mdwh]

It's only contradictory if you can't tell the difference between fiction and reality.

I'm glad some religious people grasp this for a change, given how much pro-censorship campaigning often comes from some religious people.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The funny thing about Islam is that Christians still go to heaven if Islam is true, but Muslims go to hell if Christianity is true.

I think this is because one of Islam's principles is that the previous prophets and whatnot somehow got it wrong, so God spoke to Mohommed to get it right this time. So we're still "people of the book," as the Qu'ran says. It'd be great if they could remember that when they start throwing that "infidel" word around.

 

[Shadylookin]

never join a religion that has an arcade

There's just something that seems wrong about trying to recruit people into an ideology while acknowledging that you're just trying to bait them in.