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.
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. Im not walking up to someone with a pistol and shooting them, he said. Im 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 weve become creative in baiting our hooks.
Tim explained the games allure: Its 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.