Coming soon to a PC near you -- Left Behind: Eternal Forces

[salvorhardin]

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. (emphasis mine) Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

The game, slated for release by October 2006 in advance of the Christmas shopping rush, has been previewed at video game exhibitions, and reviewed by major newspapers and magazines. But until now, no fan or critic has pointed out the controversial game's connection to Mr. Warren or his dominionist agenda.

More...
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/29/195855/959

I have no comment, other than to say it's not just us atheists that will be in trouble if these people ever get any real power.

[Selatius]

1. This game should be condemned like any game made by KKK or Neo-Nazis

The common thread with all these groups is sheer intolerance.

[1620rock]

2. Killing for Christ is Cool...Thats a nasty little seed to plant in a...

..kid's head. :eyes:

[xchrom]

3. hmmm -- just you atheists.

gay folk will be glad to know they're not first in line for the hate.

[Random_Australian]

8. Uh, what about the kill all gays bit?

[beam me up scottie]

4. This is for kids???

Is this paramilitary mission simulator for children anything other than prejudice and bigotry using religion as an organizing tool to get people in a violent frame of mind? The dialogue includes people saying, "Praise the Lord," as they blow infidels away.

The designers intend this game to become the first dominionist warrior game to break through in the popular culture due to its violent scenarios and realistic graphics, lighting, and sound effects. Its creators expect it to earn a rating of T for Teen. How violent is that? That's the rating shared by Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory, a top selling game in which high-tech gadgets and high-powered weapons - frag grenades, shotguns, assault rifles, and submachine guns -- are used to terminate enemies with extreme prejudice.

Could such a violent, dominionist Christian video game really break through to the popular culture? Well, it is based on a series of books that have already set sales records - the blockbuster Left Behind series of 14 novels by writer Jerry B. Jenkins and his visionary collaborator, retired Southern Baptist minister Tim LaHaye. "We hope teenagers like the game," Mr. LaHaye told the Los Angeles Times. "Our real goal is to have no one left behind."

*****************

The game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is based on scenes from the first four novels in the series. The game was developed by a publicly-traded company called Left Behind Games, according to SEC records. The developers obtained the license from Tyndale House, the Christian publisher of Left Behind.

Tyndale also publishes Bringing Up Boys and The Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide by Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, PhD. Mr. Dobson has advised parents to monitor the amount of time children spend playing video games and "avoid the violent ones altogether." But he has not yet stated his views on whether there should be an exception for video games that role play gunplay in the name of Christ, or of the AntiChrist.

Uh, people?

Helloooooooooooooooo?

Anybody out there?


This is a wake up call.

THey're breeding and indoctrinating soldiers.

And they're advertising it.

[Julius Civitatus]

5. GENOCIDE as entertainment

This is truly outrageous.

:mad:

[beam me up scottie]

6. I thought so.

Doesn't seem to bother most people.

I guess they're not the ones who will be in the crosshairs.

People like me will be.

[NMMNG]

7. Isn't that special?

Training pubescents to "convert" or brutally slaughter innocent human beings.


But atheists are America's most distrusted minority. :eyes:

[Evoman]

9. How realistic will it be?

This is so awesome...will you actually be able to see the sulci in the brains of the unbelievers? Can you actually shoot the nuts off of those gays?!! Will their be any special finishing moves...like breaking the knees and slowly torturing the heathens, and then stabbing a jew in the head when he refuses to accept Jesus as his lord and savior.

Onword christian soldier!


This shit is fucking sick.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

10. I've been ranting about this

...and thought no one else was aware of this company...

It is one of the sickest glimpses into the fundies scattered thinking...
Here is the official website of Left Behind Games where their motto is:

In one cataclysmic moment, millions around the world disappear:
http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/the_games.htm

This is how their web site describes Left Behind: Eternal Forces:

Game description

Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!

· Lead the Tribulation Force from the book series , including Rayford, Chloe, Buck and Bruce against Nicolae Carpathia – the AntiChrist.

· Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.

· Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices.

· Command your forces through intense battles across a breathtaking, authentic depiction of New York City .

· Control more than 30 units types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks!

· Enjoy a robust single player experience across dozens of New York City maps in Story Mode – fighting in China Town , SoHo , Uptown and more!

· Play multiplayer games as Tribulation Force or the AntiChrist's Global Community Peacekeepers with up to eight players via LAN or over the internet!


Wheee! Isn't this fun kids! Come on over, get your little brain washed while killin' for Jesus!

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Guess that Jesus talk really pisses off these Jesus people. Morons.

[htuttle]

14. No racks? No thumbscrews? No strappados or bootikens? No whips?

What kind of lame-assed Christian game is this without thumbscrews?

[varkam]

18. Huh?

Play multiplayer games as Tribulation Force or the AntiChrist's Global Community Peacekeepers with up to eight players via LAN or over the internet!

the AntiChrist's Global Community Peacekeepers? Is that like the UN or something?

[catbert836]

20. Yes.

In the left Behind world, the Antichrist becomes the Secretary-General of the United Nations, changes its name to the Global Community, and uses it to establish himself as Supreme Potentate of the world.

[Taxloss]

11. Classic conditioning.

First, condemn murderous games like GTA as "immoral". Then promote murderous game as "moral". Lesson taught: murder's fine when we say it is. And this kind of mureder is fine.

GTA's violence is highly unlikely to influence real life. But this sort of blatant moral contradistinction is. This is Radio Milles Collines, people, this is Julius Streicher.

[salvorhardin]

15. Thanks Taxloss

I wouldn't have thought to put it in historical context like that. In fact, while I was familar with Julius Streicher, the Nazi newspaperman/propagandist and children's book author I had to look Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines up in Wikipedia:

Radio Télévision Libre de Mille Collines (RTLM) was a Rwandan radio station which broadcast from 8 July 1993 to 31 July 1994. It played a significant role during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Widely listened to by the general population, it projected hate propaganda against Tutsis, moderate Hutus, Belgians, and the United Nations mission UNAMIR. It is widely regarded as having played a crucial role in creating the atmosphere of charged racial hostility that allowed the genocide to occur. At the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, three men associated with the station have been convicted of genocide and incitement to genocide. Their convictions are currently (as of 2005) being appealed.

As the genocide was taking place, the United States military drafted a plan to jam RTLM's brodcasts, but this action was never taken because of the cost of the operation and the legal implications of interfering with Rwanda's sovereignty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_T%C3%A9l%C3%A9vision_Libre_des_Mille_Collines

You're right. This is what we would call hate speech in the U.S. I think the only mitigating factor is that the game will be abysmally awful (I hope) and kids would rather play something else. Then again, I'm not sure that'll be the case for Christian fundamentalist households where kids have grown up in an environment saturated with this message and in that case this game might be a call to action for them.

[Taxloss]

16. I recommend Philip Gourevitch's book "We Wish To Inform You That

Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" (published by Picador in the UK) for a grounding in how Rwanda's Hutus were primed to unleash genocide. It's a brilliant book, but extremely uncomfortable reading. No one emerges with credit.

[salvorhardin]

21. Thanks

I added it to my list at Amazon.

[varkam]

17. Not to mention...

GTA was actually a good game.

[Random_Australian]

33. Agreed.

[Dogmudgeon]

12. And so, the "Dominionist" Christian movement broke apart ...

(from Pigwidgeon's Retrospective History of the 21st Century, As Revealed by Telepathy and Psilocybe Cubensis Extract, Lago del Britney y El Fed de K, 2007 and 2104):

... and by the middle of the 21st century, had given way to the Great Unitarian-Mahayanist Awakening, while the Dominionists, those surviving remnants of the tens of millions of Conservative/ Fundamentalist/ Calvinist/ Rushdoonian Christians of just fifty years before, consolidated what was left of their power in The Republic of Jesus Christ, formerly Chincoteague Island, which they seized by force on April 20th, 2055. The 655 heavily-armed rebels, three carrying backpack nukes, routed the 5,000 mainly unarmed locals (actually, eleven were found to be carrying light arms). Damage was minimal, killing only four cows, a chicken, and an undetermined number of house cats which the Army of the Republic of Christ claimed were possessed by Satan and which allegedly had mounted an assault with "kinesthetic-kill" (sic) missiles launched from a secret French-Israeli space platform.

Rather than to attack the island and possibly kill the "Christian Rebels" and their hostages, the (Lucinda) Clinton Administration decided to ransom the islanders from the Christian Republicans and then compensate them for their business and personal losses, and offered medical treatment for uncontrollable episodes of laughter.

The Republic has fallen on hard times since 2056, and the only remaining money-making businesses on the island as of this writing are Francis Macomber's Live Big Game Politically Incorrect Hunting Preserve in which customers can pay to shoot live rabbits bearing photographs and caricatures of prominent early-century liberals such as The Dixie Chicks, UN Secretary-General Paul Hewson, and The Moores (Michael, Mandy, and Alecia); and Roddy's, an adult flagellation parlor.

(Historical Note: "Republican" also referred to the old Republican Party, 1856-2012. It is probable that the Christian Republicans adopted the name after the old party, which their predecessors dominated and eventually destroyed.)

Is it true? Every word of it! Except for the part that begins with the Great Unitarian-Mahayanist Awakening and ends with Historical Note. But wouldn't it be cool if it was?

--p!

[unschooler]

25. BWHAHAHAHAHA!!! THAT is hysterical! Highly recommended!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[kwassa]

28. And I was thinking of vacationing in Chincoteague.

I just had no idea.

[Julius Civitatus]

13. K&R, for importance and creepiness

[Random_Australian]

22. kicksky

[varkam]

19. Anyone seen the screens?

Fugly

[SPKrazy]

23. Where The Hell Is The Outrage From Lieberman, Clinton, etc?

they were all worked up over Grand Theft Auto, a game where you are out for yourself

but they aren't all over this one? Killing moderate mainstream Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, Homosexuals.

Sounds like a Hitler youth training video!

I can't imagine that this game will ever be released.

At least I hope not.

And I've never thought of Warren as a Nazi, but this is pure Theofascism! Training to kill for Jesus and they say "praise God" when they kill?

Sick Sick Sick!

[monarch]

27. Outrage from Lieberman!?!?!

C'mon now! These are the kinds of groups that he's formed alliances with.

[SPKrazy]

29. This Game "Advocates" Killing Jews If They Can't Be Converted

I'd think even holy Joe the neocon-lite would be up in arms about that!

I'm up in arms about it

[unschooler]

24. OK. I thought dominionists were NOT premillenialists, who believe

Jesus will "rapture" the good guys any time now, as I believe is described in the Left Behind books. I thought the dominionists are the people who believe that Christians are supposed to bring about God's kingdom on earth BEFORE Christ returns (postmillenialist).

Can someone clarify who is who here?

[Dogmudgeon]

26. "Dominionist" has become a catch-all term recently

The word has long been around and abused in one way or another, but it was formally resurrected by Rousas Rushdoony, the main architect of the modern post-millenialist, "Reconstructionist Christian" movement, which is primarily Calvinist, with many Rushdoonyan elements, like his theory of Theonomy (the Law of God).

"Dominionism" now refers to flavors of conservative Christianity which use Biblical justification for aggressive policies, such as war, coercion, political separatism, and even figurative forms aggression like "combat Christianity". Since 2000 has come and gone with scarcely a Savio(u)r in sight, the entire millenialist issue will probably shrink back like a successfully-irradiated tumor.

I personally don't think the current strain of mutant right-wing Christianity will survive very much longer. Even a great many Fundamentalists are beginning to see it as a philosophy of power, and not salvation or even ethical behavior. Although we tend to use the word "Fundamentlist" around here as a cuss word (and I am as guilty of this as anyone), most Fundamentalists are severely troubled by the idea of politicized Christianity. Where they may have been willing to sit down and shut up over the past 30 years, they are beginning to speak up and talk back. People like Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo have a great deal many more readers and admirers than the Robertsons and Falwells and Phelpses would like to admit.

By the way, if you're "theologically active", you can take this Eschatology Quiz. There are no "right" answers and you won't be sent to Hell for a low score.

--p!

[unschooler]

34. I was thinking of the Rushdoony/Calvinist types.

BTW, I scored as an "amillenialist," but then I'm not much of a Bible-believer these days.

[manic expression]

30. I can't believe this part (from the article...)

"Celebrants included Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, a tiny east African country that lost hundreds of thousands of people when it suffered genocide in 1994. Catholic and Protestant clergy have been convicted in connection with that genocide. Yet Mr. Kagame announced that he would allow Mr. Warren to turn his country into the first purpose driven nation."

This is bullshit! He was a hero of mine (as you can see in my signature picture). I hope his motivation was something else. Is there ANYONE I can look up to?

Goddamn it.

:thumbsdown: :mad: :(

[salvorhardin]

31. It does appear to be true

I know you weren't questioning the article, but I wanted to know more so I did a little googling...

Warren of Rwanda
The best-selling megapastor wants to turn the genocide site into the first "purpose-driven nation"
By DAVID VAN BIEMA
Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, is not known for hugging pastors. Catholic and Protestant clergy have been convicted in connection with the genocide in his country in 1994, and Kagame has repeatedly stated his disdain for religious organizations. Thus a buzz went up in Kigali's Amahoro Stadium last month when Kagame allowed Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback megachurch in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of the best-selling The Purpose-Driven Life, to throw an arm over his shoulders and " pray for the President." In fact, their bond now extends well beyond prayerful embrace. Kagame has committed his...
(subscription required for rest of article)
http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1093746,00.html

Bartholomew's notes on religion
Researching religion in the news
Rick Warren’s Purpose for Rwanda

ASSIST Ministries carries an interview with Rick Warren containing this interesting sub-heading:

RWANDA TO BECOME THE ‘FIRST PURPOSE-DRIVEN NATION’

Warren said that the plight of Africa was very much on his heart t this time. “I’ve been in three different countries in Africa already this year,” he said. I‘ve been Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya and actually in ten days, we are going back to Rwanda. The President, Paul Kagame, has invited us to help Rwanda become the first ‘purpose-driven nation.’

“We are going to go there for ten days and I’m going to do a day of training for business leaders as well as training for the government leaders and the cabinet and also a day of training for the religious leaders. Then, on the last day, on July 16th, we are going to do National Reconciliation Rally in National Stadium of Rwanda to talk about reconciliation between the Tutsi and Hutu. It will be eleven years after the genocide.”

Warren first announced his plans for Rwanda back in April, when he launched his five-point “P.E.A.C.E.” plan for Africa: the letters stand for “"Plant churches, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick and Educate the next generation." Warren can be seen as natural successor to Charles Finney: just as Finney developed a method for organising successful revivals in the 19th century, so Warren’s success is down to tutoring by management guru Peter Drucker – who now calls Warren "the inventor of perpetual revival." Warren has applied his “purpose-driven” technique to churches, Christians – and now, a whole country looks like it will be next.

More...
http://blogs.salon.com/0003494/2005/07/05.html

Servant leaders?

[manic expression]

32. This just sucks

Why, Paul?

:mad: :grr:

Here's the question, though. Are his actions which ended the genocide and saved countless lives more important than backing this lunatic? I don't know...but I'm very disappointed in Paul Kagame.