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 'Left Behind' video game imageThe Shaming Project

does the violence of "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" bother you ? If so, what can you do ? Well, to begin with you can email Jonathan Hutson's stories to people you know. That will help to bring more public scrutiny of the game. Public shaming really works ! Just click on the "email" icon and link at the top or bottom of the story and you'll be taken to a form that will allow you email the first story, The Purpose Driven Life Takers or the latest installment without leaving this site. Thanks. 'Left Behind' video game image




Firestorm in Response to Religious Warfare Kid Vid, Continued
By Frederick Clarkson Thu Dec 21, 2006 at 01:01:58 AM EST printable version print story
On Tuesday the mainstream Muslim civil rights group, Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) denounced the hate-based video game, Left Behind:  Eternal Forces. This followed an international media firestorm resulting from a press teleconference by DefCon, Christian Alliance for Progress (CAP) and Talk to Action. These groups called on WalMart to stop selling the game. DefCon reports that more than 30,000 people have contacted Walmart so far.  CAIR also called on WalMart to withdraw the game. Meanwhile, several progressive Christian groups led by Crosswalk America, CAP and the Beatitudes Society had also asked the manufacturer to withdraw the game and consumers not to buy it.  The matter has issue has now escalated in both activism and in media coverage.

Jews on First! a progressive web based organization concerned about the religious right, has posted a report and joined with Crosswalk in petitioning the manufacturer to withdraw the game -- and the AntiDefamation League (ADL) has issued a statement, based on an analysis of the game by their staff in consultation with game experts.  

"The game and the belief system behind it are dangerous, because they teach that Judaism and other non-Christian faiths are not valid," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians are seen as incomplete unless they convert, a concept that is contrary to the American ideal of respect for all religions."
 The game is also the subject of major new articles in Rolling Stone magazine and The Christian Science Monitor.

The entire ADL analysis is worth a read, but I want to highlight one important point made very well.  The game's maufacturer, and apologists in the gaming community, seek to treat the game as if it is isolated from the ideological context of the Left Behind series on which it is based, and the main market for the game, which is primarily people who are fans of the Left Behind books, or who share a similar theology.
... the inclusion of a "Left Behind" book in the package for "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" creates a direct link between the two. Together they promote the overall message of an exclusivist religious system that considers the proselytization of Jews to be an imperative. This theology portrays itself as the only path to salvation. And Jews, people of any other faith, or those of no faith who do not convert before it's too late, are destined to suffer horrible deaths.

The "Eternal Forces" game pits the "good guys" a Christian religious militia, battling the "bad guys," called the Global Community Peacekeepers - a United Nations-like world army led by the anti-Christ. LaHaye argues that the video game is "designed to be a classic battle between good and evil," adding that since there is no "gratuitous" blood and gore, its tale of the hellish demise of non-believers, will actually "perpetuate positive values."

The game, like the rest of the Left Behind franchise, mirrors another troubling aspect of the Christian Supremacist movement in the United States by portraying Christians who believe in their specific brand of theology as a put-upon minority who are being persecuted by larger and better equipped evil forces.

There is a vast difference between a video game that depicts graphic violence as part of an entertainment product, and one that instructs children and young people in the ideology of religious warfare against their fellow Americans.   But few of those who have focused on the issue of video game violence, whether as critics or defenders, have attempted to come to terms with the different set of concerns being raised about Left Behind: Eternal Forces.




Display:
Concern about this game has been driven primarily by bloggers, (especially at Talk to Action), and small organizations.

It is great to see major organizations like CAIR and the ADL come on board.


by Frederick Clarkson on Thu Dec 21, 2006 at 01:27:53 AM EST

Congratulations, Fred, for leading the charge on this one!!!  Perhaps the greatest innovation here is that it has been properly, and powerfully, framed- a "Religious Warfare Kid-Vid" says it like it is.  A prophet speaks truth to power.  Bravo.

by Steven D. Martin on Thu Dec 21, 2006 at 06:02:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]
A job well done.
--
one way truck rentals


by manatee66 on Tue Sep 15, 2009 at 07:25:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]



. . .its tale of the hellish demise of non-believers, will actually "perpetuate positive values."

How on earth can the "hellish demise" of anyone promote positive values?  Do the makers of this game really think that the rest of us are that stupid?    

by SFLady on Thu Dec 21, 2006 at 12:44:47 PM EST

Lately, from the sort of language Lyndon and Frichner have been using, you'd think the title of their game should be :

"Left Behind: Eternal Satyagraha"

by Bruce Wilson on Thu Dec 21, 2006 at 01:21:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]



Is there anyone here that think these fine upstanding, self-described "Vice-Regents of God" truly do not know the Founders views on church/state separation?tiffany jewelry Is it possible that these moral referees for God don't see stretching the truth a tad, as a Sin? They're doing it for the greatest cause of all, right? Tiffany Rings It's not really pulling the wool over everyone's eyes if they use fleece from the Lamb of God, see?


by action4u on Wed Sep 16, 2009 at 04:43:18 AM EST


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Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series on the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game have been viewed by up to 1/2 million people. See our site section featuring Over 35 original articles covering the controversial "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game that has provoked a boycott by a coalition of religious groups and a letter writing campaign urging Walmart to stop selling the game. Media inquiries click here
(image: detail from Francoise Dubois' rendition of the Bartholomew's Day Massacre reveals the actual nature of religious warfare)