Sex and violence are the bread and butter of the video game industry. But a new game aimed at Christian teens is banking on blockbuster status by replacing the sex with prayer -- while keeping the violence.

Players can either join the Christians and kill nonbelievers, or join the demonic forces and smite Christians, in "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," a video game due out this fall as part of the wildly popular "Left Behind" franchise of novels.

"Eternal Forces" is the latest effort by Tyndale House Publishers to profit from the "Left Behind" novels, a series about the apocalypse that its authors claim has won over converts to Christianity....  The game purports to teach Christian values while allowing players to kill in the name of either Christianity or the Antichrist.

The article continues:

The game's most vocal opponent is conservative Christian lawyer Jack Thompson... [who] published his book, "Out of Harm's Way" (Tyndale, $19.99), last November. He has since severed ties with Tyndale because of "Eternal Forces."

He said Tyndale, in backing the game, has "personally broken my heart." He accused the company of abandoning morality by exploiting a "cash cow" in the "Left Behind" series, and said co-author LaHaye "ought to be ashamed of himself."

"We've got a company that's really prostituting the name `Christian' and using it as a sales tool to market to Christian kids that which is harmful by any other name," Thompson said.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Hutson's multi-part series at Talk to Action; that was also posted at Political Cortex and The Daily Kos has led the way in raising some very disturbing issues that transcend the issue of video game violence alone. Among the concerns he raises is  that one of the games' main functions is the indoctrination of  children about what things will be like in the End Times, (which look a lot like today) and suggests that an ethic that demands the conversion of New Yorkers, and failing that, slaughtering them, is what Christianity is about. Hutson raises the question, for example as to who gets "left behind" after the "rapture" -- when good Christians are taken up into heaven while wars rage on earth?  (The game does not say, but Tim LaHaye in his books does.) Who are these faceless New Yorkers who were not good enough to be raptured? Why Catholics, atheists, Jews, Muslims, mainline Christians, gays and lesbians, and a host of others who comprise the full diversity of America. These fellow Americans are the characters left to convert or be killed on the streets of New York. This game is intended for children as young as 13. But of course, it will inevitably be played by children much younger as well.

Hutson also reported that the game is packed with spyware, tracking the activities of young gamers and compiling the information for unnamed clients; and that Jack Thompson has written to Christian Right leaders Jerry Falwell and James Dobson urging them to join him in denouncing the game. So far, they have not responded to Thompson's appeal.

Chip Berlet has reported on how the game fronts for, and helps to market Tim LaHaye' brand of hateful ideology. In Berlet's view:

So the outcome of Tim LaHaye's "non-fiction" writing, the Left Behind series of novels, and the video game, is the training of young Christian evangelicals to rebel against the elected government of the United States when they decide government leaders are in service to the antichrist. And the task for these young Crusaders is to gun down the agents of Satan and their witting and unwitting allies among the ranks of the non-believers.

And from the Left Behind novels, we know this list is likely to include not just secularists, but also homosexuals, feminists, abortion providers, as well as Jews, Catholics, Hindus, and Muslims...especially Muslims.

In fairness, there is only so much a reporter can cover in one short wire story. But the issues that Hutson, Berlet and others have raised, are not going to go away. And there will be plenty more opportunities for reporters to delve into them this summer, in the run up to the release of the game in October-- just in time for the Christmas shopping season.



[ editor's note - related stories: uTube video clip of "Left Behind Games" head Jeffrey Frischner promoting "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" in 15 second long plug: "You Can Play The Good Side And The Bad Side!" ]