liz_marcs: Jeff and Annie in Trobed's bathroom during Remedial Chaos Theory (Homicide Butthead Quote)
liz_marcs ([personal profile] liz_marcs) wrote2006-05-31 10:50 am

One Moment of WtF; One Moment of Beauty in the Dark

Here's a little something to piss you off: A Moment of WtF

I dare anyone to tell me that this game is okay in any universe.

A shoot-em-up computer game in which true, blue "Christians" run around a post-rapture New York City.

The mission? To convert — or failing that, to kill — Catholics; Jews; Muslims; Buddhists; moderate, mainline Protestant Christians; gays; and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state. Anyone who resists you as you conduct "physical and spiritual warfare" needs to be "taken out" with "extreme prejudice."

o_0

Yeah, well. Fuck you, too.

I know, not exactly a witty retort, but Jesus...

Although I admit that it's kind of awesome that at long last The Left Behind crowd has come clean about what they really, really want.

Look, I don't fricken care about violence in video games. It's up to you as a parent to decide whether junior can play Grand Theft Auto, but I'm not about to campaign to rip it off the shelves because you can't say no to your kid and end up buying a game that's clearly marked for adults.

However, I have a big, fucking, problem when a "good Christian group" decides to pull the dripping hate The Left Behind book series has for anyone that doesn't adhere to some narrow version of "Christianity" and puts it in an interactive videogame in all its ugly glory.

I take it really fucking seriously when that same game is marketed to 13-year-old "Christian" knuckleheads in an effort to train them to be "serial killers for Christ" when they grow up.

And don't tell me not to take it really fucking personally when the computer avatars targeted for conversion or killing represent real-life me.

Here's the summation of this crack-addled game coming out in October:

This game immerses children in present-day New York City — 500 square blocks, stretching from Wall Street to Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the United Nations headquarters, and Harlem. The game rewards children for how effectively they role play the killing of those who resist becoming a born again Christian.


"But is there no one innocent in this game?" I hear you asking.

Yes, indeedy. They're called "collateral damage" if you kill them. But don't worry. You can be forgiven for the cold-blooded murder of innocents by following these stimple steps:

If you happen to blow away a neutral party — and collateral damage is inevitable in the End of Days — then you will lose "Spirit Points". But you can power back up with merely a brief timeout for prayer, or by converting one of New York's terror-stricken citizens.


I have no words. Really. None.

There is, however, at least one good thing in this game:

The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian).


I have a sneaking suspicion there might be a small group of people buying this piece of trash for that reason alone.

To read the ugly, Talk2Action has the gory details.

For an antidote to The Left Behind poison, check out Fred Clark at The Slacktivist as he tears apart the series based on his own liberal, evangelical Christian beliefs. His commentary is funny as all hell, yo.

ETA: Additional links to the game via [livejournal.com profile] christianleft: Worthplaying has screenshots; Warcry gives the technical aspects of the game itself a good review, but notes some things that are disturbing about the game's storyline


Time to Clense Your Mind with a Moment of Beautiful Writing

Me love Kung Fu Monkey. Me now worship Kung Fu Monkey for this Memorial Day blogpost called Lions Led By Donkeys:

The problem is, these yahoos have managed an ugly trick. They have turned criticism of the policies of Bastards in Suits into criticism of The People in Uniform Getting Shot At. This, of course, is completely wrong, as one can easily tell the difference between the Bastards in Suits and The People in Uniform Getting Shot At. One group is in Suits, and Not Getting Shot At, while another is in Uniform, and Getting Shot At. Please, try to grasp this. Not the same.

There is a flip side. Some people confuse supporting the Bastards in Suits for supporting The People in Uniform Getting Shot At. This is, again, ridiculous. If the history of modern warfare has taught us anything, it's that the Bastards in Suits spend an awful lot of time working the kinks out of plans involving The People in Uniform dying unpleasantly. They often screw that up. When they do screw up, it is incumbent upon Bastards in Suits to suffer criticism and fix the situation, as by comparison The People in Uniform are suffering shattered skulls, missing limbs and death. Which is, on my scale, exponentially more traumatic than criticism.

Some people even seem confused on how we are criticizing the Bastards in Suits. The Bastards have a job to do. They are not doing it. Period. Tommy Franks recently trotted out the classic bit of misdirection, attacking critics of Donald Rumsfeld.

"I don't care about your politics. I don't. Don Rumsfeld is an American patriot."


Yes, well, that's lovely. But we're not criticizing his patriotism. We're criticizing his job performance. One of the great mysteries of the last six years was how and when the Bush Administration turned public policy into Special Olympics. "Oh, I know Donny knocked over all the hurdles, but HE LOVES THE RACE, so you SHUT YOUR FILTHY, CYNICAL MOUTH." Jesus H. Christ.


You must read the whole thing...

Interesting post

(Anonymous) 2006-05-31 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Interesting post. To me the game sounds like a bit of interactive free speech. Not the most friendly speech, but then again that isn't a prerequisite. However, I wonder if this game would be on the shelves if it was a jihadist game or put out by the KKK. It's funny how the more things change the more they stay the same, also it's funny how catholics would be the enemy in every one of those games.

JimboS

I have no words

[identity profile] drmercurious.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 03:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Not that such a thing hasn't stopped me before, but this time I really don't; I have actions.

I implore everyone to send a link to the game's website to all non-Christian groups of every stripe, and see what they think of it. I'd suggest the newspapers considering how well they've been doing lately (sarcasm? NAH!) in reporting such atrocities -- NOT!

[identity profile] nemo-gravis.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 03:53 pm (UTC)(link)
A shoot-em-up computer game in which true, blue "Christians" run around a post-rapture New York City.
I thought the whole "rapture" concept was about some mystical Scotsman in the sky beaming up all the true believers and leaving us no good heathens to burn in eternal hellfire. What, did these true blues get left behind 'cause they missed the last transporter beam or something? *is confused*

Sounds like a particularly crappy game. No need to worry overmuch. Quite apart from the moral connotations, if the game play sucks donkey dick, no one is gonna by it *grins*

[identity profile] nemo-gravis.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"no one is gonna by it"
Damn typos! *scowlz*

[identity profile] othercat.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I believe there's a certain set and specific number that are supposed to be raptured, leaving behind a whole bunch of people who are "believers" but aren't quite good enough to get rended limb from limb. Of course, the Rapture itself is a concept/philosophy based off of a more "optimistic" reading of Revelations--the prophecy itself has a higher body count and a smaller number of "saved" individuals.

[identity profile] othercat.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 06:19 pm (UTC)(link)
aren't quite good enough to NOT BE rended limb from limb...*sigh*

[identity profile] texanfan.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
There are many ways to read Revelation. Most of the numbers in it are present for their sacred meaning rather than empirical reality. There really is very little correlation between the actual book and sensationalist exploitation like the Left Behind series. Or the Omen or any other media endeavor you care to name. The problem is, there's a segment of the Christian population who doesn't bother to check what doctrine actually states because there's always someone yelling something catchy louder.

[identity profile] set-aka-ian.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 10:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[quote] I believe there's a certain set and specific number that are supposed to be raptured, leaving behind a whole bunch of people who are "believers" but aren't quite good enough to get rended limb from limb. [/quote]

30,000 will be admitted to heaven, and they all will have 'never known the touch of a woman.'

So no girls in heaven. And no heterosexual men, apparently. Just a few hundred thousand angels who really kinda resent us for ursurping their place as most-loved.

No thanks. I can't imagine a less pleasant place to go.

[identity profile] nemo-gravis.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
30,000 will be admitted to heaven, and they all will have 'never known the touch of a woman.'
How about men how have been touched by a woman but don't know about it, then? Lets say they've got amnesia. Would amnesiacs qualify? Or, or hey! Women with no hands! Women with no hand would qualify, right? Ooh! Transsexuals! And drag queens! Transsexuals and drag queens who live in a, um, in a monastery, do they qualify?

Seems to me the Bible needs to be upgraded to the version 2.0. Also revised for inflation. We're reproducing like rabbits down here. 2,000 years ago, 30,000 people was roughly the population of Europe. Now it's a football stadium *grins*

[identity profile] set-aka-ian.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 09:17 am (UTC)(link)
[quote] Ooh! Transsexuals! And drag queens! Transsexuals and drag queens who live in a, um, in a monastery, do they qualify? [/quote]

Well, let's see, men who wear dresses. Check. Men who eschew the company of women. Check. Men who have sex with other men (or slow-running altar boys). Check.

Sounds like the average monastary is already full of drag queens...

I am pleasantly surprised that a Jewish man gets to go to a Rabbi when he's having marital or parental issues, as a Rabbi is expected to be married and raising children, and in fact is required to be doing so if he wants to advance beyond a certain rank. Constrast to a Catholic man, who is expected to bring his marital and / or parenting issues to a cross-dressing virgin who likes to be called 'father.'

[identity profile] dlgood.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
What, did these true blues get left behind 'cause they missed the last transporter beam or something? *is confused*

I think they were left behind so they could rub it in.

[identity profile] charliesmum.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I was going to mention the game in the Simpsons, but they did that in the article.

Scary when Simpsons stop being parody and start being real life.

I like what Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman said about the Rapture in Good Omens (paraphrased)where an angel points out to a Televangelical audience that God wasn't likely to scoop up some of the people for the sole purpose of looking down on the others, 'if that's your idea of a morally acceptable good time'.

[identity profile] othercat.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 06:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Good Omens rocks the block...:>

[identity profile] invisionary.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Scary when Simpsons stop being parody and start being real life.

Too true. Though I suspect that this game is going to be quite a bit more violent than Rod&Todd's conversion game was....

[identity profile] charliesmum.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Is it sad that I totally know which episode your icon is from?

[identity profile] invisionary.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Not at all! My Simpsons knowledge isn't what it used to be, but there was a time when I could quote chapter and verse from any episode from the first six seasons or so.

I like that image because it just perfectly encapsulates the feeling of not being able to do anything right. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words....
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[identity profile] korilian.livejournal.com 2006-06-03 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
WOULD YOU ALL JUST STOP MOCKING THE TRUE FAITH! REPENT! REPENT I TELL YOU FOR GOD IS... oh I'm sorry. I mistook your icon for a cartoon representation of God...

What I can't get over is how nice the graphics look!

[identity profile] ffutures.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
There's never a Moslem fundamentalist around when you want one...

Oh well, I'm sure someone will tell them.

[identity profile] mochi-tsuki.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Free speech is good. Allowing lunatic fringes to rant is important in a free society.

Video games are good, well, some of them anyway.

Rating systems are important! How the fuck is this rated as acceptable for children?

[identity profile] moooleeesssaaa.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
since when did Thou shalt not kill get converted to Thou shalt kill only non Christians & collateral damage is ok as long as you feel really bad about it later?

[identity profile] swedish15.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 01:38 pm (UTC)(link)
The Crusades.

Of course, the Christian church should have abandoned *that* idea long ago.

[identity profile] smhwpf.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 04:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I saw this yesterday in [livejournal.com profile] christianleft, and I've been sort of rubbing my eyes wondering whether this can actually be real, or some sort of hoax, or something from the Onion, or whatever. But no. Oy, oy, oy. There are, as you say, no words.

[identity profile] a2zmom.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
It's nice to know that G-d's actual message in the bible is murder anyone who doesn't think exactly like you. I'd been misinterpreting all these years.

[identity profile] jgracio.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
That's just the New Testament, you can safely ignore it. :)

[identity profile] a2zmom.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
BWAH!

yeah, we tend to be on the recieving end not so much the meting out death end.

[identity profile] lostfolio.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 05:49 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not like it hasn't been done before. When the received a letter from the Emperor of Byzantium in the 11th century asking for some help with some pesky Turks, the Pope used it as an excuse to raise a HUGE army under the flag of Rome. It was justified by dint of the "disocvery" that Christ had been "misquoted". No kidding. Apparently, it was alright to kill non-Christians. That whole turn the other cheek thing didn't apparently aply to pagans, heathens, Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Unitarians, Scientologists or any of the sects of wild savages laying siege to Constantinople.

[identity profile] a2zmom.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
I'm well aware of how religion has been used as an excuse over the years. I was hoping that people in this country had grown past that.

[identity profile] jgracio.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Doesn't this somehow qualify as hate speech?

[identity profile] othercat.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Good grief.
I am strangely enough, not surprised at all.

[identity profile] nycorson.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I think I am going to be sick. This is a nice follow up to a rant on some fundemental christian website about how Hurricane Katrina wiped out New Orleans as punishment on homosexuals.

~sighs~ I think I am giving in and converting to Wiccian. I like their basic creeds "do as ye will as long as it harm none" and "all things return threefold."

Can I quit being Christian? Have no desire to have ANYTHING in common with that sort of thinking. No wonder I never had any desire to read the Left Behind series.

[identity profile] a2zmom.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 12:29 am (UTC)(link)
Reform Jews are very tolerant also. Just sayin'. Ans so are a lot of Christian groups. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.

[identity profile] hilleviw.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 06:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Kung Fu Monkey's position is where I was yesterday, before I heard the report of an 11 year old girl from Haditha on the BBC news. The problem I'm having now is that it's the People in Uniform Getting Shot At who are commiting many of the worst atrocities, and according to a recent report on the Newshour, about a third of the time they get shot at, it's by each other. I support troops coming back with their souls intact. I don't support Marines giggling while they slowly murder men in their 90s in front of their grandchildren, and pregnant women in front of their children. I don't support troops ceding their moral compass For The Duration.

Mind you, I've never supported this particular set of Bastards in Suits. And while I think that many of the troops merit support, and even more are redeemable, I have no such optimism about the Bastards.

[identity profile] texanfan.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I wish I could really say I can't believe this, but I can. Fact of the matter is, there are a huge number of Christians, even more who call themselves Christians without the least concept what that means. I've never read the Left Behind series. I have little patience with people who approach the "End of Days" like a bunch of third rate survivalists. If we're really lucky, this thing will be pulled ore it ever sees store shelves.

[identity profile] 4thdixiechick.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
And I thought that computer games couldn't get any lower than the Columbine Massacre RPG Game. A Columbine survivor talks about the game here.

I'm so glad that I stopped playing video games after kicking Tetris cold turkey back in '89!

[identity profile] hendrikboom.livejournal.com 2008-07-29 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
I heard that the purpose of that game was to educate people about what happened -- partly so that they could learn how to prevent such massacres.

[identity profile] irfikos.livejournal.com 2006-05-31 10:44 pm (UTC)(link)
So if you only wing someone, does it turn them into a Unitarian?

[identity profile] draconin.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
I find myself strangely torn between laughing like a lunatic and gibbering in fear. The thought of people with minds like that getting into positions of authority in the US is frightening.

Did you look at the discussion topics on the right hand side of the screen? I mention particularly "All women should consider themselves 'pre-pregnant'..."

Wow!!

[identity profile] dreamerjules.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 12:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I think I have literally forgotten how to close my mouth.


I don't even know where to begin to express my outrage at this mindless, negative abuse of Jesus's teachings. Where the hell do people get off warping what they are supposed to be following so completely out of its original form? I'm Methodist and I actually like being Methodist because there is a lot of room for individual thought within the church. Even among congregations. I also think there is more to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost that is in the Bible. I think that God gave us free will and I'm appalled that people who claim to follow him are so bound and determined to take it away from us. I want to know who the hell has the right to tell me how to worship or believe. That is between me and God and unless you subscribe to the Hindu belief of avatars, you are not an incarnation of God. I know I'm not.


My boss once told me how an evangelical friend of her's answered the What Would Jesus Do question. "I might not know what he would do, but he wouldn't be a bigot and he wouldn't be an asshole."

[identity profile] nycorson.livejournal.com 2006-06-01 04:30 pm (UTC)(link)
amen...
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[identity profile] korilian.livejournal.com 2006-06-03 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian)

I burst out laughing when I came to that part. Do you get to shoot Bush with that option? Sick though. What happened to all those innocent games where you just sell crack, shoot cops or run down old ladies *thinks back whistfully to the good old days*