Focus On The Family Endorses 'Satanic Role-Playing' Religious Warfare Video Game As Kid-Safe

Focus On The Family Endorses 'Satanic Role-Playing' Religious Warfare Video Game As Kid-Safe
By Bruce Wilson Wed Dec 06, 2006 at 04:13:07 AM EST
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"Eternal Forces is the kind of game that Mom and Dad can actually play with Junior—and use to raise some interesting questions along the way" - from a review in "Plugged In Online", a website published by Focus On The Family

The violence depicted in "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game, and the inherent ideology, which suggests all religious beliefs except for fundamentalist Christianity are invalid and casts public education as satanic, has prompted a coalition of Christian groups to denounce the game and call for a consumer boycott, and the game has also prompted a lawsuit from one conservative critic of video game violence.

James Dobson, founder of Focus On The Family, has used his prominent position to inveigh against the alleged threat of homosexuality and, in 2005, accused that a children's television cartoon character representing an underwater sea-sponge*, "Spongebob Squarepants", was being used to promote a supposedly "pro-homosexual video". Yet, as depicted in the eponymously named cartoon series, Spongebob Squarepants appears the apotheosis of family values, displaying exceedingly high moral and ethical standards and taking great pains to avoid hurting anyone's feelings let alone causing any sort of physical injury.
In sharp contrast, the powerful "family values" advocacy organization Dobson founded, Focus On The Family, apparently approves of pop-culture products depicting religious warfare, at least when waged on the right sort of people - such as New York City residents. The organization also seems to have endorsed the "satanic role playing" the game affords players, who can command the forces of the "AntiChrist", as family-friendly and kid-safe.



"Plugged In Online", a website published by Focus On The Family, has enthusiastically endorsed the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game that Talk To Action contributor Jonathan Hutson has described, in his multi part expose on the game, as one in which "Christian militias wage physical and spiritual warfare using the power of prayer and modern military weaponry to convert New Yorkers and kill those who resist." and which has been targeted at teens and young adults. Although Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action series has so far been viewed by several hundred thousand readers, The Left Behind Games Company has not so far challenged its factual basis. Promotional screen shots from the game in play show armed forces firing at point blank range at civilians and bodies littering the streets ( screenshots from the game ), and the official description, from the manufacturer, states that in the game there can be no neutral noncombatants.

"We want to entertain first, but we want to entertain in a way that the loving message of Jesus Christ comes through." - From an interview of Left Behind Games Company CEO Troy Lyndon by GameSpy Magazine.
"Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world....

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!"....

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

- excerpted from a description of the game, on the official "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" game website. From the official Left Behind Games

(con't) http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/12/6/4137/52113

That's weird.

the Whore of Babylon, daddy!
Okay, junior, but only if I get to be the False Prophet, and the Worm with the Seven-bladed Tongue.