It seems some Christian groups from across the ideological spectrum are finally getting a bit worried that the Left Behind machine is giving them a bad rap. At least when it comes to the video game version of that machine, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, set to be released in early October at game stores and churches around the U.S. The game, which pits believer versus nonbeliever in the wastelands of a post-Rapture New York, has angered crusaders against violent video games to the point that they are calling for a boycott against Tyndale House.
This from the DawnCaller:
The game is based upon the first 4 of the Left Behind series books. In this game you get to command the Tribulation Forces and do battle with the forces of The AntiChrist. In playing the game your task is to convert the "neutral" population, you know the agnostics, before they convert over to the side of the AntiChrist. Your options to keep the forces of darkness from growing is to convert these folks or kill them. Yes and I did say killing is a valid option.
Jack Thompson, longtime foe of violent video games and an author of a book against violent video games published under the Tyndale umbrella, says the publisher's support of the game "breaks my heart."
This from the Washington Post: :
"The game is about killing people for their lack of faith in Jesus," he said. "The Gospel is not about killing people in the name of the Lord, and Jesus made that very clear."
Thompson worries that the existence of this game will be taken as proof by radical Muslims that Western culture is mounting a modern-day crusade against non-Christian faiths. Thompson says he broke off a publishing relationship with Tyndale House -- the company that puts out the "Left Behind" books -- because it approved licensing the book franchise to the start-up company that is just now putting on the game's finishing touches.
Now let's take a step back a minute. Where were these people the past ten years while the 15 novels in the Left Behind series of books basically portrayed the same things? I find all of this hand-wringing over the Left Behind: Eternal Forces video game a bit funny considering there has been little or no hand-wringing from these same people about the Left Behind books, which are mirror images of what the games portray.
Have any of these people read the books at all? If they did they would find just about the same thing that's in the video game. Books that glorify martyrdom in the name of Christ. Books that portray a militant, crusading Jesus who smites foes on the battlefield of Armageddon in all his redeeming, bloody glory. Books that combine conspiracy theories about Jews, Catholics and Muslims with a before minor and now major version of Protestant fundamentalist eschatology thought up only 150 years ago. Books that paint anything outside of this fundamentalist brand of belief as part of the evil plan of "liberals and secular humanists" to take over the world in the name of the Antichrist. Books that slip LaHaye's conservative political activism into a quasi-thriller framework, add a smattering of Christian conversion stories, and call it "Christian Fiction." Books that portray the annihilation of anyone who does not believe the way LaHaye believes.
So what's wrong with the video game that's not wrong with the books? Why the hypocritical response of calling for a boycott of the publisher (who publishes other books besides the Left Behind series, some which run counter to LaHaye's beliefs) because of the video game and not because of the books? Both medium basically preach the same thing: martyrdom, crusading, intolerance, persecution, violence.
In defense of Tyndale House, they are only keeping in line with what their Left Behind product proclaims to the world; be it in the books, the children's series of books, or now this video game. It seems a bit late for these people to get their panties in a bunch about a video game when they said absolutely nothing about the books themselves. Where's the consistency there? And when is 41 people a boycott? (At time of this writing 8/29/2006, only 41 people had signed the petition). You'd think there would be thousands given the loud exclamations, but all of this seems to be a bit of tempestous teapottery. Are the days of hitting the pavement for signatures gone, or does posting a petition on the Internet count as protest?
The lack of balance about the response to Left Behind Inc. may have something to do with the Protestant elevation of the Word over the Image. The Image is historically considered bad, moldy with Catholicism, and a little graven; while the Word has been considered good, the light giver, the proselytizing potion of the people. So maybe there is some consistency in a weird, twisted way.
But there's also a difference between calling for bans and boycotts and criticism. The criticism is muddied here with an out of kilter response from those Christians set against the Left Behind video game. Are they simply against the 'violence' in the game as in other games they've called for boycotts against, or are they against the way LaHaye has manipulated the images of Christ and Christianity for political, monetary and cultural gain? I'd have to say it is simply the former, since there was so little of the latter over the past decade in regards to the Left Behind books. That's not criticism, that's hypocrisy.
Michael Standaert is the author of Skipping Towards Armageddon, published in June by Soft Skull Press.