Fundamentalism is pretty scary.  Anybody nutty enough to kill a person just because they don't believe in that's person's particular fictional superbeing should be locked up for the benefit of all mankind.  And yet Dominionism (the belief that Christians have a divine mandate from God to dominate the Earth) is alive and well among America's Christian population, and we really should sit up and take notice.  Due for release in October 2006 is "Left Behind Games" latest offering: Left Behind -- Eternal Forces.  A video game in which Christian soldiers are called upon to raid the streets of New York City where they must convert or kill liberals, moderate Christians, Catholics, Jews, homosexuals -- pretty much anyone who doesn't fit into the dominionist Christian worldview.  Yeah you heard that right.  Here.  In America.  Melting pot of diversity?  Or cesspool of intolerance? ...

From the article The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Talk2Action.org):

...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. 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...

With kids all situations are opportunities to learn. What are they taught by being allowed to play the "Antichrist"? Simple: this is what will happen to you if you don't fight for God.

From the article The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Talk2Action.org):

...Is this paramilitary mission simulator for children anything other than prejudice and bigotry using religion as an organizing tool to get people in a violent frame of mind? The dialogue includes people saying, "Praise the Lord," as they blow infidels away...

Sound familiar? Allahu akbar, anyone? Let us be like the beheaders and the self-exploders who praise the almighty before committing horrendous acts of inhumanity in the name of their imaginary friend?

From the article The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Talk2Action.org):

...The designers intend this game to become the first dominionist warrior game to break through in the popular culture due to its violent scenarios and realistic graphics, lighting, and sound effects. Its creators expect it to earn a rating of T for Teen. How violent is that? That's the rating shared by Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory, a top selling game in which high-tech gadgets and high-powered weapons - frag grenades, shotguns, assault rifles, and submachine guns -- are used to terminate enemies with extreme prejudice.

Could such a violent, dominionist Christian video game really break through to the popular culture? Well, it is based on a series of books that have already set sales records - the blockbuster Left Behind series of 14 novels by writer Jerry B. Jenkins and his visionary collaborator, retired Southern Baptist minister Tim LaHaye. "We hope teenagers like the game," Mr. LaHaye told the Los Angeles Times. "Our real goal is to have no one left behind."...

As in "left behind after the rapture"... the zany belief that before the endtimes, God will take the righteous up into heaven (physically) leaving the world to the godless before its destruction. Apparently leaving no-one behind to suffer includes killing them.

From the article The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Talk2Action.org):

...The firm's CEO is relying on network marketing through pastoral networks as a key part of his business plan, according to a report in the March 6, 2006, issue of Newsweek Magazine:

Left Behind Games CEO Troy Lyndon, whose company went public in February, says the game's Christian themes will grab the audience that didn't mind gore in "The Passion of the Christ." "We've thought through how the Christian right and the liberal left will slam us," says Lyndon. "But megachurches are very likely to embrace this game." Though it will be marketed directly to congregations, Forces will also have a secular ad campaign in gaming magazines.

As part of its marketing pitch, Left Behind Games hypes the realism with which it portrays the neighborhoods of New York City. There is, for the most part, a remarkable verisimilitude except for one detail - all of the ambulances have 911 painted on their roofs. In the reality-based world, most ambulances have a red cross on top. Yet the game designers make prominent use of these 911 ambulances to evoke the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The historical context of 911 is invoked as if to say, We are living in the End Times, and Muslims are among the kinds of infidels whom you should fear, whom you should be prepared to kill for your cause...

By now you may be wondering if this can possibly be a true story? It sounds unimaginable, doesn't it?  Typical urban legend fodder, right?  That's what I thought, too.

It's real.

Friends, I make no secret of the fact that I enjoy violent video games.  I can tell the difference between fictional violence and imaginary violence--I'm far more disturbed in the message of intolerance this game carries.  It seems clearly designed to reinforce xenophobic hostility.  There is nothing heavenly or Christlike in this message.  Christ (at least as written of in the New Testament) preached humility and humanity.  More than practically anything else he made clear that judgement and retribution were the purview of God, not man.  It appears over and over again in the New Testament.  "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  "Judge not, that ye be not judged."  "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."

Christ's position on humility is clear in Matthew 5:38-47:

38: Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

39: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

40: And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

41: And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

42: Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

43: Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

44: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45: That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46: For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47: And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

Christ was a liberal.  There is nothing remotely Christian to be found in dominionism.  This "Warriors for God" bullshit is just that.  Bullshit.  And it has nothing to do with any value the Jesus of the New Testament held dear or publicly espoused.  Although I am not a believer, much of Jesus of Nazareth's teachings (at least as represented in the New Testament) resonate with Humanist mores like mine.  How sad that they do not resonate with some of his most ardent followers.

I find it amusing that we shake our heads at the Middle East in disbelief over the atrocities commited in the name of Allah.  Newsflash: we've got wacko fundies here folks, infiltrating our government, preaching hate, and talking of dominion.  Perhaps we shouldn't judge the speck in our Muslim brother's eye...