Eternal Forces is the new video game based on the Left Behind series of books. I can’t say i was completely surprised when i heard about it, but i was no less apalled. the following link is a Washington Post article about the game.
Fire and Brimstone, Guns and Ammo:
As the camera pans over a smoldering representation of New York City, the booming voice says it all: “For those left behind, the apocalypse has just begun!”
umm…again, that whole mixing and melding religion with pop culture thing. Do you think it might be the envangelism spirit of Christianity that allows for this sort of “marktet placement of brand name” to occur?
i don’t think you can blame evangelism on the whole. evangelism has come in forms that were explicitly counter-cultural in the past. st. patrick’s mission to ireland is an example.
however, maybe modern western models of evangelism have this problem inherent in them. the game is not being created for evangelism though. the company is explicitly for profit and not christian.
I didn’t mean to suggest evangelism on the whole. I just meant the idea of a calling to spread Christianity at all costs, which might imply such things as this game. If the focus of one’s religion is proselytizing, then maybe one wouldn’t mind what is done, as long as there is exporsure of one’s religion in the public. I understand that this game is maybe more for profit, but there must be some motivation for it being a Christian game as opposed to something else. Besides all that though, the idea of a Christian action game in and of itself, just seems anathema to Christianity.
i totally agree with your take on the game, but i think you’ve pidgeon-holed evangelism somewhat. evangelism has not always been defined as “a calling to spread Christianity at all costs”.
the mission to ireland set up christian communities that simply lived differently than everyone around them. in the early church christians, though persecuted, were also thought highly of because they took care of each other and the poor and were generally more hospitable than the rest of society. i wish evangelism looked more like that today. i think more people would be willing to convert.
maybe I should say the psychology of evangelism, because I don’t mean to suggest that evangelism itself is the cause. But I also should say, before I continue, that I don’t like proselytizing (nor the desire for conversion, but the acceptance of converts is fine. All these thoughts are very complicated…anyways).
After I had written that last post I thought about what you said about money making a little more, and had a scary thought. Mainly, that in making a Christian video game one is targeting a very specific audience (I suggested this in the SuperMan Movie post), that more and more Christian symbols, faith, and religion are being used as a marketing ploy. Though the game might appeal to other audiences simply by being an action game, it seems more designed to appeal to Christian video game players. We might even suggest that the Da Vinci Code was the same thing, but more of a reverse psychology model (not that Ron Howard or Dan Brown were targeting Christians specifically, but more of a sort of demographic set of beliefs. They had to know that it would be a ‘hit’ simply by the subject matter.) It seems that instead of exploring Christian themes in these various art forms (ie. Left Behind and said video game), there is more of a concerted and conscience effort to simply appeal to Christian sympathies.
i think disagreeing with conversion/ proselytizing would be an interesting thread to pursue.
about your other point… i totally agree. the da vinci code probably doesn’t fit though, because it could be that it was so successful because it was marketed to non-christians (those who might agree with the conspiracy theory). surely they knew that it would stir controversy as well.
[...] Paradoxology’s post on Responsible Eschatology fit with our discussion of the forthcoming Left Behind-based video game, Eternal Forces: I know that we’ve had our fill of all that consumeristic, sensationalistic, premillennial hype But who is doing more with eschatology than merely leaving it behind? It’s really easy for us to point the finger in disgust or even enjoy a good laugh over commercialized ‘pretrib’, ‘premil’ portrayals of the future. But who is continuing to wrestle with the eschatological elements of apocalyptic literature and not just the socio-political ones? Who is drawing a connection between eschatological hope and our pursuit of justice with immediacy? [...]
Hey I saw you mentioned the Left Behind series by Tim LeHaye? I know they are trying to build a community of us fans of the series. If you want to join the group we are at http://www.foundthisbook.com