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Author Topic:   Just In Time For Christmas...A Violent Religious Right Video Game
Mirandee
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Posts: 1971
From: South of the Thumb Taurus, Pisces, Cancer
Registered: Sep 2004

posted December 06, 2006 10:36 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mirandee     Edit/Delete Message
Just in time for Christmas, the religious right has released a violent video game in which born-again Christians aim to convert or kill those who don't adhere to their extreme ideology. The video game, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces," is based on the apocalyptic "Left Behind" novels - written and promoted by religious right leader Tim LaHaye. Despite the violent, intolerant message being marketed to children, Wal-Mart, the nation's #1 video game seller, is selling the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game - just in time for the holidays!

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces" takes place in New York City, shortly after the rapture. Gamers are charged with creating Christian militias who roam the streets of New York City, looking to convert non-believers and killing those who they are unable to draw to their side. In fact, after particularly bloody battles, players must use prayer to recharge their "soul points" that have been diminished by the killing.

Most disturbing is the game's apparent attempt at religious indoctrination - aimed at children and focused on violent, divisive, and hateful scenarios.

The game has outraged progressive and conservative Christians alike, and despite the religious right's typical opposition to violent video games, "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" has not generated any criticism from this group and in fact gained a gleaming review from a Focus on the Family affiliated website this week.


WHAT IN GOD'S NAME?

"God will destroy this earth that is so marred and cursed by satan's evil."

Tim LaHaye



Since 1995, Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" series has sold over 65 million copies, making it one of the best-selling adult fiction series in history. While the novels are sold as fiction, according to LaHaye and an increasing number of Americans, the story they tell is nothing less than biblical prophecy born from the Book of Revelation. As LaHaye's theology has gained popularity over the last several decades, so has his access to powerful politicians including President Bush.

The true danger of LaHaye's thinking, known as Premillennial Dispensationalism– exposed powerfully in a series of speeches and articles by Bill Moyers - is in the justification it provides to its followers for damaging policies from environmental degradation to the war in Iraq.

It may sound far-fetched that so outlandish an ideology could be exercising real power over our country and our future. The reality is anything but far-fetched – not when proponents of Dispensationalism hold sway over some of the nation's most powerful politicians, and not when tens-of-millions of Americans consider themselves adherents to its claims.

Let DefCon give you a little background:

The Rapture: "One of the comments that we've heard that has really blessed us is people have been driven back to the Book of Revelation to prove us wrong only to find that what we said was there." Tim LaHaye.
Premillennial Dispensationalism was fathered by John Darby in 19th century Britain. Based on a literal interpretation of the books of Revelation and Daniel, Premillennial Dispensationalism states that time is divided into seven dispensations, the last of which will be the Millennial Kingdom: a thousand-year period where Christ will reign over a renewed world. According to Darby and LaHaye, the precursor to this "Glorious Appearing" will be a terrible seven-year period of tribulations. During this time, those on Earth, and the planet itself, will suffer death and destruction. There is hope for the faithful, however. LaHaye maintains that prior to the death and destruction, Jesus will collect all true believers, "Rapturing" them up to Heaven, where they will escape the terrible fate of the sinful Earth.

Dispensationalists welcome this period of death and destruction because it is inextricably connected to the Rapture. They look for signs of its coming, and many take steps to hasten what they believe to be biblical prophecy.

Growing Popularity: Today, preachers and congregations across America have adopted this ideology. Beyond this fact, and the wild success of the "Left Behind" series, there are many signs of its growing support.
A 2004 Newsweek poll found that 55% of Americans believe "that the faithful will be taken up to heaven in the Rapture."

More than a third of Americans (36%) believe the Book of Revelation to be "true prophesy that predicts the end of the world as it will happen."

Websites like www.RaptureReady.com provide daily updates on the status of the "Rapture Index," while www.RaptureLetters.com allows believers to "send an Electronic Message (e-mail) to whomever you want after the Rapture has taken place, and you and I have been taken to heaven."

And, leading religious right leaders publicly discuss the Rapture's imminence, preaching to an estimated 20 to 25 million evangelicals who share this, or a similar version, of end-times theology.

Access to Power: "I'll tell you what is wrong with America. We don't have enough of God's ministers running the country." Tim LaHaye, 1984.
Beyond the influence Dispensationalism has through its electoral power – some estimate that followers of this ideology compose up to 15% of the electorate – the leading purveyors of this ideology are also very well connected. In 1981 Tim LaHaye founded the Council for National Policy, becoming the organization's first president. Attendees of the Council for National Policy's secretive tri-annual meetings – whose members include leaders of the religious right and top tier conservative organizers – have included President Bush, Sen. Bill Frist, John Ashcroft, Tommy Thompson, and Oliver North. Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney were featured speakers at one of the group's meetings only two months after the invasion of Iraq.

A 2004 New York Times article about the Council for National Policy called it "a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country," adding that for 23 years they "have met behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference…to strategize about how to turn the country to the right."

As Salon.com's Michelle Goldberg wrote, "The point isn't that all these leaders are part of some kind of right-wing Illuminati. It's simply that the seemingly wacky ideology promulgated in the Left Behind books is one that important people in America are quite comfortable with."

Justifying Policy: "God will destroy this earth that is so marred and cursed by Satan's evil." Tim LaHaye, 1973.
Dispensationalists' literal interpretation of the Bible means they look for, and often seek to create, the realization of biblical prophecy. Among the most direct results of this are support for abandoning environmental protections and for the war in Iraq.

As then Secretary of the Interior James Watt stated in 1981, "That is the delicate balance the Secretary of the Interior must have: to be steward for the natural resources for this generation as well as future generations. I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns." (Secretary Watt, testifying before the House Interior Committee, February 1981.)
Dispensationalists' lack of support for environmental protection has two causes. First, the Earth will soon be destroyed, so who cares what we do to it? Secondly, Christ's second coming, and thus the Rapture, requires a scourged Earth. Therefore defiling the planet will only accelerate His return. This explains a large reoccurrence of this theology during the Cold War, when the threat of nuclear annihilation was omnipresent. See Jerry Falwell's "Nuclear War and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ" for an explanation of that phenomenon.

"At church one day (DeLay) listened as the pastor (John Hagee), urging his flock to support the administration, declared that 'the war between America and Iraq is the gateway to the Apocalypse.' DeLay rose to speak, not only to the congregation but to 225 Christian TV and radio stations. 'Ladies and gentlemen' he said, 'what has been spoken here tonight is the truth of God.'"
LaHaye, John Hagee, and other Dispensationalists contend that the war in Iraq is biblical prophecy, supported by a literal reading of several of the Bible's verses referring to that region of the world. These individuals therefore support the war not for political or social reasons, but rather because it is a biblical requirement for the second coming of Christ, and thus the Rapture. This reality is argued openly by followers, including LaHaye.

The real threat posed by this growing movement is that it remains below the radar screen for most of mainstream America, which is unaware or fails to recognize its gravity. Instead of ridiculing its believers, those who are concerned by its implication and growing power need to begin to understand this theology and to develop strategies for countering its increasing influence.

Speeches and Articles By Bill Moyers:

"Welcome To Doomsday. Never!" http://www.forestcouncil.org/tims_picks/view.php?id=936


"There is No Tomorrow" http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/38/8664

"9/11 And the Sport of God" http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2005/09/09/911_and_the_sport_of_god.php


More Resources:

"The Godly Must be Crazy" www.Grist.org. http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2004/10/27/scherer-christian/index.html


"Who Is The Council For National Policy And What Are They Up To? And Why Don't They Want You To Know?" Americans United For Separation Of Church and State. http://www.au.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6949&abbr=cs_

"Club of the most powerful gathers in strictest of privacy" The New York Times, 08/28/04

"Writing for Godot: The Bible Foretold It. The War in Iraq Proves It. The End Is Near, Says Christian Activist and Best-Selling Novelist Tim LaHaye, and He's Writing as Fast as He Can" The Los Angeles Times, 04/25/04 http://www.shepcat.com/PrintWritingGodot.htm

"The Evangelical-Jewish Alliance" The Christian Century, 06/28/03 http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2717


Theocracy Watch Feature on Dispensationalism http://www.theocracywatch.org/christian_zionism_dispensationalism.htm


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Johnny
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Posts: 1638
From: Colorado, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted December 06, 2006 11:56 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Johnny     Edit/Delete Message
You may want to rethink your words here, Mirandee. The Rapture could at occur at any moment, and when it doe

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BlueRoamer
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Posts: 1888
From: Calm Blue Ocean, Calm Blue Ocean
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 07, 2006 12:10 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BlueRoamer     Edit/Delete Message
LOL Johnny that one almost slipped right by me

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Mirandee
Knowflake

Posts: 1971
From: South of the Thumb Taurus, Pisces, Cancer
Registered: Sep 2004

posted December 07, 2006 02:00 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mirandee     Edit/Delete Message
When it does...there will be a picture of a bunch of people on the side of a milk carton with the words "Have you seen us?"

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