August 7, 2007
Kill or Convert, Brought to You By The Pentagon
My latest, about the Pentagon’s endorsement of an evangelical End Times entertainment troupe, is up at the The Nation. I would post it here but I’m having formatting problems. I’ll post it as soon as I figure out what the problem is.
August 8th, 2007 at 7:40 am
Hey Max, I just stumbled on your YouTube channel and you have some really great material! keep up the great work.
August 8th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Great piece. I like how you used Baldwin as your lede and kicker.
August 8th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Nice article. I wonder if Stephen Baldwin would’ve found
the Lord if he still had a film career….
August 9th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Just a correction that you might want to make in
your article: It’s Josh McDowell, not Jonathan McDowell,
who is the author of “More Than A Carpenter.”
Though I’ve escaped my fundie past, some things never
leave one’s brain.
August 9th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Excellent article - about something that, in my naive youth, I would have thought so clear a violation of the Establishment Clause that no self-respecting government official would have come within a thousand miles of it. One really amusing thing - I looked at the list of “Speakers” on the OSU website, and the only woman listed is - get this - a Dallas Cowgirl. That’s right, folks, a cheerleader.
August 10th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Your latest article should be titled “A Fat Load of Lies Brought To You By Max Blumenthal.” Your entire description of the Left Behind game is false. It’s either a lie or it’s based on lies. I seriously doubt you have actually played the game. There is absolutely no “kill or convert” in the game and you most certainly cannot win the game by waging “a violent war” to “kill or convert all the non-believers left behind after the rapture.” The game manual, the game itself and the game’s website all are explicit about this. Had you bothered to do some actual research into the matter, you would know this.
August 10th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Great article Max.
That game is so fucked up.
The whole idea of the antichrist’s army posing as these happy UN peace keepers really creeps me out. It’s almost like they’re trying to symbolize anti-war liberals in order for future generations of Evangelicals that are current playing the video game (kids) to despise peace. Now I know that the bible does mention that they’re going to pose as peace keepers, but why try and make it click in peoples brains that the humans currently trying to genuinely help the world have the same exact characteristics of the antichrists army? They at least could have given the bad characters uniforms small characteristics that don’t make them resemble fucking UN peace keepers.
I still might have to buy it and beat it for fun.
Maybe I’ll become really holy and have this strange vision that calls on me to have sex with other men and support the war.
August 12th, 2007 at 1:13 am
They’re not “happy UN peace keepers” in either the game or the books. In fact, they aren’t even written to reflect the UN peace keepers (or even “antiwar liberals”). The “Global Community” is the one-world government that the Antichrist creates. While he does start out as the head of the UN, he eventually reorganizes everything completely and the UN ceases to exist. The “Peace Keepers” are actually nothing of the sort. They “keep the peace” by committing acts of violence against those who don’t bow to the Antichrist.
I always find it amusing (in a shaking-my-head-in-disbeliefs way) how so many people who have never even played the game think they know it so well and can criticize it accurately.
August 16th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Jason, I haven’t played the game or even read the books, so I don’t know who is right about the details. I did go online and look at the Left Behind website. Even if it is like you say it is, I think that the game is still disturbing because it sneakily changes the way people think about the world. I will try to give examples of what I mean.
First, it uses words for ideas that already exist as labels for evil things from the end times, words like “Global Community” and “Peace Keepers” are very linked with the United Nations. If you use the same words for evil things in the game, you also change the meaning of those words and the United Nations in the minds of people who play the game. It is a slippery slope from there to opposing the global community and peace keepers for their evilness. Some people say the UN is already being changed by the anti-christ, this game can only contribute to that kind of thinking.
Second, the game formats christianity as a war, where the practices of christianity are an arsenal to be deployed against the enemy. You may say that Love is the real motive, but this game is a warcraft-type game (something I also dislike). Like all video games, after a while it starts to change the way you think about a thing. When I think about packing a suitcase, I go into Tetris mode. The Left Behind video game leads people to think about faith and religion as if it is a war. This war view brings them closer to the radical fundamentalism that is hurting the world today.
Finally, the Left Behind video game tells the story of the end times like it could be happening today, again and again. That message gets drilled into the brains of players. I think it promotes a sense of emergency and black-and-white thinking that changes the way people make decisions about their lives. Some people are already describing events in the world as being caused by Angels and Demons when real world reasons exist, this game can only contribute to that kind of thinking.
I should make clear I think that the fevered hallucinations in the Book of Revelation don’t belong in the Bible because they have very little to do with the Gospels of Jesus. At best, I think the Book of Revelation is a historic description of the events of the first century AD. So you can see why I am disturbed by religion and thought that promotes the Book of Revelation.