Wal-Mart Asked to Drop Christian Video Game

doug141 writes "Liberal and progressive Christian groups say a new computer game in which players must either convert or kill non-Christians is the wrong gift to give this holiday season and that Wal-Mart, a major video game retailer, should yank it off its shelves.Players can choose to join the Antichrist's team, but of course they can never win on [his] side. The enemy team includes fictional rock stars and folks with Muslim-sounding names, while the righteous include gospel singers, missionaries, healers and medics."

Comments

What's a "progressive Christian"?

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Is it like a critical fairy tale believer?

Re:What's a "progressive Christian"?

[ifchairscouldtalk]

Is it like a critical fairy tale believer? Kinda, but probably closer to a secure Windows.

Re:What's a "progressive Christian"?

[yourexhalekiss]

A progressive Christian is someone who actually does what the Bible says to do: Love one's neighbor more than one's self Loves God with all of their heart, soul and mind. It's pretty much that simple. Any person that calls themselves a Christian but hates homosexuals, Muslims, non-Christians, liberals, etc. is sorely deluding themselves.

Re:What's a "progressive Christian"?

[mario_grgic]

Progressive Christian is a believer in one God - three persons (as defined in Nicene Creed) who does NOT engage in bibliolatry (i.e. a belief that every single word of the Bible must be taken literally, and for whom Bible is the final authority and not God. Jesus didn't write any books but revealed divine truth to his selected followers only. Hence, continuous Apostolic succession is so important in the Church, and not many churches can lay a claim to that. As a matter of fact the idea that you can "start" a church is absurd, just as the idea that someone in England, decides to "start" a kingdom and proclaim themselves a king of England).

A progressive Christian reads the Bible and understands it for what it is, a collection of parables and rarely historical accounts of actual events, the purpose of which is to always illustrate a point that God is actively involved in his creation, encouraging trust in him (which means believing his word i.e. believing that he has done or will do what he has promised).

A progressive Christian is living in the present, and applies the word of God to his situation and does not try to bend the world to fit the Bible and live in the past, avoiding relativism, a great peril of modern world on the way.

Perhaps that clears it somewhat.

Re:What's a "progressive Christian"?

[DaveCar]

Well I guess that excludes me, as I've been serious thought to coveting my neighbour's ox lately

Man, the ox is OK, but you should see her ass!

Re:What's a "progressive Christian"?

[yankpop]

Any person that calls themselves a Christian but hates homosexuals, Muslims, non-Christians, liberals, etc. is sorely deluding themselves.

Ok, but how does this square with Leviticus:

If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads

Are you suggesting that you should love homosexuals even while you put them to death? 'cause that's a subtlety that may not be so reassuring to the homosexuals at the receiving end of your loving.

Seriously, how you can be both progressive and follow the Christian bible is a mystery to me. I know there are in fact a lot of progressive christians, even gay christians, but it doesn't make any sense to me. The book itself contains many hateful passages like the one above. And it's a religion, which means it's not supposed to be subject to rational thought - you take it on faith, unquestioning. If you are both progressive and christian does that not mean that you've decided to disregard the offensive passages? And once you do that, is there any faith left in what you do? If you can rationalize away the killing gays bit, why not the thou shalt not kill bit? Faith is an all or nothing business I thought...

yp.

Re:What's a "progressive Christian"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Opposite over hypotenuse.

Duh.

Re:What's a "progressive Christian"?

[ClassMyAss]

Could you please provide specific passages?

With pleasure.

Deuteronomy:
7:1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
7:2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

7:16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them : neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

7:22 And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
7:23 But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

13:6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;
13:7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;
13:8 Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:
13:9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
13:10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

13:12 If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,
13:13 Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;
13:14 Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;
13:15 Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
13:16 And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

17:2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;
17:4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and enquired diligently, and, behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel:
17:5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

17:12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
17:13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

Robotic Jesus

[garlicbready]

does it have a 100ft robotic Jesus with spinning cross attack?
How about the star of David Ion canon?

Re:Robotic Jesus

[laejoh]

Pfff, not deadly enough. However, does it have the ...?

Can't wait...

[d3m0nCr4t]

Can't wait for a reaction of Jack Thompson on this one...

Re:Can't wait...

[techpawn]

Hopefully his head will explode in a poof of circular logic.
Video game == Bad
Chirstians == Good
Christian + Video game == ??? *pop*

Re:Can't wait...

[Jackass Thompson]

I enjoy the game and highly recommend it.

Wow!

[Aladrin]

"It pushes a message of religious intolerance."

Talk about realism in video games! I'm amazed! How did they get it so life-like?

They don't dislike the 'Left Behind' book and game series because it's inaccurate. They dislike it because it's TOO accurate. It shows how religious people really think and act. Okay, so maybe the Pastor at the local church doesn't use a gun to convert people, but the message is the same: Convert to my religion or burn in everlasting flames. And maybe if they left it at a statement, it wouldn't be so bad. But we still have clergy that do completely immoral and unethical things, sometimes not even to further their cause, but for personal gain. And they get away with it.

I used to call myself Christian, but not really name which type (Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, etc). Now, I say I believe sort of like they do, but with a few major differences:

God doesn't care what religion you are, so long as you are a good person.
God doesn't care what name you call him by.
The Bible was written by man, not God. It was then translated by man, not God. Several times. It is a tool to guide you to the correct path, and nothing more. All holy books serve this same purpose, no matter the religion. Church is also such a tool. (I won't get into corruption, that's a long debate.)

Instead of merely tolerating other religions, I embrace them. They are God's methods of helping us be better people.

So far, I'm pretty much alone in my religion. I don't imagine I'll be setting up a church any time soon. ;)

Unfortunatley, I must side with the extremists...

[trianglman]

I thought it would be a cold day in their Hell before I did but...

Unfortunately, creating this game is Constitutionally protected free speech, and selling it is completely up to Wal-Mart and other retailers. I think it was done in very poor taste but should be treated no differently than GTA or any other games that are similarly in bad taste.

Re:If this works, let me be the first to say:

[stewbacca]

The Detroit Lions can't beat anybody, let alone Christians!

I don't know about the game

[anomaly]

But I do know about Christian theology. It's my understanding that Jews accept Jesus as a teacher, but *not* as God. Muslims accept Jesus as a prophet, but not as God. Of course, I disagree with them. I believe that Jesus was a real, live person walking on earth about 2,000 years ago, and that he was also God of the universe.

Slashdot is not known for editorial accuracy. I doubt that Muslims are the non-Christian "star" of the books. Pragmatically speaking, it seems to me that if all Christians are missing, then the 1.2 billion Muslims will be relatively more prevalent. The blurb reads "muslim-sounding" names - showing how ignorant we Americans are. Since we're the population minority in the world, almost everyone has a "foreign-sounding" name.

According to one line of Christian theology, all Christians are removed from earth by God during what is called the rapture. After this, there are *no* Christians until some people rediscover what the Bible teaches. During this season of time, people can become Christians, and the idea is that these new believers have a compelling reason to challenge others to become Christians, because at the end of that short period of time, everyone who chooses to reject Christ will be separated from all that is good, gentle, loving and peaceful for all of eternity.

Here's the deal. Either Jesus Christ is God, or He's not. If someone teaches that He is not God, according to Christian teaching, and because of the law of non-contradiction, Jesus cannot simultaneously be God and "not God" in the same time and relationship. Since Judaism, Islam, and Christianity teach different things about Jesus, man's relationship to God and how it may be possible to reconcile to God, logically either all three beliefs are wrong, or one is right and the others cannot be right.

Christian tolerance teaches me to tolerate people's rights to choose whatever religious belief they want, even if they are wrong. Christian love teaches me to tell people who God is, and how to reconcile relationship with Him, because I want everyone to have the kind of relationship with God that I have.

Respectfully,
Anomaly

Re:To the lions...

[LunaticTippy]

Are you retarded? Or just naive?

Let's say, for example, that I live in a Sharia-based society. Should I just accept these crippling religious laws because it is wrong to judge groups of people? Can't I just reject the whole insane pile? Must I judge every single one of these woman-hating intolerant lunatics individually?

Or let's say that I live in a Xian theocracy. Again, is it wrong to judge these witch-burning adulturer-stoning fucktards en masse? Are you truly insisting that I shake every single narrow-minded pinched-souled puritanical tyrant's hand and get to know them?

I say that it is fine to judge groups of individuals if those individuals chose to join those groups. After all, it's what they want. They want to be grouped together with others of the group! Otherwise, why'd they join the group?!? I suspect many of them are weak-minded, but that's all the more reason to judge them all at once.

Re:To the lions...

[Sponge Bath]

Atheists believe the only consequence to actions in life is if you get caught...

Uhmm... no. Atheists don't believe in god(s). Most of them do believe in consequences to actions.

People who have an absolute hatred of a mass group as a whole scare me.

I agree, and your incorrect generalization of atheists scares me.

Re:To the lions...

[clifyt]

"christians are the reason america has taken a turn for the violent. If you believe in an afterlife - you scare the fuck out of me. You don't have the same commitment to THIS life that I do."

I disagree. Christians are not the ones that have taken a turn for the violent, 'christians' have.

For instance, I find it reprehensible that someone can defend the combined ownership of guns, the belief in a death penalty and the hatred of abortion.

I agree with the last, but the other portions are just as engrained in todays 'christian' beliefs as if it says in the Bible "Take up guns and smite thy neighbor". Bullshit. These people are not Christians, nor should you believe they are. If they truly believed in an afterlife, they'd have changed their ways a long time ago.

What was it, just about two weeks ago, the president of the Christian Coalition resigned over disagreements with where he thought the organization should go. His claim was that he felt that these people were too involved in trying to legislate moralistic viewpoints and ignoring the world at large:

"just a basic philosophical difference .... I saw an opportunity to really broaden the conversation and broaden the constituency. I'm really over this whole polarization thing."

He had asked that they back off on abortion and gay marriage, and focus on doing what Christ would have liked them to focus on -- decreasing the burdens of the poor, treating God's lands as it said in the Bible, increasing giving to charitable organizations -- more or less, changing things that will directly impact his people and have them focus their moral attitudes within, and not with forcing others to legally follow their perspective. If we change the laws to enforce a singular belief system, this is no choice, and we are no better than organizations like the Taliban -- who have increasingly been getting more liberal over the last few years (they just made changes to their charter saying they will not kill women for disobeying them without at least giving them one warning, and then one beating after that...my gawd! These guys have turned into regular Al Frankens over night!).

But seriously, there are a lot of Christians out there that are nothing what you think of when you think of all the assholes ruining the name.

(And yeah, I know I have a long way to go as well...I just try not to be a COMPLETE hypocrite about the whole thing)

Re:If this works, let me be the first to say:

[sparr0w]

umm, this is slashdot. we don't follow baseball.

Re:If this works, let me be the first to say:

[Brummund]

Version 1.01:
* Misc bugs removed
* Fixed Satan exploit, allowing him to take over the world
* Spawn of Evil will now spawn in lesser numbers
* The stone introduced as a new weapon, allowing you to stone the infidels
* The Billy Graham level is now accessible in Realistic mode
* Kofi Annan removed as head of evil, Son of satan; replaced with generic character awaiting the new appointment of the UN leader