Lest we think there might be exceptions for extreme cases, look at King David - a supreme pillar of faith, mentioned as such throughout the Bible, beginning to end. Yet the man lusted after another man’s wife, abused his position as king to sleep with her, lied to her husband, and then killed him when he was too upright to accept the lie. That’s not the only thing he did, but it’s easily among the worst - not to mention worse than what most of us, or our modern fallen priests and pastors, have ever done.

God punished him for it, yet he also used it for good. He didn’t kill David or Bathsheba. He didn’t remove David from kingship or the blessing of the Messiah via his lineage. He even allowed Bathsheba’s second son to become, not just the next king, but the richest and wisest king who ever lived. If that doesn’t say that God still loves the guy, then I don’t know what does.

And that’s the problem - we don’t love. We’re really good at rules and rewards and punishments and marketing and manipulating and judging and condemning, but we suck at forgiveness. In order to forgive someone, you have to love them. In my own struggles with this, I’ve learned that it is possible to love someone you don’t completely trust. In this job, I have to punish-yet-love every single day. If I don’t love, then the punishments only serve to drive my kids further away - they do more harm than good. At the same time I know better than to leave money lying around, you know?

So with Mike G, and other pastors like him who have made big mistakes, we need to give them room for repentance and, when they do, forgive and love as if nothing happened to breach the relationship.

Though I would ask for a second opinion if he says he’s dying again.

I believe you’re my healer.
I believe you are all I need.
I believe you’re my portion.
I believe you’re more than enough for me.
Jesus, you’re all I need.

Nothing is impossible for you.
You hold my world in your hands.

I was even more blown away when I found out that the song was written by a guy who had terminal cancer. Now that’s some amazing faith!

Then I found out he made the whole thing up.

Why would someone do this? Money? Fame? And why would a worship leader do this? I wonder if he thought people would forget about the song, or maybe he could say “I’m healed!” after a while and throw a big party. I bet he didn’t think it would get as big as it did, but who knows?

I don’t understand people like this. People who live a lie. I can understand lying to hide sins, though it takes a bold (or cowardly) man to do it for a long time, but an intentional lie? In my mind it falls into the same category as atheist theologians, or students who go to seminary because it’s a good career path. It’s like they’re missing the point. Our pastor likes to tell the story of the conference he spoke at where over 300 pastors gave their lives to Christ for the first time. That’s just sad.

And it’s a good song. Can we still worship with it? Does the heart of the writer taint the song? I don’t think so. Some of my greatest worship experiences have been with “Bring Me to Life“, despite what Evanescence says about the song’s meaning. What matters is the heart of the worshiper, not the songmaker. Unfortunately, the Lie is all I can think of now when I hear the song. Maybe one day I’ll forget about it, but for the now the song is tainted in my own heart.

What’s worse, I can’t get it out of my head.

That sounds scarier than it is. Nobody got hurt (so far as I know), no shots were fired. Guns were just held that said, “We’re in charge now.”

That also sounds worse than it is. They didn’t take control because they’re mean and power hungry (though the fear is that they will become that). They took control because they, and many other people, really didn’t like the current Prime Minister (Thaksin) and had no other way to get him out.

But you don’t need me to be your news source. There are other, more qualified channels for that. Here are some articles I found informative: Thailand’s king gives blessing to coup and Q&A: Thailand’s coup impact.

But don’t worry about us. We’re fine. We’re all fine here, now. Thank you. How are you?

In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you’ll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.

Apparently it will only be available from September 12th to December 31st, but rest assured that my leftover Amazon money will be put to good use during that time. Now I’m just waiting for Spider-Man to meet up with Venom…

Then we talked about a third reason: to provide a wholesome alternative to secular media. I mentioned that this reason has two basic assumptions behind it: (1) we should be able to consume entertainment and (2) we can’t because we are Christian. I talked about how the second assumption wasn’t necessarily true. In cases of addiction or unquestionable sin, the second assumption applies, but otherwise “…everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.”

What is and is not okay for Christians to consume is certainly debatable. It has been debated (often heatedly) for centuries. So for the sake of argument, let’s assume that nearly all of secular media is not okay for us to consume because we are Christians. If that is true, then we need to ask whether or not we should be able to consume entertainment in any case. Certainly God intended us to enjoy life here, right? I think that’s true, but I don’t think that we need a Christian version of everything in our attempt to enjoy what God has given us.

The actions and teachings of Jesus and the early church leaders tell us that we need to be in the world, but not of it. We need to be in it so that we can be a light to others and save them, but we must not be of it, otherwise we will be no different than the unsaved and, therefore, no help to them (not to mention in extreme danger ourselves). If in our attempt to not be of the world we hide ourselves from everything the world has to offer, then we also cease to be in the world at all. As Paul wrote, “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.” Paul knew that pulling out of the world was not an option.

But furthermore, if in our attempt to not be of the world, we not only hide ourselves from the world’s offerings but also go out of our way to create Christian versions of everything the world has to offer, then we will not be in the world at all but we will have managed to be of it - having everything the world has, but having nothing to do with the world. The opposite of where we need to be. We risk pulling out of secular circles entirely to watch Christian movies, listen to Christian radio, wear Christian clothing, hold Christian jobs with Christian co-workers, and play Christian games online with other Christians.

A week ago, I challenged the claim that Eternal Forces would “break barriers” between Christian and non-Christian gamers. I said that there were no barriers to break - Christians were already playing with non-Christians. My concern now is that, far from breaking barriers, products like Eternal Forces might serve to create them.

We don’t need Christian games to reach unbelieving gamers. We need Christians who play secular games. We don’t need Christian movies to reach unbelievers. We need Christians who watch movies and have unbelieving friends. We don’t need Christian rap music (or metal or punk or pop - pick your genre) to reach unbelievers who like rap music. We need Christians who listen to and understand secular music and can discuss the spiritual issues in it with unbelievers.

So we don’t need Christian media to evangelize the world (we can do that ourselves, often more effectively), and we don’t need Christian media to protect us from the world. So then why do we have all this stuff? I’m afraid the only other reasons I can think of are financial.

From the GameSpy article:

Players aren’t competing to kill the enemy army — rather, they’re trying to save them, and each person killed represents a failure rather than a success. “We found that adhering closely to Biblical philosophies made the game more interesting rather than less,” Lyndon[, CEO of Left Behind Games,] said.

Peppered throughout the city, the player will come across scrolls, each marked with a Biblical verse…. In my demonstration, I watched an angel descend and take the scroll’s figurative Biblical quote (1 Corinthians 15:37 “When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.”) and translate that into a gift of money — which, all things considered, made him the coolest angel ever.

As for the violence in a game built from a Christian perspective, Lyndon doesn’t shy away from that either, pointing out that the Bible itself is quite a violent book. “The point of morality is that people have a choice in how they react to situations — and one of those choices is always going to be violence.”

From the GameSpot article:

The game will feature biblical facts between levels, accompanied by tracks from Christian rock groups…. Troy Lyndon, the CEO of Left Behind Games, told us that you can quickly skip over this by hitting the continue button, but they’re also putting in a button to learn more if you’re intrigued.

It’ll be interesting to see how well the game does when it ships…. Lyndon says that the company plans a grass-roots outreach to churches to generate buzz, similar to those used for Mel Gibson’s movie and last year’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

3. To provide a wholesome alternative to the violence and morals present in secular media.
First of all, although this isn’t where I’m going to go with this post, I need to mention the apparent hypocrisy some of you noticed in the press release. As pointed out in various comments, the first bullet point in the press release and the quote by the CEO of Left Behind Games don’t seem to fit. For those of you just tuning in, here they are again.

(A feature listed in the press release for the game)

Conduct physical & spiritual warfare: using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world

(A quote from an interview with the CEO of the game developer)

Left Behind Games was established on the belief that given the choice, people will voluntarily choose games with positive moral elements.

Setting the morality of war aside for the moment, I think a game in which you order your units to kill other people is going to be just the same, morally, as every other game in which you kill other people. Just a thought.

That aside, I’d like to talk about this “wholesome alternative” reason in a more general sense. I believe most of Christian entertainment uses this reason to support its existence, but there is an unspoken assumption behind this. The assumption is that we should be able to take part in consuming entertainment (books, movies, games, etc.), but we can’t take part in most of the things the world produces because they depict language, violence, sex, occult practices, or other affronts to our Christian principles. Actually those are two assumptions; to put it more simply: (1) we should be able to consume entertainment and (2) we can’t because we are Christian.

I’ll start with the second assumption, but it is such a large topic that there’s no way I can deal with it all here. There is an elusive line somewhere. On one side of this line, there are things of the world that we cannot touch. I suspect that this line is in a different place for different people. For myself, movies depicting sex (even mild sex) are on this side of the line. Although I have mostly overcome this addiction, the pull of sexual imagery is still strong on me. It’s even difficult for me to walk through the magazine section of a bookstore - not because I’ll pull something down and flip through it, but because even the covers are assaults on this weakness of mine. On the other hand, I’ve never had a problem with (for example) alcohol. I can walk into and out of a bar with no problem, but someone who has suffered from that addiction in the past might feel the same way towards the bar as I do towards a swimsuit issue.

That’s one side of the line. We should not cross to that side without great protection from God and those we are accountable to. On the other side of the line are things of the world that we can partake in. Jesus went to parties (and drank, I believe), Peter ate with Gentiles, Paul ate food sacrificed to idols. Paul, in particular, spent a lot of time talking about the freedom he had as a follower of Christ. There are a couple of things to notice about all these forays into the world. First, none of these were old addictions for these people. I’m fairly certain that old addictions need to stay on the other side of the line, and those addictions will be different for each person. Second, each of these examples serves a specific purpose. In Paul’s words:

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

Allowing ourselves to step into certain aspects of what the world has to offer, without letting desire for those things displace God, is one way we can be in the world but not of the world, so that by all possible means we might save some. We could (and Christianity has) debated for centuries on what is okay for Christians to take part in. My general belief is that if you are doing something for the Lord, it’s okay. As Paul told Timothy, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.”

This is already longer than I intended, and I’ve only talked about half of the equation. To conclude this half, there are some products of the world that we can take part in, provided we do so with gratitude and our minds on God. Obviously that doesn’t remove the apparent need for a wholesome alternative to secular entertainment, but there is still another half of the assumption that I have yet to deal with. I’ll do that in another post (and soon).

I tried to think of potential reasons for Christian games, and what my problem is with them. I don’t say that because I’m trying to be mean, but I’ve never liked Christian commercialism and I think this topic is forcing me to really think about why. In this post, I’m just going to deal with the first two reasons for producing Christian games that came to mind. They are:

1. To reach non-Christian gamers with the gospel.
2. To help Christian gamers evangelize their non-Christian, gaming friends.

Let’s talk about these.

1. To reach non-Christian gamers with the gospel.
First of all, I don’t like arguing against any form of evangelism that is not actively hurting anybody, because honestly if they can get one person to turn to Jesus then from a kingdom perspective, it’s worth it. It might not be efficient, but then efficiency is not a defining characteristic of God’s kingdom. So while I have sincere doubts that the ability to “unlock inspirational content” will actually make anyone “consider the larger concepts of good vs evil”, if it’s effective for even one person then I’m glad.

Having said that, I still think that if this is the reason, then making Christian games is at best unnecessary and at worst a waste of resources - not God’s resources, but (in this case) the resources of Left Behind Games. There are far more effective ways of getting “inspirational content” into the hands of gamers, and even getting them interested in reading it. One thing gamers are notorious for is ignoring in-game text that has nothing to do with winning the game. Heck, even if it does have to do with winning the game, many gamers will still ignore it - if they wanted to read, they’d have picked up a book. So if that’s the extent of the preaching that Eternal Forces is going to do, then I hope this is not their sole reason for development.

2. To help Christian gamers evangelize their non-Christian, gaming friends.
The gamer community is known for being non-Christian, but the truth is that there is a substantial percentage of Christian gamers out there. One can imagine that a Christian game might serve as a foot in the door for religious conversation between the two groups. Once again, I don’t want to argue against a form of evangelism that is not actively hurting anybody, but at the same time I question the effectiveness of this tactic. Certainly it will be effective in some cases, but are those the norm or are they on the short end of the bell curve?

This may depend on the person. I have an outgoing friend who even used Testamints as a way to turn a conversation towards Christ (although the conversation usually began with talking about how stupid an idea Testamints are). Unfortunately gamers are stereotypically not as outgoing. On the other hand if we’re willing to look a little foolish sometimes, then it’s possible to bring up Jesus in nearly any conversation on any topic. Rather than waiting for our friends to watch Lord of the Rings or Narnia and ask us to explain it to them, we need to be the intentional ones, turning the subject of conversation to Jesus as is appropriate in our own lives and relationships. We don’t need a Christian game to do it. Any game will do (or book or movie or whatever we normally talk with our friends about). We do have to pray and let go of our fear, but we don’t have to wait for the Christian entertainment industry to produce something for us.

The press release claims that Eternal Forces will “break barriers” by appealing to both Christian and “traditional” gamers, as if gaming were a junior high school dance with Christians and non-Christians on opposite sides of the gym. This is an illusion. There is no ice that needs to be broken between Christian and non-Christian gamers. Christians are already playing the same games as everybody else. The only barriers I can see are related to marketshare.

There’s another possible reason to make Christian games: to provide a wholesome alternative to the violence and morals present in secular media. In his interview, the CEO for Left Behind Games said, “Left Behind Games was established on the belief that given the choice, people will voluntarily choose games with positive moral elements.” I think this is probably one of the primary reasons for the existence of Christian entertainment as a whole, and when I get a chance I’ll talk about it here too.

When the RTS Rapture Comes Will You be LEFT BEHIND?

E3 is set to be the stage for the public premiere of LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces, the RTS based on the wildly popular LEFT BEHIND Christian book series that will break barriers and appeal to both the traditional gamer and the Christian market.

We’d like to schedule an appointment for you to meet with the developers and see a demo for the game that is poised to be the first break-out hit for Christian gaming.

Here are some more details about LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces:

- Conduct physical & spiritual warfare: using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world
- The first RTS where every unit has a unique identity; every character has a name and a back story, providing 1000’s of hours of interesting reading - People are the most important commodity: players must protect the lives of their warriors and recruit “neutral” and even “evil” units to their side
- Command your forces through battles across the most realistic depiction of New York City in any game
- Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices. Unlock inspirational content that makes players consider the larger concepts of good vs evil
- Control more than 30 unit types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks
- Enjoy a robust single player experience across dozens of New York City maps in Story Mode - fighting in China Town, SoHo, Uptown and more
- Play multi-player games as Tribulation Forces or Global Community Peacekeepers

Historically, the gaming community does not treat arrogance kindly. It’s one thing for a company like Blizzard, who out of 7 games has made 6 smash hits, to say that their next game will be a triple A title. It’s quite another for a complete newcomer to the gaming community to claim that they will have a break-out hit on their first try.

To be fair, most new game companies claim their first title will be smash hit. They have to in order to try and generate interest so that they can sell some. But with certain companies, that generation of interest can backfire in a big way. A few years ago, a high-profile game designer left his big company and founded his own. This happens all the time, but this particular designer hyped himself and his company up so much that when their game was delayed for years, and when finally released turned out to be mediocre at best, he and his company became a laughing stock among the community. (Read the story behind Daikatana here).

I’m worried that because this is a Christian game, which have historically been terrible games, this Left Behind game will fall under the same scrutiny. It looks like the CEO of Left Behind Games at least understands what his focus needs to be. I guess my main concern is that most attempts by Christians to do something in the entertainment industry (”Just like what they’ve got, but Christian!”) have been sorely lacking. Passion and Narnia are two recent exceptions, but the folks behind Left Behind had nothing to do with those. They did, however, make a movie or two that made me wanna cry (not in a good way), as well as a never-ending series of books that, in Tycho’s words, “are an act of war against the English Language”. So I think I have reason for concern.

If they do fail, or even if they are simply mediocre, it will just drive the nail deeper into the coffin labelled “Christian games”. They have to actually produce a game that is good on its own merits. This game has to make gamers say, “That game was actually pretty cool.” Honestly, that’s the best I think they can hope for. I don’t think they’ll have a big fanbase waiting anxiously for their next game. Not yet. But after they’ve proved that they can do it once or twice, maybe they’ll have something.

But as an ex-gamer, I’ve gotta say that they’re going to have a lot to prove.