I remember all too well the shock and outrage, years ago, when pictures came out of a young Middle Eastern boy, no more than seven or eight, dressed as a suicide bomber. How sick we were that religious fanatics would encourage children to die for their leaders hatred, that they would teach their precious young that in order to receive G-d’s blessing that they must commit murder. It didn’t seem possible that anyone could condone seducing children to such evil.

Well, we are seeing it again. Individuals claiming to be speaking with the love of the Almighty as they train their young to hate anyone who does not walk their narrow path and murder anyone not submitting to their ideology.

No, it’s not Muslim members of the Taliban. It’s a group of Protestant fanatics who want to use children’s love of video games to teach them to hate and kill. The premise of the game comes from the popular Left Behind book series but in the game children are taught that Jews, Muslims, Buddists, Roman Catholics, and gays are to either be converted to their brand of Christianity or murdered. And just to throw in another handful of hateful, they teach them to do the same to other Christians who do not share their political views, such as those who believe in separation of church and state.

"Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life."

As I have stated in the past, I am a Jew with Protestant relatives, so I understand Protestant teachings. I appreciate Christianity as a whole, from the splendor of Roman Catholicism to the devoutness of mountain Baptist. And to paraphrase the recently deceased, Lloyd Benson, this isn’t Christianity.

Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me" [Matthew 19:14], not "Suffer them to commit murder in my Name". Jesus, the teacher, said, "Those that live by the sword, die by the sword" [Matthew 26:52], not "all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice." Even Jesus understood the need for separation of the spiritual and the secular when he stated very clearly, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render under G-d what is G-d’s." [Matthew 22:21]

That said, while this game will be distributed through "pastoral networks and mega-churches", this game has as much in common with the teaching of Jesus as Jeffrey Dahmer had with the Joy of Cooking.

Jesus of Nazareth taught of love, acceptance and non-violence. It’s a shame that his followers haven’t stood up to those who attempt to pervert the religion started in his name for their own purposes. And it’s a shame that until the true followers take a stand, individuals who aren’t Christian will associate this type of bigotry, ignorance and violence with a poor misunderstood Jewish teacher who would be truly mortified.

Rene' Thompson
June 01, 2006

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