My How Times Have Changed
How do you, Local Pastor, get uninterested teenagers to come to church? Entice them with violent video games.
When I was a kid, I was only offered stale bread, some grape juice and eternal salvation. What's next - pornographic movies and an open bar?
Well, if you want to get uninterested grown-up girls to come to church...couldn't hurt.
posted by kate @ 11:26 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Many thanks for using "uninterested" correctly. I swear, I want to reach through the pages and choke someone every time some dimwit sports writer says the team looked "disinterested" ... dammit, it's the English language, use it correctly.
I'm sorry, point over. Did someone say pornography and open bar??
So unbelievably irresponsible of the pastors, the church, the parents.... I have no more words.
A pathetic, desperate ploy to get warm bodies in the door...
And now after 37 years I find out "disinterested" ain't a word?! I'm not reading this site anymore!
You know, I think this one sort of depends on your point of view.
I'll admit to my bias in regards to violent video games. I love 'em. As a Quaker with a lot of rage issues, I find it preferable to blast fake people away while yelling curse words at the top of my lungs when it's my T.V. that's the target.
The church...meaning a very specific kind of church...is starting to move into the video game field, though, as they realize how pervasive a medium it is. The Halo parties are one thing, but there's a video game company out there releasing a game based on the "Left Behind" book series where you have to convert the heathens...or shoot them. Of course, conversion of the homosexuals, Muslims and Jews sharing the planet with you, the true-believer Christian...who was somehow mysteriously forgotten after the rapture...gets you more points than just gunning them down, but both tactics work.
The thing is, I'm not convinced that trying to rope in the unconverted with video games is going to be any more successful than Dungeons and Dragons was in turning a generation of kids into suicidal Satanists. After all, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him "left left right button A left right right right trigger" for eternal salvation. If there's a predilection there, sure, you can use a game as an excuse to rationalize all sorts of behavior, from murder to religious conversion, but it's not a cause.
And I do find some of the strategies relevant. Games are a way we figure out our place in the world. By playing them and discussing them, we reduce the complexities of a daily existence down to a few, identifiably "pure" themes. Maybe there are more insidious things this church does, but the article treats this, "The organization recently sent e-mails to 50,000 young people about how to share their faith using "Halo 3." Among the tips: Use the game's themes as the basis for a discussion about good and evil," like it's a bad thing.
Shouldn't kids be determining their thoughts on good and evil? I hate to say this, but if children are so metaphysically untethered that a sermon after a vicious round of HALO makes them change their religion, then isn't that a parental issue for not instilling a better sense of self in their child?
I don't think many of the kids who are playing this game put much thought into it. If my students are any indication. I also don't think many parents use this as a way to talk about issues such as good v. evil.
So maybe the church is taking an opportunity here.
Or maybe it's a ploy.
Not sure.
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