Just More of the Same

I know, call me square or not with the times but I have to say I find it strikingly odd and depressing that some churches are attempting to lure youth to their communities of faith through a titillating ultra-violent video game conveniently named Halo. I won’t go into the specifics of it but imagine lots of heady gore, spraying of bullets and boisterous cheers from its participants. Though most of the churches employing this new tactic likely have good intentions, as the parents and ministers of our children (including the larger community of children) we must ask if we are helping our youth or hurting them by giving them more of the same.

There is already too much violence and age inappropriate material in our homes and our culture. Halo is rated M for mature audiences but some churches are disregarding the label and are marketing it to the youth they seek. Perhaps those congregations would argue desperate measures for desperate times. Matt Richtell recently wrote an article for the New York Times titled Thou Shall Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church and posed the question at what cost to the children (I assert spiritually, psychologically and socially) are churches willing to “relate” to them and get them through the door.

The sin is not so much that we as humans are drawn to violence, and selfishness and other acts exemplifying our recurrent temporary losses of grace from God, but it is that we too often fail to deny our desires, and redirect them, for the benefit of our relationship with God and our community. What these churches are teaching children is violence (even holocaust) is “Ok” in the right environment, particularly if there is some Biblical lesson pertaining to Good and Evil and the End Times hidden amidst the bloodbath.

What is surprising is that a number of evangelical churches are using this recruiting tool as well. In some small, very small, way I had hoped that they would be the ones to uphold the standard for the rest of the Protestant churches to attain. Clearly they are just like the rest of us. We are failing our youth. We are unimaginative in our efforts to draw them into our churches, to give them God in a way that they find has significance in their lives. As a result, we have resorted to giving them some more of the same: more soul crippling images that nestle into their hearts and shape them. Isn’t it the role of the elders, parents, teachers, and ministers to show by example, to stop the chain of violence? We all must practice love by training our minds and hearts. This training is moment by moment, day by day, in every act we commit to, every thought we nurture.

We have to practice loving our neighbor and enemy (yes, even the ones we so desperately want to send into oblivion)and take deliberate steps to move towards God. Violent video games have no place in a church where love and peace are preached and taught and believed to be sacred and essential to life, to following Christ. Virtual human slaughter is sanctioned by some of these churches but sex and alcohol are intensely discouraged. Where is the logic in this?

There has to be someone who says “No more!” What happened to the city upon the hill? All eyes are watching us, particularly the eyes of our children. Let us be the non-conformists that Jesus, Thoreau, Gandhi and King were and countless others. Let our hands shape our children’s hearts by acknowledging our human brokenness and joy and not feed them more darkness that pulls them farther from their God.

Amen.