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by Across the country, hundreds of ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants have drawn concern and criticism through their use of an unusual recruiting tool: the immersive and violent video game Halo.
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Some Folks Just Don't Get It by LordDilly :: NR8 :: Show
Using HALO 3 parties as a draw is interesting for several reasons. The biggest is because one of the two antagonists in the game is the Covenant, a coalition of alien races joined by religion and led by Prophets. The Covenant believe that humanity must be cleansed from the galaxy as per the will of the gods, and that using the titular HALO devices will open up a pathway to the Great Journey, allowing the Covenant to become gods themselves (using the HALOs will actually destroy all sentient life in the galaxy.)
The game is rated M for mature, but there is little swearing, and none of it worse than hell, damn, or bastard that I've heard. There is no nudity, and little gore, except for exploding alien pod zombies and blood. Frankly I see nothing wrong with churches using HALO to get the kids in seats. Like anything, a kid who is payed attention to, has a good upbringing and is shown love won't go out and kill people just because they played a violent video game.
""Daniel R. Heimbach, a professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, believes that churches should reject Halo, in part because it associates thrill and arousal with killing.""
""“To justify whatever killing is involved by saying that it’s just pixels involved is an illusion,” he said.""
And it's this guy who gives ammunition to certain atheists who shall not be named (Scott, I'm looking in your general direction.) The fact that you are killing pixels, which are an illusion AND NOT REAL is the POINT! Killing in a video game and killing in real life are not even remotely similar and video games cannot teach you how to aim a real weapon. Sniping your buddy in a HALO Slayer match does the same things that seeing a horror movie or going on a roller coaster does, and I certainly don't want to encounter slashers, vampires, and vengeful spirits, much less kill anybody. Man, has this guy not read the Bible? How do you begin to tell these kids about any of the violence in the Bible and getting into the serious issues of killing when you've gone ahead and made a blanket statement like that?