The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Part 1)

By jhutson Mon May 29, 2006 at 07:58:55 PM EST

Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series on the "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game have been viewed by over a quarter of a million people and the controversy over the game the series provoked has lately erupted into mass consumer protest. Talk To Action features a dedicated site section featuring our more than 35 original articles covering the controversial "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game that has provoked a boycott by a coalition of religious groups and a letter writing campaign urging Walmart to stop selling the game.

For inquiries on Talk To Action member media appearances about the game : talk2action_media_contact@earthlink.net

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. 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.

The game, slated for release by October 2006 in advance of the Christmas shopping rush, has been previewed at video game exhibitions, and reviewed by major newspapers and magazines. But until now, no fan or critic has pointed out the controversial game's connection to Mr. Warren or his dominionist agenda.

topic: Religious Militarism

Time magazine has described Mr. Warren as one of the nation's most influential Evangelical Christian leaders. He describes himself as a "stealth evangelist" and describes his training programs as "a stealth movement, that's flying beneath the radar, that's changing literally hundreds, even thousands of churches around the world." He claims that he has sold tens of millions of copies of The Purpose Driven Life by developing a worldwide network of pastors.

The international director of Mr. Warren's Purpose Driven Church, Mark Carver, is a former investment banker who serves on the Advisory Board of the corporation created in October 2001 to develop and market this game. The creators plan to market their game using the same network marketing techniques that Mr. Warren used to turn The Purpose Driven Life into a commercial success. For example, they plan to distribute their merchandise through pastoral networks, especially mega-churches.

[Update: Mark Carver, a top aide to Mr. Warren, resigned as an adviser to Left Behind Games on June 5, 2006, and asked that the game developer remove the Purpose Driven Ministries name brand from its web site. These abrupt moves came in response to pressure from Talk to Action, as reported in the third essay in this series, "Revelation and Resignation (Part 3)". Here is a screen shot from the Left Behind Games site taken before June 5, showing Mr. Carver's name and invoking the name brand of Purpose Driven Church, which the site describes in some detail. -- JH]

This game immerses children in present-day New York City -- 500 square blocks, stretching from Wall Street to Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the United Nations headquarters, and Harlem. The game rewards children for how effectively they role play the killing of those who resist becoming a born again Christian. The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian).

Is this paramilitary mission simulator for children anything other than prejudice and bigotry using religion as an organizing tool to get people in a violent frame of mind? The dialogue includes people saying, "Praise the Lord," as they blow infidels away.

The designers intend this game to become the first dominionist warrior game to break through in the popular culture due to its violent scenarios and realistic graphics, lighting, and sound effects. Its creators expect it to earn a rating of T for Teen. How violent is that? That's the rating shared by Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory, a top selling game in which high-tech gadgets and high-powered weapons - frag grenades, shotguns, assault rifles, and submachine guns -- are used to terminate enemies with extreme prejudice. [Nota bene: While some versions of Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory have been rated M for Mature, Amazon.com offers a version rated T for Teen, which invites players to "Go into battle with futuristic weapons and high-tech gadgets used by real-life spies," and "Strike without mercy." -- JH]

Could such a violent, dominionist Christian video game really break through to the popular culture? Well, it is based on a series of books that have already set sales records - the blockbuster Left Behind series of 14 novels by writer Jerry B. Jenkins and his visionary collaborator, retired Southern Baptist minister Tim LaHaye. "We hope teenagers like the game," Mr. LaHaye told the Los Angeles Times. "Our real goal is to have no one left behind."

The game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is based on scenes from the first four novels in the series. The game was developed by a publicly-traded company called Left Behind Games, according to SEC records. The developers obtained the license from Tyndale House, the Christian publisher of Left Behind.

Tyndale also publishes Bringing Up Boys and The Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide by Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, PhD. Mr. Dobson has advised parents to monitor the amount of time children spend playing video games and "avoid the violent ones altogether." But he has not yet stated his views on whether there should be an exception for video games that role play gunplay in the name of Christ, or of the AntiChrist.

Tyndale's licensing of the project infuriated one of its authors, Jack Thompson, a conservative Christian attorney and outspoken critic of video game violence, who told the Los Angeles Times that he severed ties with his publisher in a dispute over "Left Behind: Eternal Forces."

"It's absurd," said the video critic. "You can be the Christians blowing away the infidels, and if that doesn't hit your hot button, you can be the Antichrist blowing away all the Christians."

The firm's CEO is relying on network marketing through pastoral networks as a key part of his business plan, according to a report in the March 6, 2006, issue of Newsweek Magazine:

Left Behind Games CEO Troy Lyndon, whose company went public in February, says the game's Christian themes will grab the audience that didn't mind gore in "The Passion of the Christ." "We've thought through how the Christian right and the liberal left will slam us," says Lyndon. "But megachurches are very likely to embrace this game." Though it will be marketed directly to congregations, Forces will also have a secular ad campaign in gaming magazines.

As part of its marketing pitch, Left Behind Games hypes the realism with which it portrays the neighborhoods of New York City. There is, for the most part, a remarkable verisimilitude except for one detail - all of the ambulances have 911 painted on their roofs. In the reality-based world, most ambulances have a red cross on top. Yet the game designers make prominent use of these 911 ambulances to evoke the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The historical context of 911 is invoked as if to say, We are living in the End Times, and Muslims are among the kinds of infidels whom you should fear, whom you should be prepared to kill for your cause.

For game enthusiasts, there is also a multi-player mode, in which you can go online and battle to take territory from other players. If you happen to blow away a neutral party - and collateral damage is inevitable in the End of Days - then you will lose "Spirit Points". But you can power back up with merely a brief timeout for prayer, or by converting one of New York's terror-stricken citizens.

In this way, the game resembles a send-up of Christian-themed video games by "The Simpsons." "Billy Graham's Bible Blaster," is a first-person shooter game in which you fire Bibles at club-carrying heathens to convert them into card-carrying Republicans. (Hint: after you finish reading this blog piece - and eating all your vegetables -- visit the Simpson's official web site and open file drawer F-H, then click on the character of Evangelical Christian kid Rod Flanders to play the game.)

Time has dubbed Mr. Warren "America's minister." But Mr. Warren says that his agenda stretches far beyond America, and far beyond traditional ministry. He sees himself as the CEO of a global marketing enterprise, and as the Commander in Chief of a stealth army of one billion Christian foot soldiers.

On the 25th Anniversary of his Saddleback Church on April 17, 2005, Mr. Warren filled the Angels baseball stadium in Anaheim, California, with tens of thousands of his flock. Mr. Warren signaled his belief that we are now approaching the End of Days by opening with a rock band, which played the Jimi Hendrix drug anthem Purple Haze. As the band jammed, Mr. Warren sang the lyrics:

Purple haze all in my eyes
Don't know if it's day or night
You got me blowin', blowin' my mind
Is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?

The Director of the Peace Corps, Gaddi Vasquez, read a message of support from President George W. Bush. Then Mr. Warren called on his flock to support a $40 million capital campaign to expand missionary training facilities at Saddleback's 120-acre campus in Lake Forest, California. He pledged participants to achieve a purpose-driven ministry overseas. His dominionist theology is apparent in this ministry. A key aspect of dominionist thought is a conviction that the Scripture gives the church a mandate to take dominion over this world socially and culturally before the return of Jesus Christ. Mr. Warren's global plan is a strategy to realize a dominionist vision of churches, states, and corporations forming partnerships to bring about a new world order to make way for Christ's return by establishing a literal, physical kingdom of God on earth. In order to build this earthly kingdom, Mr. Warren plans marketplace ministries - business ventures with a veneer of missionary compassion that slip into a country in order to transform it systematically through the governmental, corporate, and social sectors. And that is why Mr. Warren calls himself a "stealth evangelist" - because he wishes to cloak his dominionist agenda, which is the establishment of an earthly kingdom that reflects his skewed vision of Christianity.

According to Mr. Warren, the establishment of this earthly kingdom requires "foot soldiers." As part of his plan, Mr. Warren said he would encourage laypeople to "adopt" needy villages overseas in order to plant churches, expand business opportunities, educate children, influence governments, and overthrow corrupt political leaders, whom he described as "little Saddams." Mr. Warren said his purpose is to enlist "one billion foot soldiers for the Kingdom of God" in the developing world. And the stadium crowd roared its approval.

Celebrants included Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, a tiny east African country that lost hundreds of thousands of people when it suffered genocide in 1994. Catholic and Protestant clergy have been convicted in connection with that genocide. Yet Mr. Kagame announced that he would allow Mr. Warren to turn his country into the first purpose driven nation. The following month, 16 Rwandan religious leaders arrived in Orange County to begin religious training at Saddleback Church. Mr. Warren has said that his global initiative was developed "underground" and in "stealth". Presumably, this was done with the assistance of Mr. Carver, who directs the Purpose Driven Church in all its activities outside North America.

Yet through an unexpected turn of events in Georgia, the spotlight was turned on Mr. Warren's stealthy strategy in March 2005, when Ashley Smith read a passage from The Purpose Driven Life to the Atlanta courthouse killing suspect, Brian Nichols. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Nichols freed his hostage and surrendered to police. The entire world suddenly wanted to hear from Mr. Warren, who was busy planting the seeds of a Christian theocracy with his "foot soldiers" in Rwanda.

On March 22, 2005, CNN's Larry King interviewed Mr. Warren about the Atlanta courthouse shooting and hostage taking. A caller asked, "Can you explain the sudden thirst or craving that people seem to have for religion?

Mr. Warren replied:

"[T]here are really two stories going on in our culture right now. There is the story of things are getting more worse [sic] in some ways. We're seeing the increase in violence. We're seeing terrorism. We've seen these recent shootings. We're seeing the coarsening of our society, that has disgusted a lot of people. And there is people [sic] -- some people are more materialistic than ever.

But at the same time, there's another story going on in America, that I think is a spiritual awakening that is brewing. And that is a desire and hunger to know God. I don't always think it's always a desire and hunger for church. But there is a desire and hunger to know God.

So according to Mr. Warren, the worst of American culture is reflected in examples of violence, terrorism, shootings, and the coarsening of our society, that turn people away in disgust. And in addition, "some people are more materialistic than ever."

If violence, coarseness, and materialism are serious social problems, then what purpose is served by exploiting a global pastoral network to mass market a game about mass killing, whether in the name of Christ or the AntiChrist?

On the one hand, this video game is anti-American, because it endorses roving death squads engaged in faith-based violence without any regard for Constitutional law. On the other hand, the video game is anti-Christian, because it argues that the Kingdom of God can be advanced by using the methods and tools of the kingdoms of this world, namely guns and bombs.

The Scriptures say, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) The Scriptures do not say, "Train up a child in the way he should blow away the people of God as well as infidels: and when he is old enough, he will go out and do some killing."

As Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight that I might not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here" (Gospel According to John 18:36). As Paul said, "Though we walk in flesh, we do not make war in accordance with the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly." (2 Corinthians 10:3-4a).

The dominionist Christians pushing this violent video game are modeling neither Christian charity nor patriotism. Both Christians and patriots should oppose them.

MORE...

UPDATE

Endorsement by Association

LINKS TO MORE POSTS

The Purpose Driven Life Takers (Part 1)

Violent Video Marketed Through Mega-Churches (Part 2)

Revelation and Resignation (Part 3)

Christian Cadre's Layman: 'A Whopper of Being Wrong' (Part 4)

Apocalypse, Now a Lawsuit (Part 5)

Who's Watching the Boys? (Part 6)

Conservative Christian Culture Warriors Cut and Run (Part 7)

Bible Publisher Tyndale House Faces Boycott Over Anti-Christian Game (Part 8)

"Pushing against the Imperialistic Beast"

"Buscando La Verdad" ("Seeking the Truth") Is a radio program in Spanish Format that focus in setting the record straight on the onslaught of disinformation and misinformation that the Corporatist Media (MSM) Has been dishing out for decades as It's daily fare.

Listeners to this station and fans of this new program, impatiently wait for Thursday, because it doesn't matter what the topic is, be it, neoliberalism, imperialism, geopolitics, etc., it will be highly informative, interesting and presented in as much dept as time permits. If you have not heard it, or missed the last one, below are audio clips of the main segments of it.

The program has a space Thursday's from 10:30 to 11:00 am (New slot on Saturdays 1:00 - 1:30 p.m.) in "La Grande 1010AM's" Programming of "Hecho en Californa", it is broadcasted Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 11:00 am and on Saturdays 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm and can also be heard on the Internet

On the June 26, 2008 Edition of "Buscando La Verdad", the main theme was "The 1954 CIA Coup in Guatemala", it seems like a long time ago since this criminal act took place, but it's effects continue to be felt to this day, one of the consequences is the persistent and pervasive poverty in that country which the United States Government successfully and firmly established by overthrowing President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, thus preventing the social programs he (Arbenz) had begun to implement which would hurt Chiquita Banana right where it hurts the most, their profits and control of a country they considered their own.

With this perfidy, the USS's CIA set off in an aggressively imperialistic pattern of deception, corruption and manipulation of propping up puppet local figures to squelch any protest or rebellion against oppressive US controlled local right wing governments, as we have seen ever since throughout Latin America.

And the process is still going on, even if you are not paying too much attention to the news, Guatemala, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, etc., are bad, but Colombia, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador etc., are good. You keep hearing about conflict in South America and trouble in Mexico, no matter where in Latin America, if there is trouble brewing, highly likely the United States of America is either behind it or in the middle of it.
All of the "Bad" Countries have one common thread, there is at least an effort to remedy or minimize the economic hardships of the people.
And all the "Good" Countries also have a common thread, only in the opposite, these governments are pro Corporations and the Elite.

And when the people have no choice but to seek means for their survival and emigrate to the US, the majority find discrimination, exclusion, abuse, exploitation, incarceration, deportation, separation from their families and death, all of these ignominies are made easy by a cadre of 'water carriers' working in the MSM for the benefit of the corporations and the elite, they are legion and they call us immigrant workers, criminals, vermin, 'illegals' and many more despicable, humiliating and hurtful words that has come to be known as: 'HATE SPEECH IN THE MEDIA".

The US Economic-Empire-Building takes many forms, but you can bet that deception and corruption are found in whichever tactic they use, as the revelations of John Perkins makes in his book.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions.
Interview with Perkins in Democracy Now:

One of the most abject and egregious misdeeds perpetrated in the Corporatist Media operating under an also fascist nation intent on acquiring economic power, is to perpetuate this form of oppressive and regressive government. (You don't agree that the US is a nation under Fascism? Check out "The 14 characteristics of Fascism" here, here and in the video below narrated by Mike Malloy.)

1954 Guatemalan coup d'état --
END OF THE INNOCENCE: The 1954 CIA Coup in Guatemala
Country: Guatemala
Overthrown: Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán - Elected in 1951
Date: June 27th 1954
Put in Charge: Often changing members of the Military Juntas.
On the Web CIA.gov - Documents related to the 1954 Coup.
Wikipedia - Guatemala Coup
The Consortium
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 4
CIA and Assassinations:
The Guatemala 1954 Documents
by Kate Doyle and Peter Kornbluh

1. Journey to Banana Land, Engineering Consent /w Adam Curtis - 2. Engineering of Consent: guatemala coup 1954

The "Leftist Media" And the NCMR June 6 - 8, 2008

What am I missing that I can't understand why the "Liberal/Leftist MSM" it is not covering the "National Conference for Media Reform" Being held in Minneapolis June 6 - 8, 2008?
Some videos from conference

I have not seen this conference extensively covered, have you? The contradictions of the "Liberal/Leftist MSM" Myth just jump at you and yet, it is alive and kicking.

How more Liberal can an issue be, according to the conservatives(?), than a conference to reform what it is considered in reality a Corporatist (Fascist) MSM? If I were less informed, I'd really be puzzled at how the "Liberal/Leftist" MSM has continuously given a pass to conservative figures or their misdeeds, lies and disinformation, who can forget how "Liberal" Journalists and Democratic figures were savagely hammered and their righ wing counterparts were not?

If I knew that the Bush Administration's claims on Iraq's WMDs were fabricated by the "Office of Special Operations" Under former Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, how come the MSM characters did not?

Opposition to an invasion of Iraq is as leftist as one can get, according to the rightwingnuts, how come the "Liberal/Leftist" MSM did not expose the lies of the ultra conservative Neocons?

Entries in the bastion of RightWingNut dribble, WorldNetDaily have been pointed to and quoted by AIM, about a Jan. 2007 report and an article, among other items, by Cliff Kincaid about last year's NCMR: "The Communist-influenced Media Reform Movement" and The Plan To Silence Conservatives"

The Kincaid column is a follow-up to his exclusive report on the "National Conference on Media Reform," held in Memphis, Tennessee. The column, "The Communist-influenced 'Media Reform' Movement," and his January 15 special report, "The Plan to Silence Conservatives," are available at www.aim.org.

The "media reform" movement wants Congress to resurrect the so-called "fairness doctrine" so that it can force conservative media to incorporate "progressive" views into shows like the O'Reilly Factor on cable news and the Rush Limbaugh program on radio. "Having previously reported on the participation of Revolutionary Communist Party members at the 'National Conference on Media Reform,'" Kincaid says, "I can now confirm that members of the old Soviet-line Communist Party USA were there, too."

Forbes picked the AP NCMR 2008 report and the entry actually agrees with "Liberal?Leftists", the MSM is Corporatist and that "The National Conference for Media Reform is being organized by Free Press, a nonprofit organization that promotes diverse and independent media ownership and public media."

MINNEAPOLIS - Critics of the corporate media are gathering in Minneapolis this weekend to discuss reform.
Associated Press 06.06.08, 2:02 PM ET ,

The conference opened Friday with several speakers, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis.

A few big names will participate in the conference, including former CBS (nyse: CBS - news - people ) newsman Dan Rather, Bill Moyers of PBS and Arianna Huffington of HuffingtonPost.com.

What a lineup of "Liberals", and "Liberal" issues, how come the "Liberal MSM" Is not extensively reporting it? CNNMoney.com also picked up the story (Other of the few outlets which covered it)

Corporate reform top issue at media conference

Critics of corporate media gather in Minneapolis to discuss reform

June 06, 2008: 05:27 PM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Protecting Internet news sources from being controlled by a small number of powerful corporations is one of the "most profound fights of our lives," the head of a media reform group said Friday. "We can organize truth against power. We can use the Internet to save the Internet," said Josh Silver, co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit group Free Press.

Silver made the remarks as journalists and activists gathered here for the National Conference for Media Reform. The conference this weekend is meant to encourage efforts for a more diverse and open media.

We witnessed how the "Liberal/Leftist MSM" Have magnified issues negative to "Liberal" Barack Obama and has not done the same for conservative John McCain?

Anyway, the NCMR 2008 took place and the Natinal Media Reform Movement is getting stronger

Aurora Grajeda

SFCA 060808