Stephen Baldwin, who woulda thunk it?
Well, this is a little scary. Stephen Baldwin (from Syracuse, NY-brother of Alec, go figure?), a born again Christian, has joined a group called Operation Straight Up (I think that refers to the
With the endorsement of the Defense Department, OSU is mailing “Freedom Packages” to soldiers serving in Iraq. These are not your grandfather’s care packages, however. Besides pairs of white socks and boxes of baby wipes (included at the apparent suggestion of Iran-Contra felon Oliver North, according to OSU) OSU’s care packages contain the controversial Left Behind: Eternal Forces video game. The game is inspired by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ bestselling pulp fiction series about a blood-soaked Battle of Armageddon pitting born-again Christians against anybody who does not adhere to their particular theology. In LaHaye’s and Jenkins’ books, the non-believers are ultimately condemned to “everlasting punishment” while the evangelicals are “raptured” up to heaven.
This is just sick.
Each time a Left Behind player kills a UN soldier, their virtual character exclaims, “Praise the Lord!” To win the game, players must kill or convert all the non-believers left behind after the rapture. They also have the option of reversing roles and commanding the forces of the Antichrist. (Video preview here).
I’m sorry, I’ve got nothin left-have to vomit now. ( in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Gun)
Great find. This is simply bat sh*t crazy.
I followed the links and caught this from the article.
Yeah that is what we need in Iraq a crusade.
Can someone turn down the crazy?
It’s hard for me to understand how more practicing Christians don’t find this incredibly offensive.
I’m a fundamentalist Christians and I actually do find the lies being spread about this game incredibly offensive.
“I’m sorry, I’ve got nothin left”…
…somehow I believe that having everything left is so VERY right these days…
I couldn’t agree more!
This is probably in response to the 2002 release of the video game “America’s Army”, paid for by the US Government in an effort to recruit soldiers, which worked, and resulted additionally in a 12 million dollar video game development studio built for convertering our vulnerable minds:
The universe of online computer games is home to 200,000 players at any time. It’s also where you can find the newest innovation in military recruiting. Check out America’s Army, a state-of-the art computer game featuring 3-D graphics, surround sound and the most advanced gaming technology available. It’s as entertaining as current favorites Counterstrike or Doom, but there’s a different agenda at work. Unlike commercial games designed to make big money, the aim of this taxpayer-funded project is to generate Army recruits.
In 1999, recruitment numbers hit their lowest point in thirty years. In response, Congress called for “aggressive, innovative experiments” to find new soldiers, and the Defense Department jacked up recruitment budgets to $2.2 billion a year. Hence we have America’s Army, one of a number of new initiatives designed to help the military reach America’s youth. The game consists of two parts: “Soldiers: Empower Yourself,” a role-playing segment that instills Army “values,” and the more violent (read: entertaining) “Operations: Defend Freedom,” a first-person combat simulator where players engage in virtual warfare over the Internet.
On July 4, the Army put a preview version of “Operations” called “Recon” on its website; within a week over half a million people had downloaded the game. When America’s Army is distributed later this month at recruiting stations and as an insert in gaming magazines, millions of players will be able to go online to “defend freedom.”
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020902/hodes20020823
The U.S. Army, riding the success of its action video game America’s Army, has set up a video-game studio with industry veterans to write other kinds of software to simulate training for a variety of armed forces and government projects.
The Army got into the game business when it released America’s Army in July 2002, essentially as an interactive Army recruitment ad. The game is available for download free, and 3.4 million gamers have registered to play it.
To build on that success, the America’s Army Government Applications office was quietly opened in January in Cary, North Carolina, with a team of 15 video-game creators, simulation specialists and ex-Army personnel. Many of the studio’s employees come from local video-game companies like Interactive Magic, Timeline, Vertis, SouthPeak Interactive, Vicious Cycle Software and Red Storm Entertainment.
http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/news/2004/06/63911
Man, you are just a font of information!
The military has used gaming for training well before 2002. Flight simulators come to mind, monitoring underload and overload as potential factors in pilot error on projects such as Northrop’s B-2 bomber and also for NASA astronauts. However, those games were without any political content or characters.
Nope. The opposing soldiers are not the UN. They are the Antichrist’s replacement for the UN called the “Global Community Peacekeepers.” They are not analogous to the UN in any way, shape or form, and they use force of arms to “keep peace.”
Also, the player’s goal is not to kill. Wanton killing is blatantly condemned by the manual, the game, the game’s website, etc. Peaceful solutions - even in the face of armed opponents intent on killing your forces - are encouraged and often a required mission goal (meaning you lose the mission if you commit any act of violence).
Finally, there are absolutely no shouts of “Praise the Lord!” when enemy forces are killed.
Completely, utterly FALSE. To win the game, the player must survive and complete all the mission requirements. It is not necessary to convert all non-believers and there most certainly is no “or kill” regarding them.
Only in the multiplayer mode. Someone can control the forces of the Antichrist, but this is hardly any different than actors in movies playing the bad guys.