This is really old...
...but Jesus Christ (via parentdish).
A video game about a Christian militia slaughtering Jewish and atheist New Yorkers who won't be converted in the name of a particular brand of Christianity will be on the shelves of more than 10,000 American retailers in time for the Christmas season, including Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, GameStop, EB Games, CompUSA, Amazon.com, Costco and numerous others. The video game is a spinoff of the wildly successful collaborative novels about "the rapture" by conservative fundamentalist minister Tim Lahaye and the guy who used to write the dialogue for the Gil Thorpe comic strip, Jerry Jenkins.In Left Behind: Eternal Forces, kids will assume the role of a member of a "Christian" gang wandering the streets of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, killing or converting as many Jews, Atheists, and other unsavory types in the employ of the Anti-Christ as possible to get to the next level. If the heathen won't convert, the character can kill them. The company is offering a free demonstration model to churches. "We see it as a beacon of light that could shine in the dark world of video games," said Jerome Mikulich, "director of outreach ministries" for the company. "The most important thing is that it helps kids realize there is power in the spirit world, and that by praying they can endure and get through their real-life situations." Praying, and putting a shotgun in the mouth of Jews. Just like all those chapters in the gospel where Jesus preaches that the way to salvation is busting a cap into the ass of those who won't convert.
Well, sometimes it be like damn. I've got a great Bible verse for these guys. Exodus 20:13 says:
You shall not murder.That's right, guys. Learn it; live it; love it. Jeeze. WTFWJD?
3 comments:
"Actions speak louder than words" and "practice what you preach": Exodus 20:13 pales in comparison to the inumerable accounts of God ordering wholesale slaughter/genocide, when he isn't drowning the entire world population (so Noah's family can incestfully repopulate it), or raining fire on whole cities and turning an innocent woman to salt...
Jesus said: "If you are not with me, you're against me", so this videogame seems to illustrate his precepts pretty accurately, albeit taking it to an extreme (that religion has done for centuries, IRL!)
The problem with the Old Testament is that it's what fundamentalists use to justify violence in the name of Christ.
Matthew 15: 1-11 says:
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"
Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
"'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand.
What goes into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'"
It really depends on whom you ask, because the Bible can be a little convoluted at times (to put things mildly), but there are many, myself included, who take this passage to mean a general rejection of most of the particulars in the Old Testament. In fact I think it unlikely that most of the Old Testament would have been included in the Bible when it was canonized had it not been for the Church's political need to have stories to tell their members to put the fear of God in them...
The truth is that we could argue about this all day. There is no way to take the Bible literally without disregarding parts of it, because so much of what's in there is contradictory. The overlying message I see in the New Testament, however, is one of love and acceptance. There are many Christians who see this also, and practice it in their daily lives. I think it's unfair to demonize all of religion based on the actions of a vocal, violent minority. After all, we're no fans of them either.
I'd also like to know where Jesus said "If you are not with me, you're against me," cuz I can't seem to find it anywhere in the Bible. I think you might be confusing Jesus with George W. Bush, who wouldn't recognize the Jesus I know if He punched him in the face.
@ Jocelyn:
George W. Ignoramous quoted Jesus: Mt. 12:30 / Lk 11:23.
The NT is as much about love and acceptance (for those who accept Jesus' divinity) as eternal damnation and torture for those who reject him, like all tyrants do. Note that Hell is a concept invented by Jesus; Hell and eternal damnation does not exist in the OT.
Moreover, dismissing the OT would be offensive to Jesus, since he proclaims himself the son of its God (Yahweh, God of the Jewish religion that Christianity takes from, just as Islam takes from them both, and Mormonism from Christianity, etc, etc.).
Fun fact: Jesus himself accepts Gods worldwide genocide with the flood, and promises that it will be the same again when he returns: Mt. 24:37-39.
There are many ways to read the Bible, some of which are morally acceptable and comendable, others not; from there to proclaiming it the word of a perfect and all-loving God...
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