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Category Archives: Popular Culture
Righteous Anger Toward “Left Behind: the Game”
“Combines Tom Clancy-like suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash and Biblical refrences.”
That is how the NYTimes describes the mind-numbing bad idea that is Left Behind: Eternal Forces. This game first raised my eyebrows when I read about the Christian video game market in Time Magazine a few months back. I shook my head and forgot about it. That is until today.
After reading a hilarious parody on Radical Conguency, I made an off-handed remark about the game and the comments rolled in.
Justin went above and beyond writing a stark and brutally honest critique of this abomnible “game” where unbelievers are slaughtered in the streets of New York.
Here is an excerpt:
The idea of religious video games that celebrate the death and eternal destruction of non-adherents – worse yet, that makes their annhiliation the primary task of the Christian community – raises my abhorrence for the Left Behind phenomenon to a level of utter disgust that I previously reserved only for racism and genocide.
Left Behind is to Christianity what terrorism is to Islam. Both are narcissistic and destructive distortions of otherwise (mostly) benign religions. Believing in hell or something like it does not require us to take pleasure or desire to participate in the destruction of others. If God wants to kill certain people at a certain point in history, that’s his business. And he can damn well do it himself. He doesn’t need any help from a bunch of self-righteous, overcaffeinated adolescents with bad theology in one pocket and ammo in the other.
If someone released a jihad video game, right-wing bloggers would waste no time denouncing it and pointing out what a terrible idea it is to teach young minds that it’s a good idea to murder people who don’t share your beliefs. I fear that this will not happen with the Left Behind series of game, though; the blogosphere’s reaction is likely to go no farther than scoffing and incredulous eye-rolling.
Please check out the rest of the article. Let these video game developers know that these kind of games are unacceptable.
Left Behind Video Games: Possibly the Single Worst Idea Ever
Here Comes the Sun
According to iLounge.com…
The Beatles are preparing to make their albums available through online music services after years of refusing to embrace digital music. During the Apple Corps vs. Apple Computer trademark lawsuit last week, Neil Aspinall, a former Beatles road manager and managing director of Apple Corps, said that the company was digitally remastering the entire Beatles catalog in preparation of selling it online. “I think it would be wrong to offer downloads of the old masters when I am making new masters,” he said. “It would be better to wait and try to do them both simultaneously so that you then get the publicity of the new masters and the downloading, rather than just doing it ad hoc.” A spokeswoman for Apple Corps confirmed Aspinall’s statement.
GTA-ble Tennis
The makers of Grand Theft Auto must be taking a new study that says that violent video games cause teens to be more apt to the dangers of underage drinking, drug use, and sexual promescuity pretty seriously.
Their next game is for the XBOX 360 and is titled Table Tennis. No, seriously. It’s a pretty awesome looking table tennis game. No. Seriously.
Spacejunk Comin’ in for the Splash
Have you ever wondered what the iPod would be like if Microsoft created it? Well wonder no more.
All joking aside, this video made me think about how we package Christianity for the world. We have been given the greatest Message in the cosmos. It needs no dressing up; no additives. Yet we attach all of our theological mumbo-jumbo (read: our own agendas) all over it so that it crowds out the original simplicity and beauty and takes away from the powerful impact that the Message originally had. We had good intentions(?). We wanted people to be informed and to completely understand but what we create sometimes only takes away. What we create sometimes looks like everything else out there. The uniqueness of the Message is lost. Let’s get over ourselves and get into what God is all about. I’m tired of “Lookin’ for baby Jesus under the trash.”
Malcolm Gladwell: Super Genius
Malcolm Gladwell has weighed in on what the book “Game of Shadows” means not only to Bonds but to record setters in general. The article is actually a two-parter. Gladwell defends his position in the second article entitled Forensic Analysis Redux. Gladwell writes:
What if–in sports like baseball and track and field and swimming–we had a record-review board. We assembled a panel of experts who reviewed the circumstances under which the record was set, physiological evidence from the athlete himself or herself, and statistical evidence about the plausibility of the performance. Beamon would pass. FloJo would not. Bonds would not–and nor, I would wager, would McGwire or Sosa. The point is that we have to do something, otherwise records will cease to mean anything at all.
Incidentally, in “Baseball by the Numbers,” by the Baseball Prospectus team, there is a very nice essay by Nate Silver doing exactly this: using forensic tools to try and gauge the extent of steriod cheating in major league baseball. It’s worth a read. Silver concludes, interestingly, that the overall amount of cheating seems to be quite small, and confined largely (at this point) to mediocre players trying to get a little edge, not superstars trying to become mega-superstars. I find that very reassuring, not just because it says that Bonds is an anomaly, but because it reminds us of just how useful statistical analysis can be.
Don’t be fooled: Gladwell is an extremly intelligent and articulate sports fan. He knows of what he speaks. What do you think about his solution to these “records” or “Game of Shadows?” I want to know.
UnInspired
If you’ve been dying to hear scripture read by Star Jones or Cuba Gooding Jr. your prayers have been answered.
ohh.. I even saw Common on that list.
News From the Nerdery
For those of you who couldn’t get enough of the three hour long Lord of the Rings movies you can now sit through the three hour long musical adaptation. Enjoy.
School Choice and the 1st Century
Very interesting article over at Out of Ur, the blog for Leadership Journal. I am a product of Christian education. I went to a private k-12 school as a kid, I graduated from a private 4 year college, and, for now, I work for a private k-12 school. It a real “circle of life” I guess. There are pros and cons of this kind of environment and I know that where I choose to send my kids has a lot to say about my theology and perspective on the world around me. I don’t have any children yet but the reality of where to send them when they reach school age is always on my mind.
The article Really Old School: What 1st Century Judaism Says About the Public/Private/Home School Dilemma looks at the four Jewish beleif systems that were vying for dominance in the first century: the Essenes, the Sadducees, the Zealots, and the Pharisees. The author compares these faith communities with modern day school choices: Homeschool, Public, and Private education.
Very good thoughts but sadly little follow through. It is worth the read though.
Opposites Attract?
If any of you have ever purchased anything from Amazon.com you may have noticed that they give you a chance to bundle similar products together and save money. This feature usually works really well. Sometimes I bundle multiple books by the same author. Sometimes I’ll bundle movies with the same actor or director. However, the bundle feature can’t work perfectly all the time.
Case in point:
The Mel Brooks Movie Collection got paired with The Chronicles of Narnia.
We at Kicking at the Darkness would ask that you think twice (or three or four times) before you bundle these two products together for your children.
Just a friendly PSA. Thank you.