First posted on Talk to Action

When Left Behind Games launched its convert-or-die videogame Left Behind: Eternal Forces in mid-November 2006, its stock traded at a peak price of $7.44 per share. Breathless boosters at RedChip issued a "strong buy" recommendation and predicted that within 18 months, the stock would soar to as much as $18.70 per share. Really?

In fact, Left Behind Games' stock chart looks like a ski slope. Not a gentle bunny hill, but a World Cup grand slalom course, groomed for a world-beating downhill run. Today, you could buy a share of Left Behind Games for a quarter -- with change left over. On March 21, 2007, the stock closed at 18 cents a share.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with the writing of Joe Bageant are in for a treat. Those of you who are familiar with the writing of Joe Bageant know the kind of treat you are in for.

Most readers here, have probably heard about the Left Behind series of novels, by Christian right leader Tim LaHaye; and the nasty spin-off kid vid Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Turns out, my friend Joe Bageant (who is hanging out (fishing) in an undisclosed location, but most certainly not with Dick Cheney)wrote an essay about the Left Behind novels awhile back, and he has kindly posted it over at Talk to Action. I can't post the whole thing here, but I can give you the beginning and if you are in the mood for a good read, come on over and check it out. No  hurry of course, unless you need it right now. It will still be there.

This past week, the controversy over Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a video game based on the Left Behind series of novels, has been propelled into the national, and international news.  The catalyst was a press briefing organized by DefCon, (Campaign to Defend the Constitution), that featured Clark Stevens of DefCon, Tim Simpson of the Christian Alliance for Progress, and me, representing Talk to Action.  (Full disclosure: I am also a member of the DefCon advisory board.)  

There were wire service accounts by the Associated Press, Religion News Service, Reuters and Interpress News Service, appearing in thousands of media outlets worldwide. as well as generating considerable discussion on talk radio and in the blogosphere. There were also major newspaper stories in the Boston Globe, USA Today and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as an article on the BBC News web site, and a report on the controversy on The New York Times blog.  

All of these were good articles that covered the gist of the press conference, while often emphasizing one or another of the main points. (If you are going to pick a few, I would try the Globe, the BBC News and the New York Times blog).  But there were some other, quite remarkable articles that cast the story in a somewhat different light.

The media is beginning to sit up and take notice of citizen concerns about the first Christian instructional video on religious warfare for children.  This morning the San Francisco Chronicle had a front page story describing citizen concerns about the video game Left Behind:  Eternal Forces, which is based on Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series of novels.  The story is titled: 'Convert or die' game divides Christians: Some ask Wal-Mart to drop Left Behind. This was followed today with a well attended press and blogger teleconference hosted by DefCon, (the Campaign to Defend the Constitution) which featered comments by Clark Stevens of DefCon, Tim Simpson of the Christian Alliance for Progress, and Frederick Clarkson of Talk to Action.

Beginnning with Jonathan Hutson's ground breaking series exposing the hate-based agenda of the game, Talk to Action has done considerable reporting on and in-depth analysis of the game and its underlying ideology.  Here is a brief anthology of Talk to Action posts that can serve as a back grounder on the game.

At a press conference today in Phoenix, Arizona, a coalition of progressive Christian groups called for the recall of the hate-based video game Left Behind:  Eternal Forces. Talk to Action's Jonathan Hutson's ground-breaking series posted at Talk to Action, Political Cortex, and elsewhere, remains the definitive critique of the game. Chip Berlet's series on  Tim LaHaye, the author of the series of novels on which the game is based, explains the games' underlying ideology.

CrossWalk America, the Beatitudes Society, Christian Alliance for Progress and The Center for Progressive Christianity will also urge consumers to boycott the video game, which is being released "just in time for the holidays," according to the manufacturer.

Talk to Action co-founders, Bruce Wilson and me, issued a statement at the request of the organizers of the event; posted below.

After many false starts, the video game based on Tim LaHaye's best selling "Left Behind" novels, has finally hit the shelves. The game is now for sale in thousands of stores -- just in time for the Christmas shopping season. How it will be received, of course, remains to be seen.

But it is worth reminding ourselves that this is but one of a number of strong currents in American religious culture promoting an ideology of religious warfare.

In posts here and at Talk to Action, my colleagues Jonathan Hutson and Chip Berlet and I (among others) have been writing about Left Behind:  Eternal Forces for months.  I don't want to reprise all that we have had to say, but I have included some links on the flip.

For a generation, the notion of the secular; secularism, secular humanism, the secular left, and most recently (and oxymoronically) secular fundamentalism, and other variations, has become the bogeyman to be opposed. For this, we can thank the works of such religious right theorists as Frances Schaefer, R.J. Rushdoony, and Tim LaHaye,

This is part of a central framing of the nature of what some consider to be a war going on in society: a war between religion and non-religion; between Christianity and religious pluralism; between the once and future Christian Nation and those in league, wittingly or unwittingly with the forces of Satan. All too often secularists, secularism, secular humanism, the secular left, and secular fundamentalism, are synonymous.  This is because the underlying concepts are seen as Satanic in origin, and so the terms are literally terms of demonization.  

Since I didn't do a round-up last week, this week in blogging the religious right is really more like, recent blogging on the religious right.  But there is still lots of good stuff you wouldn't want to miss. With any luck, we will return to a weekly schedule from here on.

Originally posted on Talk to Action.

It is unprecedented for conservative and progressive Christians alike to close ranks in condemning a Bible publisher. It is unheard of for Christians to call for a boycott of a Bible publisher for licensing a real-time strategy videogame that caricaturizes Christianity as a crusade, puts modern military weapons in the hands of children, sends them on a mission to convert or kill infidels, and even lets children role play commanding the armies of the AntiChrist, unleashing demons that feast on Christians.

"Does it sound like fun, or does it sound like the way homicidal Muslims think?" asks Marvin Olasky, editor of the conservative Christian World Magazine in a blog post dated August 21, 2006, and titled Convert Them Or Kill Them? That's Not Christianity. His piece links to a recent Washington Post article, "Fire and Brimstone, Guns and Ammo." But the Post and World Magazine have barely touched the hem of the garment, in terms of understanding and exposing the game for what is truly is. Yet word is getting out, and a boycott is picking up steam.

It is unprecedented, and to date unheralded by the mainstream media. But it is happening. It is sparking, sputtering, glowing and growing like a prairie fire. There is a growing movement among conservative and progressive Christians alike to boycott Tyndale House, the Christian publishing house that publishes the Living Bible and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind novels and also licenses the controversial videogame Left Behind: Eternal Forces, along with any chain stores or megachurches that plan to distribute the game.

There is dynamite material in this blog round-up that points to themes that have never been adequately exploited by those affected by the religious right. If these themes were further developed, they could almost serve as a briefinb book on how to bust the religious right. Three examples:

1) Routine lies and distortions by religious right organizations and leaders

2) The bizarre role of Rev. Sun Myung Moon in the GOP

3) Forced abortion and prostitution in the free market paradise of the Mariannas promoted and protected by Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff.

There have been a great many unexploited or underexploited fractures, flaws, hypocrises and more over the years. To make effective use of such things requires knowledge and skills in using the material effectively. These are things that are rarely encouraged anywhere left of the religious right.

And people wonder why the religious right is so powerful.

It was just a matter of time before mainstream media started to pick up on the controversies surrounding the video game, Left Behind:  Eternal Forces.

A nationally syndicated story by Religion News Service sumarizes the critcisms of the game raised by conservative Christian attorney Jack Thompson, who is a prominent critic of violence in video games.  While this was certainly newsworthy, there are many more major concerns about the game.  

The terms secular, secular humanist, secular fundamentalist, secular left, and many more variations are at the center of our political discourse these days. Yet depending on who you talk to, they mean something completely different. I am not going to make any attempt to sort it all out today. However, as the discussion of the role of religion in public life moves front and center, we will have to sort these things out if we are going to know what each other is talking about. (We might even want to check ourselves and see if we, in fact, know what we are talking about.)

The other day, I posted a piece taking two prominent Democrats to task for muddying these waters and adopting one of the central "frames" (in the George Lakoff sense of the term) of the religious right. I think some of the points were lost in the blogospheric hoo ha, so let me raise them in a hopefully fun new way.  

Test your knowledge!  Here are ten quotes from a pool of 20 well-known Democrats and Republicans, and leaders of the religious right and the nascent religious left. Can you figure out who said what?

Originally posted on Talk to Action

One of the main reasons why the Rev. Jerry Falwell co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979 was to decry the corruption of America's values. For decades, the Southern Baptist pastor has hectored Hollywood, trash-talked TV, been het up on hip hop, and spouted vitriol about video games. But this once bold, big lion who strode the stage popping off about pop culture lately has been reduced to a peewee church mouse. On his claim to fame, Rev. Falwell's got no more game. When it came time to denounce Left Behind: Eternal Forces -- a Christian supremacist video game that one Republican attorney has characterized as "the worst example to date of how the corrosive pop culture has conformed the Church to its image" -- the broken down old culture warrior has cut and run. And he's not the only one to show such cowardice. But now he's being called out in public for the first time by a fellow culture warrior.

When Bible publisher Tyndale House licensed a video game that exploits 9/11, and teaches children that New Yorkers who don't convert deserve to die, conservative Christian leaders sat silent - all but one. Now, a 20-year veteran on the front lines of the culture wars is challenging his brethren and sisters to protest the game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces. So far, he's called out Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, PhD, Southern Baptist pastor Rick Warren, and Southern Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell. In the past, all three have warned parents to keep their children away from other violent video games. But since Christian supremacist hate literature has been turned into a children's game, the No Comment Chorus has shucked and jived, ducked and covered, cut and run.

A number of this week's reports and analyses from the Greater Blogosphere have a theme. In various ways they describe the religious right's assault on religious freedom and pluralism in America. These assaults come from a number of seemingly different directions.  

Originally posted on Talk to Action.

Imagine: in one hand, you hold cold pizza or your favorite caffeine-loaded cola, while with the other, you command a Christian militia battling the forces of the AntiChrist. Times Square is ablaze with video billboards and piled high with the bodies of New Yorkers. A goat-footed, horned demon, (controlled by your 13-year-old Christian gamer buddy Mikey) emerges from a United Nations Humvee to feast on one of your snipers. But then one of your tanks gacks the demon in a big fireball -- along with three nurses from the U.N. Now in a gnarlier game, there might be demon and nurse giblets hanging from the lamp posts, but in Left Behind: Eternal Forces, there's no blood and guts, just dead bodies. (As Mikey might say, it's kinda wack but whatev.) Apparently this cleanness makes the slaughter of New Yorkers who refuse to convert, somehow more Christ-like, just as when the Christian commandos shout "Praise the Lord!" after a fresh New Yorker kill.

But for now, the apocalyptic battle lulls. Across the battlefield, you spot a gold sportscar that crashed into a delivery truck for your favorite pizza parlor. Pizza boxes have spilled out, and cola cans are rolling around (time out: Mikey is hungry again). And on one of the Times Square digital billboards, there's a mesmerizing video clip playing. It's a promo for a PG-13 movie. The graphics are wicked good: flash video with radio sound. And it's stupid funny. Your voice cracks as you laugh at the video billboard playing in Times Square above the gigantamongous pile of bloodless, dead New Yorkers. You watch the video play through its 15-second loop, unaware that this in-game ad is also watching you.