I think you need to read my initial article, where I defended you from attacks:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_anthony__060508_bashing_christians_i.htm
It was only after further corroboration was received, from people who I believe have seen this game that I wrote the follow up piece:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_anthony__060531_with_apologies_to_mr.htm
Even in this article I clearly state:
"If this game is as vile as it is described in this article, and I will wait until it is released this fall to determine where the truth lies, then it should be condemned by Christians."
Please note the "if" and that I said I wanted to wait until it came out.
Do you deny the fact that the character says, "praise the Lord" when they kill a member of the antichrist army? Do you deny that the game has Christians armed to kill people? Do you deny that the corpses pile up in the street that have been killed? Why have so many distanced themselves from this game if it is as benign as you claim it to be? As I have said, we are to teach our children the love and humility of Christ, not to kill in His name.
I have been in contact with Pastor Warren as well and am waiting for his responses to some questions he said he would answer in relation to this game. If you answer the above questions I would be happy to do a follow up piece with the facts as you see them."
This was 10 days ago and I have yet to hear back from the Left Behind Team. That would lead me to be concerned that while some of the aspects of the game may be edifying, such as prayer being used instead of warfare, there is still some cause for concern about the facets I asked about. It was bad enough that the makers of this game chose to defend what appears to be indefensible, but to not respond in the face of simple questions may speak volumes for the dark side of the Eternal Forces video game.
The reference in my response to Pastor Warren refers to Pastor Rick Warren, who was linked to this game because the leader of his Purpose Driven Church was the lead marketer for the video game. My articles also prompted Pastor Warren to email me asking for a retraction. I corresponded with him and he had promised to answer some questions. I sent those questions to him on June 4th and again on June 9th, but so far he has yet to respond to them. In his defense, after the connections between Warren and the video game were brought to light, the leader of his Purpose Driven Church stepped down as the lead marketer for the video game. Pastor Warren had insisted that he had nothing to do with this video game even though they were milking the connection to him for PR reasons. I pray that Pastor Warren is sincere and answers the questions I submitted to him very soon.
As for the video game, I will wait for it to be released but if the makers would spend more time answering honest questions and less time crafting parsed press releases, maybe they would not find themselves in such tight spots. More than likely, the truth is somewhere in the middle. So I repeat that as Christians we are to emulate the love and humility of Jesus Christ. We should not allow our children to think it is ok to "praise the Lord" after killing anyone. It is still being reported that the marketers will try and infiltrate the evangelical churches with 1 million advanced copies of this game. I pray that evangelicals and Christians everywhere will denounce and not support this game if the allegations made against it are true.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_anthony__060508_bashing_christians_i.htm
It was only after further corroboration was received, from people who I believe have seen this game that I wrote the follow up piece:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_anthony__060531_with_apologies_to_mr.htm
"If this game is as vile as it is described in this article, and I will wait until it is released this fall to determine where the truth lies, then it should be condemned by Christians."
Please note the "if" and that I said I wanted to wait until it came out.
Do you deny the fact that the character says, "praise the Lord" when they kill a member of the antichrist army? Do you deny that the game has Christians armed to kill people? Do you deny that the corpses pile up in the street that have been killed? Why have so many distanced themselves from this game if it is as benign as you claim it to be? As I have said, we are to teach our children the love and humility of Christ, not to kill in His name.
I have been in contact with Pastor Warren as well and am waiting for his responses to some questions he said he would answer in relation to this game. If you answer the above questions I would be happy to do a follow up piece with the facts as you see them."
This was 10 days ago and I have yet to hear back from the Left Behind Team. That would lead me to be concerned that while some of the aspects of the game may be edifying, such as prayer being used instead of warfare, there is still some cause for concern about the facets I asked about. It was bad enough that the makers of this game chose to defend what appears to be indefensible, but to not respond in the face of simple questions may speak volumes for the dark side of the Eternal Forces video game.
The reference in my response to Pastor Warren refers to Pastor Rick Warren, who was linked to this game because the leader of his Purpose Driven Church was the lead marketer for the video game. My articles also prompted Pastor Warren to email me asking for a retraction. I corresponded with him and he had promised to answer some questions. I sent those questions to him on June 4th and again on June 9th, but so far he has yet to respond to them. In his defense, after the connections between Warren and the video game were brought to light, the leader of his Purpose Driven Church stepped down as the lead marketer for the video game. Pastor Warren had insisted that he had nothing to do with this video game even though they were milking the connection to him for PR reasons. I pray that Pastor Warren is sincere and answers the questions I submitted to him very soon.
As for the video game, I will wait for it to be released but if the makers would spend more time answering honest questions and less time crafting parsed press releases, maybe they would not find themselves in such tight spots. More than likely, the truth is somewhere in the middle. So I repeat that as Christians we are to emulate the love and humility of Jesus Christ. We should not allow our children to think it is ok to "praise the Lord" after killing anyone. It is still being reported that the marketers will try and infiltrate the evangelical churches with 1 million advanced copies of this game. I pray that evangelicals and Christians everywhere will denounce and not support this game if the allegations made against it are true.
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