The words above made the headlines in my paper today, October 7, 2007. The article below that caption reveals that a growing number of evangelical churches were holding “Halo” nights, based on “Halo 3,” the immensely popular space epic, in order to bring youth to church to hear the gospel. Multiple game consoles are being installed in churches so hundreds of teenagers can flock around big-screen televisions and shoot it out. In one church in Denver, Colorado, youth sit in front of three televisions, locked in violent virtual combat as they navigated on-screen characters through lethal gun bursts. One twelve year old exclaimed, “It’s just fun blowing people up.”
Why are such games which condone, even encourage killing, brought into a church which calls itself Christian? The youth minister of the Colorado church gave this rationale, “Once they come for the games…they will stay for his Christian message. We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell.” But how can church leaders who say they believe in the moral law of God, “Thou shalt not kill,” promote killing in their youth programs? No doubt they would say that the killing involved is just a game and not to be taken seriously. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.
It is never right to do wrong in order to gain the privilege of doing right. “Halo” is absurd, ridiculous, ungodly, even stupid, and I believe in the eyes of God an “Abomination.” I pray and trust that evangelical leaders and churches across the land will rise up to denounce “Halo” as a deadly evil to be avoided like a plague by any church that calls itself Christian and biblical.