Just when we thought that the lines between the church and the world could not become more blurred than they already were, our local newspaper ran an article that convinced us we were wrong. The article was written by Matt Richtel, a correspondent for the New York Times news service. It ran in our local Times affiliate, the Wilmington Star-News, on October 7, 2007, under the headline “More churches employing violent video games to put teens in pews.” The article commented briefly on what has apparently become a trend in evangelical churches: using the enormously popular video game Halo 3 as a draw for teenage boys.
Don’t let Halo’s name fool you. It has nothing to do with angelic halos and everything to do with graphic and grotesque violence. Halo 3, the latest version, was released by Microsoft two short weeks ago and has already generated over $300 million in sales. The game sports a “mature audiences” rating and is restricted to be sold only to those seventeen or older. The immersive space-themed game is character-based and played by leading your character to combat and kill opponents—who are manipulating their characters from the other game controller of your video game console. With vastly increased video technical abilities, the graphics are no doubt stunning and have Halo 3 on pace to become the best-selling video game yet produced.
Given our culture’s fascination with violence and action, the success of Halo 3 comes as no surprise. What we do find shocking is that evangelical churches would adopt the game as part of a strategy to reach lost teenagers with the gospel message of the Prince of Peace. Richtel’s research, however, reveals that the game is now being used as a draw in “hundreds” of evangelical churches. Some even sponsor popular “Halo nights,” where they connect numerous video game consoles to ever-larger and sharper video monitors and invite teenagers to come “kill” each other in cyberspace. The article described one such event: “Witness the basement on a recent Sunday at the Colorado Community Church in the Englewood area of Denver, where Tim Foster, 12, and Chris Graham, 14, sat in front of three TVs, locked in violent virtual combat as they navigated on-screen characters through lethal gunbursts. Tim explained the game’s allure: ‘It’s just fun blowing people up.’” Has everyone at this church completely forgotten the tragedies of Columbine High School and Wedgewood Baptist Church?
Gregg Barbour, the youth pastor behind this outreach event, felt compelled to explain to parents the methods he was employing to evangelize. He defended the practice in a letter to parents by saying, “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell.” Because he follows up the cyber-mayhem with a gospel presentation, Barbour feels justified in making this violent material available to youngsters not old enough to purchase it on their own. We have to ask: if he discovered that free keg parties for seventeen year olds were a big draw, would he feel justified using them? It can never be right to use dangerous, immoral, and corrupting materials as a lure for the gospel. James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, has made the same criticism. Richtel cites him as observing, “If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it. My own take is you can do better than that.” Our own Dr. Daniel R. Heimbach, professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, believes that churches should reject Halo, in part because it associates thrill and arousal with killing. “To justify whatever killing is involved by saying that it’s just pixels involved is an illusion,” he said.
This current practice lays bare the shallowness of evangelism in contemporary evangelical churches. Authentic evangelism requires that the holiness of God be set forth with clarity so that the sinfulness of man is thereby exposed. By providing access to a game that glorifies what God calls abominable, the church fatally confuses and corrupts the message of salvation entrusted to our stewardship. It is never right to do wrong in order to gain the privilege to evangelize.
It also reveals an abysmal disregard for the clear teaching of Scripture: “Thou shalt not kill.” (Exodus 20:13, AV) Further, to aid and abet young people in their immersion in the world of Halo 3 is to set aside the apostle Paul’s instruction: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8, NASB) How can we expect God to honor evangelistic efforts predicated on flagrant disregard for Scripture? What sort of standard for Christian discipleship must be in place when churches enable their students to set aside the Bible in the name of fun? No, brothers, our churches should be warning young people of the dangers of Halo 3, not using it as bait to draw them to a gospel presentation or as entertainment to occupy their restless minds.
Article written by Bill Bennett and Paul Brewster, October 9, 2007
Bill Bennett (Th.D., NOBTS), Chaplain at Southeastern Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC. and president of Mentoring Men for the Master, based in Wilmington, NC. Paul Brewster, Sr. (Ph.D., SEBTS) serves as the pastor of Barlow-Vista Baptist Church, Hampstead, NC. They can be reached at (910) 470-5343 or (910) 471-7971 or bill.bennett@mentoringmen.org. or paulbrewster1@charter.net.