Journal of Mistress Kat

“What if the Church and the State are the mob that howls at the door?”
William Butler Yeats

I am so very, very angry. It seems the Christian far-right has dropped its last pretenses of being anything but a power-hungry, manipulative hate-group.  A branch of fundamentalist Christians in the US has created a video game where the goal is to convert or kill anyone not subscribing to their version of God and the right way of life. Follow the link for more details.

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

This is not my Christianity. This is not my God. This cannot and will not be condoned.

The simple fact that the game was designed and created is bad enough in itself, although not surprising. However, the part I have the  hardest time understanding is that it will actually be released to the open market. How can such open bigotry be allowed past censors? Why is there no mainstream media coverage, no protests, no calls of outrage? The answer, very simply, is that people don't know about it. If not for my F-list, I wouldn't either.

Thank you for moth1 pointing out the story. Like her, I encourage everyone to repost this on your journals, e-mail your friends, talk to your family. Silence is acceptance. Be loud.

So, Friends in the UK, who saw tonight's Channel 4 documentary about the Patrick Henry College - a fundamentalist Christian "university" dedicated to educating the future leaders of  USA? And Friends in the US or elsewhere, are you aware of this and what's your opinion?

I am just... horrified and sad but not surprised. I have a Christian background and count myself as fairly spiritual person. But when religion becomes this organised, this manipulative, this absolute, it stops being about faith and becomes about power and control.

Most of all I felt so bad for these students in the College, most of them completely home-educated, kept totally apart from any mainstream cultural influences, not given any chance for independent thought. One of these children (they may be 18/19 but that is what they are, brainwashed children) earnestly compared the last US election and the issues debated within it (mainly abortion and homosexuality) to a 'battle between light and darkness'. The young women were saying things like "The God has given me these talents to serve him until the right guy comes along and then it is my duty to serve him" and "One thing that I have come to realise is that women are just not suited for higher leadership positions" - 150 years of feminism down the drain.

I don't know wherther to laugh or cry. At the moment I'm leaning towards the latter. Any thoughts?