Don't wuss out and say "not that I mean to insult anybody's faith". You do. In fact, you did, don't run and hide now.

“If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it,” said James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a nonprofit group that assesses denominational policies. “My own take is you can do better than that.”

Last time I checked, church's do give out free alcohol (during communion) and pornography (check out the Sodom and Gomorrah stories in the bible some day). So, good on the church for embracing its heritage of booze and pornographic sex.

Let me guess, the Prophet of Truth gets explained as the Prophet Muhammed? And Master Chief is Jesus, who sacrifices/risks his life in all 3 games to save mankind? But then he can't really die forever, because he has a Faith shield that regenerates if he stops fighting to pray for a few seconds. And let's not forget Cortana, biblical whore of the Gravemind.

"But Sir, why does Jesus kill Grunts in the back when they are turning the other cheek and running away?"
'Because they backstabbed us on 7/7, little Charles'

O, the joys of a manipulated world-view!

"I usually love Destructoid, and I defend it when the PC crowd jumps all over it for no reason...but this time you are dead wrong."

Translation: It's okay for Destructoid editors to have opinions unless they're opinions that personally offend me, then I'll just write them off.

Yeah, THAT's mature. The Christian friends I have would rather debate with me than write me off and bury their heads in the sand, but thanks anyway.

I think that religion should be taught to kids. But not in a fun way. In a boring, crammit down your throat method. That way, kids are insulated from the brain changing effects or religion. Think vaccine. Most of the best anti-religion or anti-religious organization friends of mine were made that way. And some of the most devout ones were ones that "Discovered" religion in University (or College for you Americanoes) where public school kids.

I can honestly say, Catholic school made me into a free thinking man. And those who didn't make it into the realm of free thinking? When making flour, you have to separate the chaff from the wheat.

i'm an atheist but this is entry is entirely retarded. a church's primary goal is redemption and salvation of individuals. it's in the bible that you should go out and spread the word -- that is to say, establish places of worship where people can meet and hold church. if it takes a simple childish video game to attract the flock, then so be it. it's not deceptive if you're up front about it -- come play halo 3 and maybe hear about god, too. also, i see no issue in wanting children to learn and worship god based on how their peers and family do it in church. it's a form of indoctrination into that social sphere.

if you are religious and believe in god, you will want your children to as well -- everyone is assuming that there is a god and he is the only god to be worshiped. if you're an outside body not involved in the indoctrination of the young, then your opinion really doesn't matter two shits. everyone that attempts to get the young to worship the god of the parents' choice do so not from a malicious intent; it's quite the opposite.

it would be a much scarier country (that what it already is) if parents were not allowed to indoctrinate their children into their chosen religions. that would be the revocation of a liberty. that is unacceptable. so it is an acceptable evil to allow religion to propagate as such. really, you're beef is with religion and not with the benign methods of the religious to do what they feel is right.

you're bitching and their doing something. if you really felt hard about the thing you're trying to feign anger toward, you'd do something about it than sit on your fat ass and blog.

to gareson:

there is no god to bless him.

I may not be one bit religious, but even I can see that the idiots that do this are just debasing their religion further. Yes, Halo 3 is an amazing game, and a fuckton of fun. But, far as I know, church is supposed to be neither. It's a place of worship, where you can go to be fulfilled in life. And again, far as I know, Halo 3 is neither of those. Unless you're a really hardcore fanboy. In which case, go get laid.

Believe... or God will smite you.

Ok... I am religious, and think this is like Hanzel & Gretel. Where the witch leads them into her house to make them dinner. They should let young minds choose wether or not to do right or wrong thing. Not unless it's a HighSchool aged youth group. Then I could see MAYBE letting Master N' Chief inside the church. Not to have them advertise Halo 3 nights @ Church...

If you think the church "fishing" for souls is bad... What about those little unknown reports of the U.S. Army & "The Deciders' War Machine". Trying to recruit roadside bomb victims to Iraq & their ranks.......... THAT's My Friends is LAME!

@ BS3

The Army did that @ Halo 3 Launch lines in NYC!

This is the reason i'm Atheist. The church has gone to using cheap tricks to hook people into the religion they follow. We aren't talking about a social club. We are talking about a life changing decision here. It's like the recruitment rates being low for the army so they used Halo 3. It's like no one cares about what they are doing in the world anymore. It makes me really sad that a staple for power and "compassion" is using such cheap tricks to bring in seat fillers. We need to stop this somehow.

to deathsaw - that's a pisspoor reason to be an atheist -- it's like you're choosing not to believe as if belief is a choice. a true atheist doesn't believe out of logic and reason.

Nice to see some debate going on here. It's an interesting topic whether you agree with my opinion or not.

I stand my my piece not being "retarded". I find it creepy that kids are being lured to Church with the promise of free games. As someone who attended these kinds of "let's make church fun for kids" groups as a child, I wholly disapprove of the confusion of a young mind.

Go watch Jesus Camp. You'll see what I mean about kids being used as clay.

While I don't agree with the practice but, I'd rather have a congregation that finds a positive way to videogames, like.. ya know.. luring kids to the church with them, then just deem them as the 'devil's tools' like many other churches (at least one's I've seen) do.

The fact that they have to use video games to lure children instead of actual honest methods really shows they need to update their ideas, because it looks as if they're getting quite irrelevant (I'm a Christian and I'm saying this too).

But this certainly isn't the first time I've seen video games used as a recruiting tool. Every few weeks army recruits come with a huge gaming system with some Xbox game. The kids at my school just need to uh... sign the tiny army paper and get in the back of the van.

Videogames= the new 'free candy'.

I disagree overall, though I can agree with the supposed hypocracy. I am a christian, who is staying home from church today to do workan is on break. But churchs in general have a warped sense of what is right and what is wrong, basing things sometimes without any guidance on the bible itself.

But as I've argued in Sunday School, many of the things that are deemed immorral, have no founding in the bible. I had people say that certain things in my life are not very Christian of me. So I ask for them to prove it and they can't.

If this is just a church reaching out to the youth, that is okay IMHO. I joked about having a movie night in my Church and how we should show Terminator 2 just to separate ourselves from the typical views of Baptists. But we don't have a tv or projector so, for now atleast, it is a no go.

Christianity is so much more palatable when it's a purely spiritual endeavor. Once it becomes organized into "religion" I have a big problem. I knew someone who was a Christian friend -- awesome person whose relationship with God was completely personal. Then she got sucked into a Church and her whole view on faith became warped. She became guilt ridden and started telling her son she loves God more than him, making the kid cry.

Where before, spirituality was just a part of her life, now it IS her life. Believe me or not, I do have respect for a great deal of cool Christians who don't let their religion rule them completely. However, I find the whole idea of Church insidious and corrupt. Sorry, but that's just me.

Among parents at the Colorado Community Church, Doug Graham, a pediatric oncologist with a 12-year-old son, said that he was not aware of the game’s M rating and that it gave him pause. He said he felt that parents should be actively involved in deciding whether minors play an M-rated game. “Every family should have a conversation about it,” he said.

This is the story. Forget the religious bullshit, once again we have uninformed parents allowing their children to play games why may be unsuitable for them. Personally I think the only corrupting influence on a kid playing Halo is he might think Halo is a good FPS and not derivative wank, but that's up for the parents to decide.

I agree deiga-the-semivaliant. Yes, we could sit here and criticize religion all day (I've got a few complaints of my own) but really, we should look at this a a blessing in disguise. Here is a religious organization (no matter how small) making an informed choice on videogames and is using it to help connect with youth.

On a slightly side note. I'm working with 4th graders and I'm cracking up since so many of the guys have played or are playing one of the Halo series of games (Some only have 1&2) and they freak out because I staighten them out over things like the Flood are NOT zombies.

Amen! Not only religion, I'm opposed to indoctrinating kids into society because it deprives them of the choice to act on their animal instincts. Also, by teaching them language, we constrict and shape their play-doh minds before they can exercise the right to choose what they are and are not exposed to in life, so I reject that.

Frankly, we need more children like Batboy.

I could go all day on this one, but I think the only thing I want to comment on regarding all the comments....heh. Using a fun tool to draw in the unshaped and innocent minds of children into the warm embrace of the Lord ~sneezes~ is one thing. Using a game that illustrates many of the things that are counter to the doctrine of the Holy Word ~coughs~ is quite another. The hipocracy doesn't rest in the idea of using video games or video game nights to draw in the kiddies like flies to the Theological shit-pile. It's the vehicle being used.

Granted Halo 3 is the big hot thing all the kids are drooling over like dogs for a big slab of steak, but it's a matter of course, if you're going to sacrifice your morales for recruitment at least do it with something that even remotely comes close to the stipulations from on high. Though who knows, I suppose Halo could be painted as a real Old Testament in eye for an eye, so that's sellable by a good lawyer and your lock con artist, but still. The Church can spread it's love, all well and good, more power to them, but at least they should use something that makes sense, rather then using violent video games that they protest against out one side of their pious mouths and now try to lure in the kids out the other.

Me, I'll remain faithful to the Church of the Divine Orgasm, at least that makes sense to me.

@Jim

Based on what you said there, I don't think you have any idea on what the Church is or does (or even Christianity for that matter). You're grouping "Church" as if there were one church. In reality, there are many different kinds of churches on there. Protestant churches, despite being labeled as "Baptist" or "Evangelical" simply tend to depend on what the Pastor thinks about the Bible and Christ. Because Protestants focus more on individual interpretation, each of these individual churches should be a bit different. But even though they are different, they shouldn't be too different. The exception of course are crazy pastors that have really weird beliefs, but when it comes down to it, this isn't extremely common. The Catholic and Orthdox church on the other hand does not go into individual interpretation, so all interpretations are studied carefully and determined by the Vatican and so on. Now before you or anyone else says something idiotic about Priests molesting boys, everything is still ultimately human. There are going to be bad priests out there, but when looking at it, the number of them really isn't that high.

I don't know why they're using Halo 3 as an evangelical tool (because even you didn't clarify that, you just mentioned that they did and felt necessary to go on an anti-Christian rant). It sounds a bit strange, but honestly, it's probably something innocent. Just a youth group getting together and having fun. I don't see what's wrong about that. You're talking about Christ as if it were a bad thing. What, so when I'm a parent, I'm supposed to go against my teachings that Christ is our salvation? I'm supposed to keep my children uneducated about the works of God simply because they're not old enough to understand the works of the many philosophers, scientists, and theologians that connect faith and reason? Your logic is that we shouldn't teach kids basic math because we should wait until they're old enough to learn Calculus and Differential Equations. Bullshit. All education has to start somewhere, be it math or religion. When Children are educated about the works of God, they are taught the basics. As they get older, they can advance towards the more advanced stuff. What's wrong with teaching kids the basics and moving on to the more advanced stuff as they get older? It's not like Christian education teaches kids the basics and expects them to be complete. Once a Christian knows the basics and gets old enough to understand complex thinking, that's when they can move on to Plato, Aristotle, Kreeft, C.S. Lewis, etc. etc. etc.

I could elaborate on all of that a lot more, but I'm not going to because this is a videogames blog, and I agree with absolutely everything that Gareson said. Using Halo as an evangelical tool is a bit odd, and I would like to know how they're using it, however, using that as a reason to go on an anti-Christian rant is both irresponsible and disgusting.

Would you harass people based on their race? What about their sexual orientation? If not, then why is it that harassing people based on their religious beliefs is ok? Religious views are not political views. Christianity is a lifestyle that many people share, and it is not something a person goes in and out of or changes as if it were a political view on something similar. The only thing you're doing here is insulting Dtoid's Christian readers and giving way for the anti-Christians on here to insult us as well. Look at this thread. The moment any Christian enters trying to defend his or her faith, they are immediately zerg rushed with stupid, mocking comments. By insulting Christians readers, you're also insulting their friends and family.

This is a videogames blog, why does a thread have to go into Religion bashing? Why does it have to create a Christians vs non-Christians arena? Why should a group readers have to be offended and outcasted just because of their religious belief and lifestyle choice?

@kyttie

Your post is idiotic and shows that you have not even read the Bible. I've read the Bible, and unlike you I know the context of those selected passages, and there's absolutely no "contradiction" there, hell, your point in and of itself doesn't even fit anywhere with that. This is why I chose to ignore the bulk of the comments here. Besides the pointless Christian flames, there are posts like yours that are beyond uneducated.

If you were in College and you wrote a 10 page essay about a book you've never even read, wouldn't that make it an automatic fail? It makes me laugh in pity when people like you do the same with Christianity. I'm willing to bet (judging on the comments) that each and every anti-Christian on here has not read the Bible. I'm also willing to bet that a lot of you are still in High School, and those that aren't went to college to study something that does not fall in line with philosophy or Christian theology.

and yes, I've read the bible, twice actually.. and used it directly for references many times... both of those references were word for word from the King James Bible... once again.. Sorry Shenocide.. wrong again