Churches Use Halo To Spread the Word, Raise Eyebrows

The New York Times has a lengthy look at an unorthodox way to spread the religious word: Halo 3 multiplayer matches. Churches across the country have adopted 'Halo Nights' as a way to get kids together in religious centers and church basements. "The alliance of popular culture and evangelism is challenging churches much as bingo games did in the 1960s. And the question fits into a rich debate about how far churches should go to reach young people. Far from being defensive, church leaders who support Halo -- despite its "thou shalt kill" credo -- celebrate it as a modern and sometimes singularly effective tool. It is crucial, they say, to reach the elusive audience of boys and young men." Just the same, the use of the game is raising concerns among some onlookers. GamePolitics reports that many faith communities are heavily debating the issue.

Re:Thou shalt not kill?

[toleraen]

I guess I don't see the big deal about this...growing up in the late 80s/early 90s, every Wednesday night we brought in our Nintendos/Segas to church to play video games with other kids. They supplied pizza, soda, a couple TVs, and a good time was had by all.

Granted stomping on turtles and shooting ducks might have been a little tamer than Halo, but it's still the same concept.

Re:It must be said

[rwven]

Eh, halo nights at churches are far from new. They've been going on almost since the first halo was launched...

Re:Killing != Murder

[Anonymous Coward]

One would think that if you've read the Bible several times, you might have noticed the contradiction right at the start, between Genesis 1 and 2. Gen 1 says that humans were created male and female on the 6th day, before God rested and after the animals of the earth(Gen 1:26-27); Gen 2 documents creation of first male human after God rested (Gen 2:5,7), then the creation of land animals (Gen 2:19), and finally the creation of female humans (Gen 2:21-22).

At maximum, only one of these sequences is correct, and the fact that both exist makes me wonder exactly where inerrantists start reading from.


(references: Vulgate [gutenberg.org] and KJV [gutenberg.org]; verse numbers are consistent)

Re:Thou shalt not kill?

[alan_dershowitz]

Two points of contention. It is using the word "murder" in a MORAL and not only legal sense. Second, if it's the correct translation then it would also be correct to say that this is what the "original" Christians believed (Jews too obviously.)

Re:Thou shalt not kill?

[Ghubi]

What would you call it then? Accurate translation [ucalgary.ca] maybe?

Re:Killing != Murder

[Pojut]

http://ask.yahoo.com/20050202.html [yahoo.com]

Modern translations of the Bible have copyright dates. Nice christian tone you have there, by the way.

Re:Killing != Murder

[Johnny5000]

To be really fair, there is no mention of hell in the old testament and is actually only referred to as the physical location in the new testament in name (not the lake of fire in revelations which isn't referred to as directly as hell) which was pulled directly to Roman-pagan mythology hades as a form of underworld punishment rather then the concept of "separation of God".

To be extra, super-duper turbo fair, pretty much the entire body of Christianity was lifted directly from pagan mythology [wikipedia.org], from the Romans, Egyptians, etc. Not just the concept of hell, but virgin birth, communion, crucifixion, resurrection, salvation, etc.

Sci Fi not in conflict with Christianity

[AHumbleOpinion]

the futuristic setting flies in the face of predictions that the second coming will be any day now

I am no biblical scholar, but I am pretty sure that the bible is pretty clear that no one will know when the second coming will occur. Hard science fiction is perfectly compatible with religion. As is hard science, heck, the Vatican operates a major observatory. Research highlights include:
Dark Matter and Energy in the Cosmos
The Acceleration of the Universe
Quasars
Globular Clusters
http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo/R1024/Research.html [arizona.edu]