Killing infidels for kids

Imagine a game put out by Muslims. In the game the end times have come. Allah has his forces of righteousness and their job is to fight the infidels. All the religious aspects are there of course, holy books, prophets, prayer, etc. But the game also includes Islamic children pretending to have military forces and killing infidels and unbelievers. How do you think the Right-wing religious nut cakes would respond to that?

Apoplectic perhaps? Crazed fury no doubt. They would denounce it. They would say it proves how monstrous Islam really is. The very idea of teaching children that, come the end times, they may have to go out and militarily slaughter the forces "of evil" meaning non-Muslims, would be considered barbaric. Good thing that, to my knowledge, no such game exists. Well, that's not entirely true. No such game for Muslim children exists. But they do have one for the offspring of fundamentalist theocrats. And the kiddies get to run the military troops against the forces of the Antichrist. I guess that's you and me folks.

It's part of the multimillion dollar enterprise of the dispensationalist wing of fundamentalism. These are the followers of a fellow named Darby who invented doctrines like the rapture in 1832. Darby was influential in a tiny sect called the Plymouth Brethren. And while they didn't amount to much Darby's views about the end of the world caught on with every illiterate backwoods evangelist and Baptist fanatics south of the Mason-Dixon Line. It is now considered gospel, quite literally, to the fundamentalist masses yearning for an end times slaughter of sinners.

And the Left Behind games is about that doctrine. Christ returns and raptures out the true believers. But many seeing this "miracle" are converted to Jesus and it is their job to fight the forces of evil. The developers of the game describe it this way: "Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in Left Behind: Eternal Forces... Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil. commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!" "Conduct physical & spiritual warefare... wield modern military weaponry through the game world. Command your forces through intense battles across a breathtaking, authentic depiction of New York City. Control more than 30 unit types...."

Wow, religious based military operations being conducted in New York City with authentic graphics! Do you think they get to fly air planes into buildings? In case you don't get it one of the illustrations on their web site shows the skyline of New York City with smoke rising from throughout the city. Must make the heart of a fundamentalist tingle with joy to think of destroying one of the major cities of America.