It's not just a game.

The Los Angeles Times has run a story on the new Christianist video game where born-again kids can pretend they are slaughtering infidels, unbelievers and Satan's spawn in the name of Jesus. But out by a band of lunatic dispensationalists who believe the end of the world is coming (and a good thing too) and that an apocalyptic battle between the forces of good and evil will take place. Of course the saints will slaughter all the rest of us.

I know this sounds like bin Laden, the Taliban and Islamists. But a fundamentalist is a fundamentalist is a fundmentalist is a fundamentalist, if I my paraphrase Gertrude Stein. By the way if Gertie weren't already dead she'd by on the list of the godless who need to be slaughtered for the faith.

Christianists say they hope the game will attract a lot of children and convert them to the true faith of hating in the name of Jesus. Well, the last part is mine but that is what it amounts to. One of the games creators says this is a "tool to get the two-minute generation to think about matters of eternal importance." Gee, lets first insult them (two-minute generation) and then lets turn them into robots for Jesus.

Tim LaHaye, who has become a millionaire peddling the bull that the "Second Coming of Christ" is imminent, for several decades now, says "We hope teenagers like the game." One analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, Michael Pachter, says, "I will say some of the dialogue is pretty lane -- people saying, 'Praise the Lord' after they blow away the bad guys." Get that. In the game they kill people and their response to murder is to shout "Praise the Lord".

Remember those genocidal Islamists who rammed planes into buildings and shouted "Allah Akbar" or "God is great" as they killed thousands of people. Sound familiar. Go back to Stein paraphrase folks and get used to it. These people are deadly. They are restrained by their culture and by the fact that they are still a minority. But that restraint could vanish if they can power.

Don't forget Reverend Paul Hill, a fundamentalist precher in Florida. He murdered Dr John Britton, and his bodyguard James Barrett. He also wounded Barrett's wife, June. Why? Because Britton worked at an abortion clinic. Barrett and his wife were just collateral damage in the war to Christianise America.

Hill went to his execution joyously just like the Islamists. He refused to appeal his death penalty because he said: "I expect a great reward in heaven. I am looking forward to glory." Being a Christian he doesn't expect 72 virgins waiting for him of course. But he does expect Jesus to tell him "well done thou good and faithful servant." You can go here and see a a video news report showing Hill and his supporters justifying murder in the name of God. (The video is on the right and they have a 20 second station promo preceding it so be patient.)

And Hill is not the only one. And this sort of mentality is endemic in this game. This also shows the double-standards of Christianists. For decades they have whined about video game violence but now that they are the ones slaughtering the godless in a game they are out there promoting it. One long time advocate of banning such games, Christian attorney Jack Thompson, questions whether born-againers ought to be promoting such games. "We're going to push this game at Christian kids to let them know there's a cool shooter gamer out there. Because of the Christian context somehow it's OK? It's not OK. The context is irrelevent. It'a a mass-killing game." Now I'm not entering the debate here on censorship. I quote him because he notes "It's a mass-killing game."

Now in fairness it should be noted that God's soldiers do lose some of their spirituality when the blow away sinners in the game. But don't worry. As the LA Times notes, "soldiers lose of their spiritualty every time they kill an opponent and must be bolstered through prayer." Now there's a good Christian message for kids. If you kill someone praying about makes everything alright again.

The fundamentalists of the 80s were mild compared to what they are like today. In the 60s they were quiet and kept to themselves. What is changing is that as they gain power they do not modify. They become more fanatical and more violent. If the day comes when they believe they have control of the country they will carry out the executions that they promise will be done in a "Godly nation".

Christianist Gary North has said: ""So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God." North argues that "turn the other cheek" is only a strategy until Christians have power and then the "Christian should either bust him in the chops or haul him before the magistrate, and possibly both."

This advocate of totalitarian theocracy has made it clear that he and his fellow fundamentalists are a threat to society. "We need the noise of contemporary events to hude up from humanist enemies who, if they fully understood the long-term threat to their civilisation that our ideas pose, would be wise to take steps to crush us." How much more evidence do you need?