The NYT reports that Churches are using the latest videogames to encourage a hard-to-reach demographic into the fold. Controversially, the game some of them use is the violent and 18+ game, Halo 3. The question, the article asks, is how far the Church should go in recruiting young people. The question I ask is, at the time when the industry is trying its darndest to educate parents and carers about he age ratings system, what kinds of mixed-messages are they sending out?
Those buying it must be 17 years old, given it is rated M for mature audiences. But that has not prevented leaders at churches and youth centers across Protestant denominations, including evangelical churches that have cautioned against violent entertainment, from holding heavily attended Halo nights and stocking their centers with multiple game consoles so dozens of teenagers can flock around big-screen televisions and shoot it out.
...
Witness the basement on a recent Sunday at the Colorado Community Church in the Englewood area of Denver, where Tim Foster, 12, and Chris Graham, 14, sat in front of three TVs, locked in violent virtual combat as they navigated on-screen characters through lethal gun bursts. Tim explained the game's allure: "It's just fun blowing people up."
The violence issue is almost a moot point; recent controversy in this country aside, the Church's history is bloody. But the attitudes of the pastors are a bit irksome:
John Robison, the current associate pastor at the 300-member Albuquerque church, said parents approached him and were concerned about the Halo games' M rating. "We explain we're using it as a tool to be relatable and relevant," he said, "and most people get over it pretty quick."
Sure, it's every adult's decision to purchase an M game for their kids, but when a moral authority like the church does it, it undermines the work which the games industry's been toiling over since the age ratings were put into place - and any argument which the industry has when more serious allegations arise.
Halo 3 has a 12+ PEGI rating in Europe
