Violence is cool, heh-heh

Because there has probably been a dearth of long-winded rants on religion over the past week, and because I'm always utilizing my forum at the Quail toward my own exploits, here's another piece of news from the world of He Who Watches You in the Shower.

In that light, I must note that The New York Times is on top of its shit today. This article discusses how certain churches are using Halo 3 to evangelize to the youth.

The most interesting part about this, I think, is that the game is intended to be purchased only by people 17 years old and up, and these churches are not only allowing this in their church for 12-year-olds, they are specifically bringing it in. In fact, here's a link to how YOU can share your faith through the deep spiritual implications provided by Halo 3.

One pastor who promotes this method explains, “Teens are our ‘fish,' so we’ve become creative in baiting our hooks.” I wonder if that same pastor was one of the people who protested that his young boy accidentally saw Janet Jackson's nipple.

There are plenty of potential paradoxes inherent in this story, and I'm not going to nitpick and point them all out; you all can enjoy that yourselves. However, utilizing popular culture to market and promote religion is specifically my area of study, so I find this intriguing. To me, it just doesn't make sense to focus religious faith solely on growing numbers. I feel like there'd be a much stronger community of Christians if people didn't have to be tricked into it.