Crusading in Iraq

The "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" video game is included in "Freedom Packages" being sent to soldiers serving in Iraq by "Operation Straight Up," an evangelical entertainment troupe that is an official arm of the Defense Department's America Supports You program. In the "Left Behind" game, based on the phenomenally popular fiction series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, players command "a virtual evangelical army in a post-apocalyptic landscape that looks strikingly like New York City after 9/11," writes Max Blumenthal ("Kill or Convert, Brought to You By the Pentagon," The Nation, August 7, 2007). "With tanks, helicopters and a fearsome arsenal of automatic weapons at their disposal, Left Behind players wage a violent war against United Nations-like peacekeepers who, according to LaHaye's interpretation of Revelation, represent the armies of the Antichrist." OSU, a ministry of the Jonathan Spinks Evangelistic Association, also plans what it calls, alternately, a "military" and "religious" crusade in the near future:

On the most dangerous soil in our world, we’re taking a team of performers, professional athletes, and evangelists on a mission that will be both entertaining, as well as lend tremendous solitude to our men and women stationed in this war torn country of Iraq. We are most excited about this crusade and yes we are willing to go to the front lines with a very encouraging word straight from God, to our troops. We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war torn region. We’ll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq....

Our goal during these events is to give a deeper rest from the battlefield, comforting the hearts of the weary, and delivering an encouraging word from God to press on to victory.

The OSU troupe includes actor Stephen Baldwin; Paul Rogers, who performed on "The Gladiators" TV show; a number of former NFL stars, and a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

Comments

[Chad Stuart]

I think I will choose to be left behind and allow the Lord to fight my battles and not the Lahaye Army.

[Ryan Bell]

This story keeps getting scarier! I can't believe there isn't more negative attention paid to this.

[Chris Blake]

I stand by what I wrote in my latest book: "What a monstrosity of theological and artistic garbage the Left Behind series has produced." It is unbelievable, literally--and I would state that plainly and directly to those charlatans Lahaye and Jenkins. This unchristian, blaspheming, opportunistic debacle so outrages me that whenever someone (someone I can trust) asks me about Left Behind, I point to my rear end and say, "Yes, this is left behind--and here's right behind."

Forgive me.