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HALO3 As an Evangelistic Tool?

From Articles selected from The New York Times for The Times, Friday, October 2007 By MATT RICHTEL
First the percussive sounds of sniper fire and the thrill of the kill. Then the gospel of peace. Across the United States, hundreds of ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants have drawn concern and criticism through their use of an unusual recruiting tool: the immersive and violent video game Halo. The latest iteration of the immensely popular space epic, Halo 3, was released in September by Microsoft and has already passed $300 million in sales. Those buying it must be 17 years old, since 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 bad guys. Church leaders who support Halo celebrate it as a modern and sometimes singularly effective tool. It is crucial, they say, to reach the elusive audience of boys and young men. But some parents, religious ethicists and pastors say that Halo could have a corroding influence. "If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it," said James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a nonprofit group that assesses denominational policies. "My own take is you can do better than that." In the basement on a recent Sunday at the Colorado Community Church in the Englewood area of Denver, 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." Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. "We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell," Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church. But the question arises: What price to appear relevant? Daniel R. Heimbach, a professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina, believes that churches should reject Halo, in part because it associates thrill and arousal with killing. "To justify whatever killing is involved by saying that it's just pixels involved is an illusion," he said. There is little doubting Halo's cultural relevance.
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The first Halo and Halo 2 sold nearly 15 million copies combined. Microsoft says that Halo 3 "is on track to become the Number 1 gaming title of all time." Hundreds of churches use Halo games to connect with young people, said Lane Palmer, the youth ministry specialist at the Dare 2 Share Ministry, a nonprofit organization in Arvada, Colorado, that helps churches on youth issues. "It's very pervasive," Mr. Palmer said, more widespread on the East and West Coasts, less so in the South, where the Southern Baptist denomination takes a more cautious approach. The organization recently sent e-mail messages to 50,000 young people about how to share their faith using Halo 3. Among the tips: use the game's themes as the basis for a discussion about good and evil. At Sweetwater Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Austin Brown, 16, said, "We play Halo, take a break and have something to eat, and have a lesson," explaining that the pastor tried to draw parallels "between God and the devil." Players of Halo 3 control the fate of Master Chief, a tough marine who battles opponents with missiles, lasers, guns that fire spikes, energy blasters and other fantastical weapons. They can also play in teams, something the churches say allows fellowship opportunities. Complicating the debate over the appropriateness of the game as a church recruiting tool are the plot's apocalyptic and religious overtones. The hero's chief antagonists belong to the Covenant, a fervent religious group that welcomes the destruction of Earth as the path to their ascension. Microsoft said Halo 3 was a "space epic" that was not intended to make specific religious references or be more broadly allegorical. Playing Halo is "no different than going on a camping trip," said Kedrick Kenerly, founder of Christian Gamers Online, an Internet site whose central themes are video games and religion. "It's a way to fellowship." Mr. Kenerly's brother, Ken Kenerly, 43, is a pastor who recently started a church in Atlanta and previously started the Family Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where quarterly Halo nights were such a big social event that he had to rent additional big-screen T Vs. Ken Kenerly said he believed that the game could be useful in connecting to young people he once might have reached in more traditional ways, like playing sports. "There aren't as many kids outdoors as indoors," he said. "With gamers, how else can you get into their lives?"
Some American Churches are using the violent video game HALO to attract young people to social events
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