Christianity and Halo 3

Daniel Pulliam has posted on a recent New York Times article about the efforts of many churches to reach young people (and in particular, young men) by sponsoring events featuring violent video games, such as the recent Halo 3. I’d encourage you to read both articles and think about the question the Times article raises – how far should churches go to reach young people? In other words, at what point do we risk undermining our beliefs in the pursuit of trying to invite others to come? No doubt violent video games are popular. Halo 3 was off the charts in terms of pre-release sales for video games and therefore, it makes good sense to go where the people seem to be drawn. But what does Halo have to do with the cross? At what point does the gospel lead us as Christians to stop bowing down to the idols of this culture? Or do we not consider things which either lead people to glorify or minimize violence (“it’s only pixels”) or minimize our responsibility for how we use our time as idols? Or am I just sounding like a grumpy old man?

*UPDATE* – Rod “Crunchy Con” Dreher has also weighed in on the NYT article.