Left Behind Games: The moral frames of evangelical Christianity

by Dominik Lukeš ·
Left Behind Games The storyline in the game begins just after the Rapture has occurred – when all adult Christians, all infants, and many children were instantly swept home to Heaven and off the Earth by God. The remaining population – those who were left behind – are then poised to make a decision at some point. They cannot remain neutral. Their choice is to either join the AntiChrist – which is an imposturous one world government seeking peace for all of mankind, or they may join the Tribulation Force – which seeks to expose the truth and defend themselves against the forces of the AntiChrist.
This is a great example of coded messages recognized by a subcommunity in the face  of incomprehension by the larger community. Anyone outside the Evangelical community would have to interpret the equation of AntiChrist with an "imposturous one world government seeking peace for all of mankind" as more than oxymoronic. However, this sentence makes perfect sense in the context of the moral vocabulary (conceptual framework) of evangelical Christians where 'peace for all of mankind' is associated with secular humanism and 'one-world-government' is an anti-American UN-like abomination. Lakoff described how these moral frameworks are constructed in Moral Politics.

Also, it is interesting to see, how these frameworks are negotiated by the community. On Christian TV, for instance, one can find a whole range of devices from explicit discussion of why “world peace” is ‘bad’ to negative contextualization leading to the creation of negative semantic prosodies of certain phrasemes and memes. This game is one more such device, leading as it does to gamers “having a great timeâ€? while “thinking and talkingâ€? about matters of eternal importance.

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  1. SJR
    This statement is posted from an employee of Left Behind Games on behalf of Troy Lyndon, our Chief Executive Officer. There has been in incredible amount of MISINFORMATION published in the media and in online blogs here and elsewhere. Pacifist Christians and other groups are taking the game material out of context to support their own causes. There is NO “killing in the name of Godâ€? and NO “convert or dieâ€?. There are NO “negative portrayals of Muslimsâ€? and there are NO “points for killingâ€?. Please play the game demo for yourself (to at least level 5 of 40) to get an accurate perspective, or listen to what CREDIBLE unbiased experts are saying after reviewing the game at www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/controversy.com Then, we’d love to hear your feedback as an informed player. The reality is that we’re receiving reports everyday of how this game is positively affecting lives by all who play it. Thank you for taking the time to be a responsible blogger.

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