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Introduction History of Video Games Skyrim Duke Nukem Dead Space 2 Saints Row 3 Mortal Kombat Call of Duty Gears of War 3 Dark Souls Fear 3 Pokemon Battlefield 3 Minecraft Contact GHVG |
Mortal Kombat What makes violence in video games immoral? Let’s say for a moment that playing violent video games doesn’t make the player violent. After all, not everyone laughs at comedy movies and not everyone cries during tearjerkers. Some people are just too stoic, or too strong of constitution to be affected by anything, let alone a game. So if we have an adult, say a Christian male aged 20-30, who’s past the impressionable age and set in the ways of Christ, what does it matter if he causes harm to someone in a video game? Well, what does God think when we silently curse someone in our minds? It is wrong to want to hurt someone, even though thinking cannot do another person bodily harm? When you wish harm upon somebody, God does not forgive because God sees only your intentions. Intending to harm someone is wrong in the same way that actually harming someone is. When a bank robber tries to rob a bank but fails, we don’t let them go because they didn’t actually rob it, we arrest them because they intended to rob it. The opposing argument is that the video game characters aren’t real people. Many times, they aren’t human at all. So where is the danger in wishing harm upon a nonexistent being? Upon an invention? Some say that it is a good way to vent anger, and that it’s better to harm these digital beings than actual people. The problem is that these games create and teach violence. Imagine a child who invents an invisible friend to beat up on and tease. His parent might say that it’s better to beat up an imaginary friend than a real one, and while this is the case, the child is conditioning himself to deal with others through aggression. The path to Christ is not achieved through redirecting anger, but eliminating it from the soul. These games may attract and absorb the hostility of a player, but it only collects and magnifies these wrongful feelings. Eventually they grow so bright that they begin to shine on other aspects of the players’ lives, radiating hate towards friends and family. The game Mortal Kombat is a lesson in physical brutality. It’s a barbaric callback to battles between gladiators, whence unlearned sinners would cheer for bloodshed. Mortal Kombat isn’t so much a game as it is a fighting simulator. Like gladiators, opponents are locked in an enclosed area and fight to the death. They punch and kick, stab, and even bite one another. When one or another has lost, his body is mutilated and ripped apart. One dedicated player was inspired enough to make a compilation of his favorite murders. 1 Corinthians 7:15 God has called us to live in peace. This isn’t all. The Internet is filled with dozens of videos made by fans showcasing their favorite executions. The scenes of death are rated and categorized with the time and care that a film connoisseur might take cataloging his movie collection. I didn’t know which one to choose, for I couldn’t watch half of them. I saw eyes gouged out, intestines ripped from bodies, and genitals crushed. Who wishes to watch, let alone make these things happen? I could link ten videos from ten different players and not fully illustrate the gore contained in Mortal Kombat. Here’s another video of a gamer enjoying himself. 1 Corinthians 14:33 God is not a god of disorder but of peace. I don’t understand how the gritty and intense violence can be downplayed to this extent. How can someone be stabbed through the skull – in through the eye and out the back of the head – and then get back up and punch back? Do we want kids who play this to have such unrealistic ideals about the effects of violence? A quick online search yields many news stories about kids who critically injure other kids imitating wrestling moves, where none of the participants are ever depicted as being injured by the attacks. Mortal Kombat takes it further, where people aren’t depicted as injured even when they have broken bones. The game unfortunately takes to extremes everything this website is against. Aside from the violence, it also features sexually promiscuous women. The breasts of the female characters are so large that they could only be obtained through surgical modifications. These images are destructive to both sexes: it gives girls an impossible image to live up to and it fills boys’ minds with adulterous thoughts. Proverbs 13:2 From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things, but the unfaithful have a craving for violence. When I say that God Hates Video Games, do I mean that He hates the inflated women and the violent men who beat each other to death in Mortal Kombat? The last video brings my conclusions to a full circle. Jesus says that if we look at a woman with a lustful eye, we have committed adultery. What then, if we look at someone with a murderous eye? Have we committed murder? That is God’s judgment whether these players are guilty of such a thing. All I’m certain of is that risk won’t be mine. Jesus says that if we look at a woman with a lustful eye, we should pluck it out because it’s better to enter Heaven with one eye than to be cast to Hell with both. This is figurative, of course, but I’d encourage any Christian who has this game to discard it. It is better to enter heaven without Mortal Kombat, than it is to play it in Hell. Don't expect to make friends in Call of Duty |
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Updated 12/31/11
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