A Christian Blind Spot?

Delighting in Violence, Gore, and Bloodshed

He was terribly distraught. Before he even spoke, I could tell that he was carrying a heavy burden. As a soldier in Iraq, he had seen horrible things. I hadn’t yet known many details, but I knew he had friends who were shot and killed right in front of him. I knew he still carried baggage from the things he had seen as well as from the things he had done. It was amazing how even in the midst of battle he still recalled the exact number of extremists he had killed. I’m sure this may not be the case for all soldiers, but Johnny was a Christian and he could not separate his faith in Christ from his job as a soldier.

I initially found it odd, but the first thing Johnny brought up to me was not the bloodshed he had seen over seas. He didn’t initially bring up the fear he felt ducking behind walls or dodging bullets, either. The first thing Johnny mentioned to me was the sorrow he felt in ending his friendships with his Christian friends once he came back home. He expected to find solace among his friends, peace, and something of the understanding that he found among his military friends. Unfortunately, he found nothing of what he expected.

The problem Johnny had was with the way his friends decided to use their time. Johnny wanted to talk, wanted to share stories, wanted to catch up on the time he had missed while his friends only wanted to play video games. The primary problem, however, came in the genre of games his friends loved to play the most…

“Nice Shot” one would laugh to the other as his character got shot in the head. “Yes, I got more kills than you!” another would shout as they tallied up how many deaths each one obtained. The game was called Call Of Duty, but the issue at hand can be found in many other games, movies, and even television programs, as well. Johnny had witnessed first-hand the reality of war and violence while his friends back home only lived in an imaginary world. Johnny could not wait to get out of it, and his friends could not wait to plug in their controllers and get into it. Death was a tragedy to Johnny, and he talked about having dreams where he could not scrub the blood of those he killed off of his hands no matter how hard he tried. His friends delighted in killing other avatars in their video games. The more bloody the shot or knife slicing the better for them. Eventually, Johnny had to stop hanging out with his friends (professing Christians) because he couldn’t take their rejoicing in death any longer. It affected him psychologically, emotionally, and most importantly, spiritually.

How would you have counseled Johnny if you were his pastor or friend? How quickly would you have lost your credibility? Would you, like Johnny’s friends have to admit, in Christian integrity, that you also delight in violent video games and movies. If a Christian wife approached you about her issues with her husband who likes to watch bloody UFC fights while her children are still awake, would you have to respond by admitting you like to watch the bloody UFC fights, as well, but at least you put the kids to bed first. Christians, and tragically Christian leaders, have lost much credibility among the world and their congregations because of their lack of holiness regarding violence. This is a crucial blind-spot in the life of Christians and Christian ministers and in this blog series, I would like to discuss this issue in detail. Is finding delight and entertainment in violent games, movies, and television shows sinful or does it fall under the category of Christian liberty. I will try to answer this question as well as give my reasons for why I have come to my conclusions. I will do this by taking a survey of the Christian Theology of violence. I will first look at a Christian Theology of Violence in the Old Testament, I will then look at the Christian Theology of Violence in the New Testament. After doing a biblical survey, I will then look at church history, as well. After building a foundation of Scripture and Church History, I will then seek to analyze various Sports, movies, and video game genres. I will also differentiate between watching violence and delighting in violence. By discussing the nature of things such as The Law of Christ, Christian liberty, love, and holiness, I desire that by the end of this series, all of you who may be reading this will seriously consider the issues I raise according to the foundations and arguments made and come to your own convictions.

Clarifications:

1. The soldier mentioned in this post is a real person who I had the privilege of counseling. For privacy reasons I changed his name. I did not however change the story in anyway.

2. The picture used in this post is not of the soldier I counseled. This was a picture that was very popular during the height of the war in Iraq. I thought this picture did a great job of capturing the intent of my post. I have spent a lot of time trying to track down the source of this picture so I could provide the photographer with credit but I have been unable to do so. If the photographer would like credit for this image please contact me and I would be more than happy to credit the picture to you.