Senioritis

Only 28 more days of school and then I'm DONE!

I'm so sick of school, I really just want to do nothing for the next two months. I don't really NEED grades anymore...

I get to register for classes at Augsburg on Thursday...yaaaaaaaay!!!

This is disgusting

I found this article on http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/29/195855/959. Parts of the article are in green.

"Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life."

This is CRAZY- a video game about killing everyone that doesn't agree with you, and it's supposed to be CHRISTIAN?

"This game immerses children in present-day New York City -- 500 square blocks, stretching from Wall Street to Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the United Nations headquarters, and Harlem. The game rewards children for how effectively they role play the killing of those who resist becoming a born again Christian. The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian)."

Great, so now not only are Christian kids being taught that it's fun to kill people who aren't like you, they're also being taught that being evil sometimes is fun. Good idea.

"Is this paramilitary mission simulator for children anything other than prejudice and bigotry using religion as an organizing tool to get people in a violent frame of mind? The dialogue includes people saying, 'Praise the Lord,' as they blow infidels away."

So now it's OK to be a mass murderer in the name of Jesus. Maybe there's some new reprint of the Bible that I missed, but I have yet to read any passage in any translation where God gives his blessing for that. In fact, I'm pretty sure that going against Him and then saying you did it FOR Him would kind of tick Him off.

"The designers intend this game to become the first dominionist warrior game to break through in the popular culture due to its violent scenarios and realistic graphics, lighting, and sound effects. Its creators expect it to earn a rating of T for Teen."

What happened to violence being a BAD thing? Well, I guess its one of those things that's bad when others do it but not when the person denouncing the action is doing it (I personally have seen plenty of people that talk about how bad violence is and then go and play Halo and Splinter Cell because it's somehow OK when they do it).

"For game enthusiasts, there is also a multi-player mode, in which you can go online and battle to take territory from other players. If you happen to blow away a neutral party - and collateral damage is inevitable in the End of Days - then you will lose "Spirit Points". But you can power back up with merely a brief timeout for prayer, or by converting one of New York's terror-stricken citizens."

So in the end, it turns out to be fine if you accidentally kill someone because God will forgive you. Doesn't it say somewhere in the Bible that sinning because you know you'll be forgiven makes Jesus's death common...?

Man, this makes me SO MAD. Why are things that are evil for the rest of the world to do OK for Christians to do? The answer is, THEY'RE NOT. Just because the game is supposed to be about killing for Christ doesn't make the violence excusable. Jesus told us to love our enemies, not kill them. I love that it seems like most major Christian leaders don't really seem to have a basic knowledge of the Bible. Seriously, some pastor comes out with a violent video game...One of the nation's most famous pastors and a spiritual consultant to the president (not to mention one of the most fervent anti-gay figures in America) gets in trouble for being involved with a male prostitute...With all this hypocrisy, no wonder so many people hate Christians. And I say this as a Christian. I'm pretty sure something needs to change here...

I've found my soulmate

OK...so he probably can't even speak English, but he's pretty. And he can sing (he won Star Academy, the French version of American Idol, in 2004).

So maybe this is weird, but I don't even care. There is nothing wrong with appreciating the fact that God sometimes does a really good job with a particular person. God put attractive men on the earth for the viewing pleasure of females.

Hmmm....

OK, something I've noticed about a lot of Xanga posts lately: people tend to try and defend their posts before anyone else comment on them, saying stuff like, "Go ahead and get mad," or "Don't take this the wrong way," or "Say what you want, but..." Stuff like they're just assuming that everyone is going to automatically disagree with them. Seriously, if you care what other people will say about your post, don't post it. And if it's really what you believe, don't act like you have to defend yourself when you have no idea whether or not people might actually agree with you. Thirdly, if you don't feel you can express yourself well enough online to get what you really want to say across, don't post and then blame others for not talking to you when they misinterpret your post. It's not their job to ask you what you meant because they think you said what you meant.

I'm not saying I've never done this- I very well may have. But if I have, I'm not doing it anymore, online or in real life. If I have something to say about something, I will. And if someone doesn't agree with me, that's fine. I'll listen to their side and take their arguments into account. But I'm not going to get my feelings all hurt because- surprise- not everyone thinks exactly the same as I do.

That's been bugging me for a while, and I just had to get it off my chest.

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