NY Times: Churches use Halo 3 to target teens

“We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” says Gregg Barbour, youth minister of Colorado Community Church in Denver, as quoted in the New York Times. Barbour is one of a number of Christians using Halo 3 to lure teenagers into church.

From the article:

Across the country, hundreds of ministers and pastors desperate to reach young congregants have drawn concern and criticism through their use of an unusual recruiting tool: the immersive and violent video game Halo.

…

Those buying it must be 17 years old, given it is rated M for mature audiences. But that has not prevented leaders at churches and youth centers across Protestant denominations, including evangelical churches that have cautioned against violent entertainment, from holding heavily attended Halo nights and stocking their centers with multiple game consoles so dozens of teenagers can flock around big-screen televisions and shoot it out.

Not everyone is thrilled that theists are using videogames as a recruitment tool.

“If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it,” said James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a nonprofit group that assesses denominational policies. “My own take is you can do better than that.”

If anyone in the GGL community knows how to find the church with the free alcohol and pornographic movies, please contact me. Thanks.

Link to the Gray Lady.