Matthew Wayne Selznick

I was all set to get righteous about Bush and his ridiculous, malinformed, politicized position on embryonic stem cell research, but this guy did it well enough.

Boing Boing once again fills us in on another mind-shaker… according to the site Talk To Action, Left Behind Games Inc. will be releasing a video game later this year — a first-person shooter real-time strategy game like Quake or Splinter Cell Warcraft or Command & Conquer — in which the player takes the role of a Christian paramilitary soldier. Your goal? Convert the citizens of New York City to Christ… or terminate with extreme prejudice. In the game, you are encouraged to convert or kill Jews, Muslims, Catholics, gays, and anyone opposed to your goal of an American theocracy.

Seriously, WTF???

Check out the article at Talk To Action for all the details — it’s a lengthy but informative and chilling read — but here’s the gist: the game, which advocates and depicts graphic, explicit violence against anyone who hasn’t accepted Christ as their personal savior, has strong connections to Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church.

Warren’s organization has made no secret of its intention to create an army of a billion Christian foot-soldiers to literally re-make the world before the oft-delayed second coming. He’s even got the president of Rwanda on board with full cooperation to start there. What better way to get the kids used to killing infidels than by marketing a video game directly to congregations?

The international director of Warren’s church, Mark Carver, sits on the advisory board of Left Behind Games. Tyndale House , which publishes the insanely popular series of Left Behind books, granted the company a license to use the intellectual property of the series to market and design the game — so they approve of using bullets to baptize, as well. So does the mastermind of the Left Behind series of books, Tim LaHaye, who told the LA Times, “We hope kids like the game. Our real goal is to have no one left behind.”

And even if you aren’t translated in the rapture, don’t worry — Warren’s army of video game-trained foot-soldiers will blow you away before the Apocalypse.

This really serves as a reminder: Islam isn’t the only child of Abraham to spawn fundamentalist jihadists. Some come from Lake Forest, California.

Another day, another item on the list of “Why I Am Not A Christian!”

All this fuss over “The DaVinci Code,” “Holy Blood, Holy Grail,” Mary Magdalene, the Knights Templar, blah blah blah!

Seriously. Arguing over whether Jesus died (childless) on the cross and was resurrected in three days is like asking if Heracles is really the son of Zeus, or if Osiris was really resurrected by Isis after Set chopped him up.

I’m just saying.

I’ve made it pretty clear, both in this blog and in my personal life, that I am not a religious person. In fact, I’ve ranted against the negative efforts of some faiths on scientific and medical progress. However, I will always support a person’s right to have faith in whatever it is that gives them comfort. I saw something today that raised that particular set of hackles.

Nevada National Guard Sergeant Patrick Stewart was killed when his Chinook helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan in September. Sergeant Stewart’s sacrifice earns him the right to be remembered on the memorial wall at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, Nevada. Typically, the placard bearing the name of the veteran also bears the symbol of his faith.

Sergeant Stewart and his widow Roberta are followers of Wicca. Unfortunately, the Department Of Veteran Affairs doesn’t recognize Wiccan symbols for use in their cemeteries.

Here is a list of the symbols they will allow. Note the symbols for Eckankar, the “humanist emblem of spirit,” and even atheism (didn’t know atheists were that organized.) Why isn’t Wicca, which has been established by several court decisions to be a valid religion under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recognized by the Department of Veteran Affairs?

Fight for your country… die so that others might enjoy freedom… but you won’t be memorialized in a way that befits the faith your country’s freedoms enable you to embrace.

That’s deeply offensive to me. I hope the VA fixes this, and soon.

In the mean time, I’d like to propose to the blogosphere that we memorialize Sgt. Stewart and the other Wiccans who have died in the line of duty ourselves. Let the World Wide Web be their memorial, until VA does the right thing. I’ve created an image, suitable for placement on your web sites. I recommend linking the image either to the BoingBoing post from Xeni Jardin, the Las Vegas Review-Journal article that first broke the story, or better still, the Department of Veteran Affairs Contact Page, where you can let the VA know your feelings on this issue.

Sgt. Stewart deserves to be remembered.

Thanks to Cydniey for pointing out this article on the ongoing Dover, PA trial.

Hmm… Monty Python’s Flying Spaghetti Monster, anyone? Makes me hungry… for science!