The Anglican Church, or Church of England, has made a lot of moves that are quite liberal in the Christian community.  They have allowed women to preach, priests to marry, and in the case of their American branch, the ordination of openly homosexual priests.

However, despite a track record of being much more liberal than their evangelical counterparts concerning issues of sex and sexuality, the Anglican church appears to be just as against the idea of “violent” video games. 

This issue with the Church has only recently come up and was catalyzed by Sony’s Resistance:  Fall of Man.  Specifically the game features an epic battle where the alien horde and humanity fights in the Manchester Church.  Somehow someone important in the Church has become aware of this fact and is now going to take “legal action” against Sony if they do not apologize and remove the game from store shelves.

The Church appears to be planning its case around the fact that it claims Sony did not obtain permission to use the interior of the church of Manchester.

Sony responded by saying the game isn’t, “based on reality,” but that they would contact the Church to understand their concerns more clearly.

Part of the concern that Sony will doubtless hear about is that the Manchester area has a high level of gun crime and so a game that presents gun violence in the area provokes people even more.  The Dean of Manchester, The Very Reverend Rogers Govender, stated, “We are shocked to see a place of learning, prayer and heritage being presented to the youth market as a location where guns can be fired.”

The tragic part of this is that people are completely misconstruing the reality of what is going on.  The game doesn’t encourage people to grab guns and shoot other people in the Manchester church.  The Church was just a setting for a fantasy game.  Much in the same way that New York City or The Forbidden City in China is used for fictional movies and books.

We here at ESG have talked about it numerous times, but I’ll take the time to restate it.  Video games do not make it seem rational to shoot people in real life unless there is some previous mental issue with the person who would perpetrate acts of violence in real life based of what they played in a game.  Video games do not make it easier to commit violence in real life.  I may smile when I pull off a gory combo in Mortal Kombat or God of War but that still doesn’t make it easier, as a vegetarian, to see an animal be killed or hurt (let alone people, for God’s sake). 

I really hope that Sony does fight this if they are forced to.  Since when do people have to ask for permission to use the interior of any place for a fantasy setting? 

Chufmoney

[via BBC UK]