Par-tay!

Investors Give No Quarter to Convert-or-Die Videogame
By: Jonathan Hutson, Talk-to-Action blog

When Left Behind Games launched its convert-or-die videogame Left Behind: Eternal Forces in mid-November 2006, its stock traded at a peak price of $7.44 per share. Breathless boosters at RedChip issued a “strong buy” recommendation and predicted that within 18 months, the stock would soar to as much as $18.70 per share. Really?

In fact, Left Behind Games’ stock chart looks like a ski slope.[Chart is posted below] Not a gentle bunny hill, but a World Cup grand slalom course, groomed for a world-beating downhill run. Today, you could buy a share of Left Behind Games for a quarter — with change left over. On March 21, 2007, the stock closed at 18 cents a share.

Left Behind Games has sunk more than $27 million and four years into the development and marketing of a game that has been critically panned by gamer blogs, who sneer at its bugginess and built-in spyware, and was boycotted by members of its target audience.

Although game sales have brought in some revenue, the stock has yet to earn a dime of profit, according to the latest quarterly report of Left Behind Games, filed on February 20, 2007. And, according to the quarterly report, “As of December 31, 2006… we had $698,763… of deferred salaries due to our officers.” Moreover, in December 2006 and January 2007, a corporate officer made two interest-free loans, totaling $23,000, to help the enterprise with “working capital.”

And the road ahead looks even bumpier. For example, the firm is obligated to pay Bible publisher Tyndale House, by March 31, 2007, a hefty $750,000 royalty payment for licensing the game, which is based on the best-selling and profoundly bigoted Left Behind novels co-authored by Southern Baptist minister Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

[...]

If Left Behind Games fails, it won’t be because the stock price got blogged down. It will be because they made a crappy, hate-filled product that managed to offend its two target audiences: Rapture-ready Moms and hardcore gamers. As SapphireGrl wrote on RaptureReady.com, “”Where in the Word does it say to ‘kill the infidels’? Where are we told to kill anyone that won’t convert? Jesus said to shake the dust from your feet, not to mow them down with automatic weapons!” And as Gameinatrix Cori wrote in a smash-mouth review by a gamer who had really wanted to like the game but found that it stank out loud: “Let’s just leave this behind us and never speak of it again.”

*snort* [Graph of stock decline from CNN.com]

Sometimes you come across a book that just begs to be read…especially when it tells you something that you want to hear. Well, I wanted to hear it–I don’t know about you…

“A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder”, authored by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman, and published by Little, Brown and Co.

Are You a Slob? Good, You’re More Productive

Karen Jackson would be the first to admit her desk looks like a disaster area.

Her stacks of papers and photographs are so sloppy that the Texas schoolteacher won first place in a contest to find America’s messiest desk…

[Abrahamson and Freedman's new book] argues neatness is overrated, costs money, wastes time and quashes creativity…

Barry Izsak, head of the National Association of Professional Organizers, disputes the authors’ claims, saying they oversimplify and confuse mess with disorganization…

Freedman argues that it is neatness that is expensive.

“People who are really, really neat, between what it takes to be really neat at the office and at home, typically will spend anywhere from an hour to four hours a day just organizing and neatening,” he said.

From The Books, a sales site:

Ever since Einstein’s study of Brownian Motion, scientists have understood that a little disorder can actually make systems more effective. But most people still shun disorder—or suffer guilt over the mess they can’t avoid.

From a personal perspective, most (if not all) of the people I know who suffer from incipient or latent “obsessive-compulsive tendencies” and those with “anal-retentive proclivities” ALSO suffer from a delusional belief in a gawd.

It is only “MY general rule” and is based on friendships and relationships with “neatniks”, including my ex-husband. He is German-Lutheran and his father is a neat-freak; and he was further damaged by his parents divorce and his mother remarrying–a career soldier! Poor guy never had a chance… And I (in some mistaken notion that I could have a happy marriage with a man who never threw his clothes on the floor, always put his towels in the hamper and was diligent about the toilet seat) married a mental mess!

There is a bright side to that dark tale: he dragged me to a counselor and told him, “Fix her!” Well, Steve and I fixed ME, the marriage ended, and I was healthier than when I started it. My ex-husband probably still muddles along, wiping down countertops to avoid serious discussion, rearranging his sock&underwear drawer when anxious, and impulsively buying nice presents for his new wife today and suffering “buyers remorse” tomorrow…

Are you in a relationship with an “opposite”? Are you neat–or messy?

I just recently recalled seeing a reference to ‘Hookers for Christ’ in a book I read a few years back (that’s how middle-age hits ya – little memory flashbacks outta the blue – I think it was a Stephen King novel), and so, armed with little more than Google and my wits (no wise cracks from the peanut gallery, puh_LEAZE!), I dredged up this little pearl:

“Children of God

“The Children of God (COG), later known as the Family of Love, the Family, and now the Family International, is a new religious movement, widely referred to as a cult by the media and some government organizations, that started in 1968 in Huntington Beach, California, United States. It was part of the Jesus movement of the late 1960s, with many of its early converts drawn from the hippie movement. It was among the movements prompting the cult controversy of the 1970s and 1980s in the United States and Europe and triggered the first organized anticult group (FREECOG).”

There’s something about former stoners – they mostly seem to go religious as a rule. Maybe it’s one too many rollercoaster rides on the Blue Bus, is my guess.

“As it grew and expanded around the world, so did its message—salvation, apocalypticism, spiritual “revolution” against the outside world that they called “the System”—and resultant controversy. In 1974, it began a method of evangelism called Flirty Fishing—using sex to show God’s love and win converts and support. The practice was discontinued in 1987.”

Obviously, they dumped the Old Testament, and cherry-picked their doctrine (no entendre intended). Why 1987? It’s probably unrelated, but it may have something to do with this – but that’s a guess, so don’t quote me on it. As we are about to see, the Sexual Revolution has had some impact on this:

(Snip)

“The group’s liberal sexuality and its publication and distribution of writings, photographs and videos advocating and documenting adult-child sexual contact and the sexualization of children led to numerous reports of child sexual abuse. A number of judicial and academic investigations in the 1990s found the Family to be a safe environment for children, yet such investigations have also highlighted troubles in its past. Family leadership, admitting only that some children were abused from 1978 until 1986, created policies prohibiting excessive discipline or any sexual contact between adults and minors. Those found to have abused children after December 1988 are excommunicated from Family membership. The Family requires individuals who report child abuse to a law enforcement agency or pursue legal action against an alleged abuser to leave the group’s communal homes and move to a lower commitment membership status until the matter is resolved, after which they must reapply for their former membership status if they wish to return.”

And I gotta ask: where those excommunicated members Catholic?

“The Family International claims the Bible to be the inspired Word of God and sacred revelation. Group founder David Berg is regarded as the most important prophet of the end times. He is regarded as a prophet in that he passed on the message of God, not because he could predict the future. Though he frequently attempted to predict future events, he was for the most part inaccurate. The group believes Berg’s spiritual “mantle” passed to his wife, Karen Zerby, at his death. The officially published writings of both David Berg and Karen Zerby are regarded as part of the “Word of God.”

Yeesh – and they say atheism requires a lot of faith?

(Snip)

“A central tenet to their theology is the “Law of Love,” which stated simply claims that if a person’s actions are motivated by unselfish, sacrificial love and are not intentionally hurtful to others, such actions are in accordance with Scripture and are, thus, lawful in the eyes of God. They believe that this tenet supersedes all other Biblical laws, except those forbidding male homosexuality, which they believe is sin. Female bisexuality is sanctioned, though female homosexuality at the complete exclusion of men is not permitted. ”

Three guesses who let the lesbianism slide? Obviously written by men.

“They believe that God created human sexuality, that it is a natural, emotional, and physical need, and that heterosexual relations between consenting adults is a pure and natural wonder of God’s creation, and permissible according to Scripture. Teenagers from the age of 16 are allowed to have sex with other members under age 21. Since 1986, sex between minors and adults is forbidden. Adult members may have sex with any other adult member of the opposite sex, and are encouraged to do so, regardless of marital status, as a way to foster unity and combat loneliness of those “in need”. This is commonly called “sharing” or “sacrificial sex”. While Family policy states that members should not be pressured to have sex against their will, numerous former members have alleged being coerced to “share” and subsequently cast as selfish or unloving when they did not.”

Ain’t that just…charming (he said with a moue of distaste twisting his lips).

For the most part it’s yada, yada, same old noise, JAY-SUS will descend from on high, wrestle down ole pesky Scratch hisself at the End of Days - but of course, some New Age spins on the old yarn surface:

“Spirit Helpers

These include angels, departed humans, and even famous mythical characters, e.g. goddess Aphrodite, who are sent to give instruction and to fight in the spiritual warfare taking place in the spiritual dimension that Family members believe is coexistent with the physical world that surrounds them. These helpers are believed to relay divine messages through prophecy and are also engaged in combat with Satan and his demons. The Family believes that referring by name to spirit helpers when calling on their help, or demons when rebuking or cursing them, affords greater power to their prayers. As a result, the Family regularly publishes names of individual, as well groups or breeds of, spirit helpers and demons, linking them with their respective areas of power within the physical world. “

Oh, and not only ’spirit helpers’:

“The Keys of the Kingdom

The Family believes that the keys referred to in the Biblical passage “and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19), have assumed greater significance today. As such, Family members call on the various Keys of the Kingdom for supposed extra effect during prayer. These spiritual keys are also believed to power various UFOs and other spacecraft (known as Key Craft), and can turn into swords for the purpose of fighting demons and other negative forces. “

UFO swords?!?! I think some of these folks have been playing one-too-many first person shooter games. To paraphrase George Carlin in the film, ‘Outrageous Fortune’, the 60’s were way too hard on these people.

But wait, there’s even more! (Just when you thought it couldn’t get any wonkier!) Time for the ‘money shot’:

“Loving Jesus

This is a term that members of the Family use to describe their intimate, sexual relationship with Jesus. The Family describes the “Loving Jesus” teachings as a radical form of bridal theology [2]. It is their understanding of the Bible that the followers of Christ are his bride, called to love and serve him with the fervor of a wife. They take bridal theology further than other Christians by encouraging members to imagine that Jesus is having sex with them during sexual intercourse and masturbation. Male members are told to visualize themselves as women, in order to avoid a homosexual relationship with Jesus. Additionally, Family publications frequently liken prophecy from Jesus to receiving Jesus’ semen, or “golden seeds,” as a result of spiritual oral sex.”

Wow, I’m betting we won’t be seeing that film on the Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, or anywhere else besides pay-per-view.

Religious porn. Yeesh, these people get their fingers into everything.

Thought I’d share that with ya.

Now, let the innuendos and entendres begin.

Just when you thought the hysteria over The Da Vinci Code had died down—

—along comes a new kid on the block to one-up its author Dan Brown.

The challenger? Kathleen McGowan, 40s, third-generation Irish-American Hollywood native, wife and lyricist to Finn MacCool musician Peter, mother to three boys, journalist, researcher, screenwriter, activist, and self-described “anti-scholar” and visionary.

Her hook? She claims that she descends from Mary Magdalene and her husband Jesus Christ, whom she affectionately calls “Easa.”

Since capturing public interest for her first novel The Expected One, published in July 2006, the petite, red-haired Little League mom answers accusations of riding TDVC’s coattails by asserting that she began research for her Magdalene Line trilogy, of which TEO constitutes the first installment, back in 1989 (Brown’s opus first came out in 2003). At that time, her project concentrated on “clearing the names” of such historically maligned women as Marie Antoinette, Lucrezia Borgia, and Boudicca, and included the Magdalene, often shown as a redhead (like Boudicca, and McGowan herself).

However, on the Secrets of Mary Magdalene website, the Irish-American writer confesses that her fascination with this character actually began when at the age of ten, she saw the musical Jesus Christ, Superstar with her mother and brothers, and fell in love with the rock-opera. She and her brothers would act out the entire story and sing along to the soundtrack almost every day for an entire month that summer, her mother’s red poncho serving as her Magdalene costume (artists have frequently depicted this Mary wearing red since the Middle Ages).

“At that young age,” McGowan comments, “I could never have guessed just what kind of mental and spiritual groundwork had been formed in my consciousness during Summer of Superstar.”

She claims that in 1997 – when her first book, the non-fiction The Tragic Kingdom: Inside Michael Eisner’s Disney, was listed for publication (it never got released) – she experienced the first of many visions while walking the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem. A wave of dizziness, a blinding flash, and she says she then saw a red-veiled, red-haired woman walking in an angry crowd toward Golgotha, the place of Jesus’ Crucifixion. According to her interview in USA Today, “it was that vision…that changed her life forever.”

Her afterword in TEO agrees with this statement, although she credits a slightly different experience for this change on her own website’s FAQ: “as I discovered the rich legacy of folklore surrounding…Mary Magdalene specifically, everything changed. I had no idea when I set out on this journey just how much privileged information I would gain access to. It took many years to uncover the entire story…”

Then why present her alleged discoveries, particularly her supposed semi-divine ancestry, in the form of a fictional novel, albeit a self-proclaimed semi-autobiography? McGowan explains, “Had I continued to write nonfiction, I would not have been able to use the most important and exciting discoveries I had made. I had to protect my sources and will continue to do so as the astounding information continues to flow.” In USA Today, she adds, “Some members of [my] family want [me] to respect their privacy and not discuss it.”

Unable to sell the first novel of her planned trilogy, the Celtic rock lyricist self-published it in 2005 and only sold 2,500 copies. However, it caught the eye of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, who picked it up for a seven-figure sum and published it in 2006 with a first printing of at least 250,000 copies into 22 languages and a marketing budget of $275,000 under its Touchstone imprint.

Despite the author’s refusal to provide hard evidence, other than to refer to a medieval legend about the Magdalene arriving in southern France, the publisher hopes to cash in on a TDVC-heated market for religious thrillers, while insisting they’re not relying on McGowan’s back story to plug TEO. Still, Touchstone Editor-in-Chief Trish Todd remarks about her bloodline claim: “Yes, I believe her. Her passion and her mission are so strong, how can she not be?”

“It’s a good story, it’s a wonderful legend,” says Chapman University Biblical scholar Marvin Meyer. “I don’t see any history to it.”

“It’s impossible to verify. It’s all to do with a matter of faith,” says Digby Halsby of Simon & Schuster’s UK division. “She makes a very convincing argument.”

Meyer points out: “I’m always a little suspicious when people say, ‘I’ve got all this information but I just can’t tell you. If you only knew, then you’d believe it, too. So just take my word for it.’ That’s not how scholarship works.”

McGowan’s agent Larry Kirshbaum, who helped her snag the prestigious three-book deal, gushes that “she spent 20 years of her life researching this subject. You have to give her any benefit of the doubt because she’s totally rational. I believe her absolutely. She had total credibility with me from the very beginning.”

Biblical scholar and consultant on the recent Gospel of Judas Bart Ehrman states: “You can survey anyone who is a scholar of early Christianity and they will all tell you the same thing. It’s completely bogus.”

So does the book itself live up to the hype?

Next: “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” – Part Two

Sources: * Kathleen McGowan – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

* Secrets of Mary Magdalene

* The Expected One

*The Independent

* USA Today

This is just too damn funny to leave buried in the comment thread…

Stardust and I have instituted a new policy on fundie trolls: We are no long “flaming” them. It takes too much time to do the alterations and the insulting is getting so fucking booooring…

We now alter their screennames, email addys and URLs–they are frequently porn-ish, by the time we’re done. Then we delete the body of their tiresome posts and replace it with this:

This post has broken a GifS Commandment: Thou shall not proselytize. Read Comment Policy Guidelines, for reference. Mods

It’s expedient, humane (even if they don’t deserve it!) and soothing to Mod-nerves.

If we were the sort who would invade their territory and smear feces on their walls, it would be only fair for them to come here and do the same. WE don’t–so THEY can’t, either! Honestly, now why should Star and I have to be the “bad guys” to the bullies?

(Usually, the little cowards lurk in the catacombs, leaving their dog turds out of sight of everyone but the Mods. However, one courageous little troll left a comment on Jesus Found, Alive & Well!; you can check out comment #10. The screenname indicated it was a female, and she was pimping her cheap-ass xian bumper stickers!)

As ChuckA would say: Of all da noive!

UPDATE from Stardust: It is easier for us just to copy and paste a standard warning and delete the objectionable content and not feed the trolls anymore–they seemed to love being flamed. I think that’s why they came, in the first place.

I want to make the point that Christians who wish to comment here in current discussions and participate in current debates, and are willing to abide by the comment policy they are more than welcome to…however…they should see by our banner what they are getting themselves into when they come here to proseltyze, warn us about hell, or tell us that gawd and jeebus love us. We can delete their “message of Jeebus’ luv” just as easily in the daylight as we can in the dark catacombs!

Talk about bullies! What a bunch of fucktard bullies these guys are!…(meaning combination of fuckers and retards). A reporter with a camera goes to a Scientology event to videotape it, is harrassed AND three Scientology thugs follow him home! It’s kind of long, but these stooges are funny as hell…while very scary at the same time. When looking back on the Tom Cruise videos, he behaved in exactly the same insane manner.

The guy with the camera is the “enturbulator” since he is the one “making waves”. The word enturbulation was made up by L. Ron Hubbard and is not part of the English Language.

to “enturbulate” someone is to cause agitation and discomfort. So it is that enturbulation consists of someone speaking either unpleasant facts or slander about Scientology.

Research links some scriptures to hostile acts

Just let me say this straight out: I’m not surprised at the findings of this study. What irks me is that its methodology makes it utterly useless.

PROVO — Chances are, not many people in Utah would like to think of scripture as a violent medium that promotes hostility.

But a study of 490 students — 248 of them at Brigham Young University — suggests a correlation between exposure to scriptural violence that is condoned by God and increased aggression.

University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman, BYU professor Robert Ridge and three other researchers co-wrote “When God Sanctions Killing,” which will appear in the March issue of Psychological Science magazine.

Although the study points to a correlation between scriptural violence and aggression, Ridge said the research is not meant to attack scripture study.

You would think for a control group, they would use all US students, not mix in a group from The Netherlands! They recruited two groups, one of which was 99% bible+gawd believers (from Utah) and the other (control group?) was 50% pro-gawd and 27% pro-bible.

For the test, they were divided into two-person-teams and shown various passages from the bible, some of which were violent. They each wore headphones and had a buzzer (”weapon”) that they had to push “as fast possible” for 25 trials. The fastest was given the “honor” of choosing how loud the buzzer would sound into the other’s headset!

…Aggression was measured by the frequency with which the winning students blasted their partners.

The study indicated that those with a stronger religious background responded with slightly more hostility — and louder blasts — than those who were not as religious.

And Ridge says that indicates a correlation between aggression and isolated violent passages.

The correlation also mirrors studies that show the relationship between hostility and violent movies, music or video games. The key difference is that if scriptures are read as a whole and not taken out of context, the results can be the opposite, Ridge says, as the overall themes of the Bible, specifically, are peace and love.

WTF does that mean? Is Ridge a xian? Oh, hell yeah! Is the bible full of violence that masks its “true message of love”? Yes! Do people read the bible just for the “juicy violent bits”? Maybe. Do people come away from a bible reading remembering the violence and forgetting the love? I wouldn’t be surprised!

Daniel Judd, BYU professor of ancient scripture, who was not involved in the study, said he agrees with the importance of understanding scriptural context. Taken by itself, a scriptural passage can wrongly rationalize negative behavior, he says.

“You can use scripture to justify anything you’re looking for,” Judd said.

Now there’s a newsflash!