Echoing thoughts I have express on other such issues in the past, James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy stated, “If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it,” said a nonprofit group that assesses denominational policies. About using Halo 3 as a valid tool to draw kids to church Tonowich said, “My own take is you can do better than that.”

Daniel R. Heimbach, a professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, believes that churches should reject Halo, in part because it associates thrill and arousal with killing.

“To justify whatever killing is involved by saying that it’s just pixels involved is an illusion,” he said.

Let me say up front that if you are expecting me to condemn all video games, then I am going to disappoint you. Gaming, of and in itself, is not necessarily evil. It is the issues of game content, wasted hours and idolatry (i.e. allowing something to displace or rival God from the foremost place of prominence in our lives).

Many of the games today feature explicit sexual and occult themes. The majority feature over-the-top violence. Halo 3 is certainly no exception. We need to also consider the clinical addictive nature of gaming in general. All of these things concern me and should be of interest and concern to every biblically minded Christian. Both my wife, Melanie, and I were both completely addicted to video games 20+ years ago. To this day we both know that the time spent, the rage factor from playing the games and the addictiveness is real - and our problem with gaming was way before the technology of today's games.

Many Christian gamers seem to have a biblical off-on switch helping them to ignore the violent themes. In my conversations with Christians who disagree with my position on games I do not remember an authentic biblical argument ever given in defense of violence as entertainment. I usually hear something like, "hey man, you're just a legalist" or "what do you expect us to do with our time?" One 20-something year-old gamer defended his 12-18 hour-a-day online game habit by telling me that it was all about skill and world rankings!

Often, the idea that because something is simply available, is cool, hip and popular then this is why Christians feel the need to participate. But obviously, none of these excuses make's it right - especially for Believers. No where does the Scripture give us the freedom to entertain ourselves with what the Word calls evil. Aren't we aware that as Christians we are subjecting the precious Holy Spirit to the stuff we watch or listen to? Just as with porn and foul comedy, the violence of the video games today is ingested of our own volition.

I know, I know...some will read this and think, "for God's sake Eric...its just a video game. It's fantasy. Its not real. Chill out." To them can I ask, where in God's Word does it delineate between fantasy violence for the sake of entertainment and being entertained with the real thing such as when people (primarily Christians) were fed to the lions for the sake of entertainment in ancient Rome? The answer of course is that God's Word never makes any delineation between the two.

I know there can be differences and degrees of opinions on stuff like this and I respect that one is not about to loss their salvation for merely playing Halo 3 or any other game. However, rather than a long expose' on the problems of gaming, I want to allow a review of just a couple of places in the Word of God to speak to parents, teens and others interested in the gaming phenomenon as it relates to biblical Christianity.

Read these passages and as you do, please consider the video games on your Xbox, PS3, Nintendo or computer.