Teach Your Children Well...

There is a museum downtown, in New York City, which preserves a board game produced in Germany during the time when that nation was under the sway of nazism. In this game, Jews are rounded up, and neighborhoods cleared of Jews. Looking at this children's game, leaves one feeling empty and cold. I had the same feeling reading about this a game, about to go on the market this Twelfth month, some call December, to be given as a present on the day some call "Christmas."

My friend Jon Hutson, wrote to tell me that Wal Mart is about to sell a game, " Left Behind: Eternal Forces ." In this game, the object is to kill those who have not converted to Christianity, while the on screen characters shout "Praise the Lord." Hudson points out that those killed are civilians, and "the manufacturer's official description states that in the game there can be no neutral noncombatants" One can find a description of the "game" at this official website http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/the_games.htm . On the official web page, it says the players of the game can "Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions." God help us.

I wish I had Jon's email, as I sat in the Odessa restaurant the other day, and listened as a table of people voiced their view of some mythical Muslim hegemony... " they raise their children to hate us, to want to kill us." I sat at the next table wondering how one might teach these people otherwise, that like the Christians of the USA, there are some Muslims who raise their children to hate and many many more who raise their children to love justice and peace.

Some are writing to Wal Mart's CEO, Lee Scott, asking him not to sell the game. I would urge Quakers to think about asking to meet with him, to sit and pray with him. I would also hope we might be joined by representatives of communities who have suffered violence by reason of their not being Christian, as well as those who suffered violence by reason of their being Christian. There is no right side in "religious " violence.

Our children are taught, in the games we teach them to play. One cannot put a machine gun in a child's hands and teach him the lessons of peace Yeshua the Judian, called by some, Jesus Christ, preached.