After numerous delays and rumors, Rockstar Games is reportedly set to release "Grand Theft Auto VI" this November.
As many parents have reservations about whether their children should play the maturely rated title, Ed Vitagliano of the American Family Association encourages Christians to consider whether this is the type of content they should consume.
"In Deuteronomy 6, God tells the fathers of Israel to always teach their sons and grandsons the laws of God," he notes.
That is not to be done just in a classroom setting; it is when you are working, sitting down to eat, or walking about.
"We absorb morality and values almost by osmosis," Vitagliano says. "This is the way people learn."
He goes on to point out that today's entertainment is rarely morally neutral; all games, movies, and television shows have a protagonist and an antagonist, a good side and a bad side.
In terms of violent video games like "Grand Theft Auto" that promote robbery, violence, murder, and prostitution, Vitagliano argues that players who are siding with the people committing evil "are absorbing those kinds of values."
If the game made racists or child abusers the good guys, he does not think there would be an argument about whether it was acceptable, but society is more tolerant of violence and seems to have difficulty condemning a game that promotes this kind of social pathology as "poison" to people's souls.
Even if the game only produces a small percentage of people who imitate its behavior in real life, he warns against such things. In a temporal sense, they can create people who have no or very little empathy, who are quick to violence as a solution to problems. In an eternal sense, they damage the souls and the consciences of the people who watch and play them, and that "can send someone to hell."
Personally and biblically, Vitagliano encourages Christians to approach this with one particular thing in mind: We should never engage in games or movies that promote the things that God abhors.
He says believers have to be more discerning and care enough to question whether God approves of their participation in this sort of game.
"Christians need to be careful that they are not trading the momentary pleasure of playing the game for experiencing something for which God disapproves," Vitagliano concludes.
Editor's Note: American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
