Forgive me, for I have killed.<\/p>\n\n
I have used swords and shotguns, handguns and grenades. I have shot, stabbed, and bludgeoned. I have crushed skulls with golf clubs and hammers and baseball bats. I have slaughtered men and women, drug dealers and crime bosses, soldiers and secret agents, mad scientists and aliens, zombies and the pizza guy. I have killed hundreds, even thousands—so many that I lost count long ago. I have taken up machine guns, plasma rifles, and chainsaws. I have learned to aim for the head.<\/p>\n\n
I have killed with XBox and GameCube, Playstation and PC. I have killed with joystick, mouse, and keyboard. I have killed for hours at a time, on screens big and small; on laptops and high-resolution monitors. I have killed in my basement, in my living room, at the local arcade, at a neighbor's house, with a co-worker's teenage son. I have killed late into the night, until three or four in the morning—because my adrenaline was surging, because my kids were safely in bed, because I was simply on a roll. Because I was winning and they were dying….<\/p>\n\n
Every weeknight I play, most nights later than the one before. And every night, I slink up the stairs and ease my weary frame into bed, trying not to disturb my wife, who went to sleep hours before. My body is spent, yet I cannot sleep. The bedroom is silent, yet I can still hear those ominous refrains. I close my eyes, yet I can still picture the endless corridors, each one leading to yet another door or outcropping, another blind corner, another enemy, another target….<\/p>\n\n
Come Saturday morning, I'm at the computer again. That's when I hear it, the muted thud of feet on the stairs, and there, standing to my right, eyes fixed on the screen, is my little boy. I tell him to go back upstairs, but he doesn't budge. In his mind, there is a cartoon on the computer, the likes of which he's never seen before. He somehow knows that this is forbidden fruit—that he must possess its secrets, or at least observe them. I call for my wife, asking her to please come get her son.<\/p>\n\n
Later on, this boy—who has never operated a joystick in his life—asks me a question that I never saw coming: "Daddy, can I watch you play the bad game?"<\/p>\n\n
Forgive me, for I have killed.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3380,3663,3737,3765,3869,3967,3971,4110,4148,4199,4272,4417,4444,4504,4596,4654,5096,5129,5238],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,382,396],"class_list":["post-46517","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-confession","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-desire","tax_ctp_tags-entertainment","tax_ctp_tags-fathers-day","tax_ctp_tags-fathers","tax_ctp_tags-guilt","tax_ctp_tags-hindrances","tax_ctp_tags-hypocrisy","tax_ctp_tags-internet","tax_ctp_tags-malice","tax_ctp_tags-media","tax_ctp_tags-murder","tax_ctp_tags-parenting","tax_ctp_tags-play","tax_ctp_tags-stumbling-blocks","tax_ctp_tags-technology","tax_ctp_tags-violence"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\n