Guilt by association was relevant in 2006. Now? Not so much.
Although Rick Warren’s appointment to provide the invocation at Obama’s ascension inaguaral has drawn mass bellyaching from the left, it wasn’t that long ago that progressives were trying to nail him with the same guilt-by-association tactics they wet their panties over in the Bill Ayers-Obama saga.
Regarding the 2006 attempt to link a violent videogame to the Rick Warren empire:
What is going on here is an old fashioned business idea of endorsement by association, in which a corporation gains the implied endorsement of a product by being able to invoke the name brand of a prominent person or celebrity. In this case, this is an alliance of business and ministerial interests invoking the name brand of the Mr. Warren’s Purpose Driven Church. Mr. Warren does not have to explicitly endorse or be involved in the product in order to be held accountable for allowing his name brand to be used in the selling of this antisocial product.
Some people have commented that the link between Mr. Warren’s purpose driven empire and this product is casual. Let’s be clear: Mark Carver is Executive Director of the Purpose Driven Church, and therefore works directly for Mr. Warren in one of the most senior roles in his empire. It would seem unlikely that Mr. Warren, who plans an international stealth evangelism campaign that already includes the president of Rwanda, is unaware of this project, the biggest Christian video game in history. Mr. Carver’s role on the Advisory Board of Left Behind Games, the corporation created in October 2001 specifically to develop and market this violent video game, is an association clearly more active than a casual. People are involved on this Advisory Board because of their expertise, and their connections to markets – in this case, Mr. Warren’s. On its corporate web site — part of its merchandising pitch — Left Behind Games touts its association with Mr. Carver, and makes clear his prominent role in Mr. Warren’s Purpose Driven Church.
So hey, your associations DO matter, and the intellectual discourse you exchange with your colleagues DOES have a marked influence on personal decision making. And your involvement — however indirect – implies endorsement of the goal. Who could deny such logic? Well, in respect to the Obama-Ayers relationship, just about every Democrat.
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Had it been released a year earlier, this videogame could very well have been blamed for the 2005 Atlanta courthouse shootings which left several dead. But it wasn’t. Instead, Brian Nichols–the convicted gunman who was sentenced this week to eternity in prison–was persuaded by his next possible victim to end his killing spree partly because of Rick Warren’s message.
Them stealth evangelists–better watch out for ‘em. They might save your miserable life.
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