"[Jesus called us to be] fishers of men. Teens are our 'fish.' So we've become creative in baiting our hooks," youth pastor Gregg Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the Colorado Community Church.
To catch more "young fish", Barbour - along with several hundreds of ministers and pastors - organized Halo 3 events at their respective churches. With an "M" rating, Halo 3 cannot be sold to minors younger than 17 years old.
Understandably, not all church figures agree with such a pragmatic logic. "If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it. My own take is you can do better than that," James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy protested.
On the other side, David Drexler of the Country Bible Church in Ashby, Minnesota said: "[Using Halo is] the most effective thing we've done. We have to find something that these kids are interested in doing that doesn't involve drugs or alcohol or premarital sex."
