Jeffrey Miller

Via Matt C. Abbott.

Believe it or not, there is VATICAN: The Board Game, "designed for 2–6 players, ages 15 and up," created by Stephen Haliczer, Ph.D., a research professor at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill.

I doubt orthodox Catholics (such as yours truly) would like it, judging from the fact that the game’s Web site contains links to Dan Brown’s site and certain dissenting publications.

Also, the section on Vatican II asserts the following:

"Many of [the Vatican II] reforms were put on hold or reversed under Pope John Paul II, who decreed that Bishop’s Conferences lacked any theological or collegial status and could not exercise independent teaching authority. In 2000, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document which denied the ability of other religions to offer salvation outside of Christianity."

I’m not crazy about board games in general, but this one I’ll skip for sure.

Obviously this is the Spirit of Vatican II board game. This would be a very hard game to play. For example even though rules come with it, you are not suppose to actually refer to them and to just refer to the spirit of the rules. If anybody complains that you are not actually following the rules and dares to quote from them you tell them to read between the lines to see what the Game Fathers intended or better yet accuse them of Phariseeism.

Ironic Catholic has a Top Ten Reasons To Do A Blog Sabbatical and also links to "ten signs you are blogging too much."

Here is my own list.

• Your immediate reaction to seeing a "ten signs you are blogging too much." is to blog your own top ten.
• You bought a new hard drive just so you had enough room to backup your list of RSS feeds.
• Your spouse carries a picture of the back of your head in their wallet because this is what they normally see.
• Sitemeter goes down and you have a panic attack.
• Your philosophy comes down to that there are two things in life – bloggable/unbloggable.
• You have a bumper sticker that says "I ♥ my Aggregator."
• When you have just got done reading 500 some posts your first instinct is to hit refresh to see if any more have been written.
• You don’t always remember your wedding anniversary but can instantly remember the year, month, day, and hour you started blogging.
• You are more concerned about comment spam than Homeland Security and while you are against the death penalty in general you think surely Trolls deserve the exception.
• The first thing you do when visiting a new blog is to see if your blog is on their blogroll. If not you try to find a post where you can immediately leave an intelligent and witty comment so that they will immediately add you.

Michael Linton at First Things on Bible Park U.S.A.

It all makes my head spin. A New York investment fund builds a Bible Park square on the buckle of the Bible Belt. Just as they hope to profit from folks interested in rock ‘n’ roll with their Myrtle Beach funland, here they hope to profit from folks interested in the Bible. But folks are interested in the Bible because they are religious and find religious answers to religious questions in this religious book. Yet the Bible park isn’t religious; that would be bad for business, because it would jeopardize the state subsidy (remember those “lower-risk, higher-reward investment opportunities”). So the holy stories are presented as secular “history” by costumed archeologists as its evangelists.

Doesn’t seem like a very smart risk strategy to alienate the very people you are targeting. Plus there are just so many ways such an endeavor would be just plain tacky.

I would like to a truly serious effort of a Biblically based theme park and here are some things I would like to see, though maybe my ideas are not that serious either.

• Elijah Flaming Chariot Roller Coaster Ride.
• A water ride where the Red Sea splits seconds before you think you are gong to get drenched.
• Jonah’s Whale Ride.
• Noah’s Ark Petting Zoo.
• A video game section that includes a First Person Smiter with Elijah and the priests on Mt. Carmel. Literally you would have a Baal.
• An Animatronics Hall of Prophets. Though you might have to have three different Isaiah’s or more to satisfy some Biblical scholars.
• Water fountains would all be disguised as rocks.
• Manna concession stand where any food sold would only have a shelf life of one day.
• Korah Earthquake Simulator. Though I guess the Earth opening up and swallowing you for disobedience might not appeal to all.
• Goliath Slingshot Gallery.
• St. Paul Wall Basket Ride.
• Deborah and Sisera Hi-Striker. This would be just like the amusement park game where you use a mallet to ring a bell. Instead you use a mallet to strike a tent peg through Sisera’s skull as Deborah did, though definitely not for the kiddies.

Those are just for starters. Though I would love a ride based on the Book of Revelation. This would be just like the It’s a Small World Disney Ride where you are taken through a world as seen via John’s eyes. I mean starting of with an Audio-Animatronic representation of "head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire.." would be quite cool. With all the angels, dragons, and assorted beasts it would be quite an eyeful not to mention a lamb as it was slain and Mary as the new Tabernacle. Though I guess with all of the interpretations of Revelation and the differences between many Protestant and Catholic views I guess you would have to set up different tracks for different groups. When they bought a ticket they would have to buy a Preterist, Futurist, Historicist, or Spiritual view ticket.

The daily Via Dolorosa parade through the park with the subsequent crucifixion might be a downer for many though.

Possibly to appeal to atheists they could incorporate a Spaghetti Monster Ride or serve Primordial Soup at the concession stands. Or in areas that display Biblical passages they could use the footnotes from the USCCB’s New American Bible, which would make many atheists happy.

Also cool would be to have representation of Catholic Heaven based on the Simpsons Episode. Now that would be fun.

Please pitch your own ideas for rides.