Fear the Pokémon Demons!

There are a lot of legitimate reasons to be down on the new Pokémon Go video game. Besides the most basic objection, that I'm not ten years old, this article from Reuters discusses how the game opens the door to all sorts of new marketing tactics that I want nothing to do with. Always remember, if a complex online service is free, you and your data will inevitably become the product.

But as usual, fundamentalist Christians take the cake on coming up with the most ridiculous possible objections to anything other people might find fun. This time around, evangelist Rick Wiles is busy going on about how the various Pokémon creatures are actual demons, and therefore the game is a tool of the devil. He also floats the bizarre idea that players will start murdering people in order to catch more creatures, which makes absolutely no sense in terms of how the game works.

“The enemy, Satan, is targeting churches with virtual, digital, cyber-demons,” Wiles said, before adding: “I believe this thing is a magnet for demonic powers.”

Wiles went on to claim that “Pokémon masters” may soon start “telling people to kill people in those buildings” in order to catch more Pokémon, comparing the use of the App to Philando Castile’s girlfriend use of Facebook Live to live stream the aftermath of Castile’s shooting by a police officer, which he said might have been staged.

This conversation led “Trunews” cohost Edward Szall to read a fake quote from the creator of Pokémon allegedly endorsing Satanism.

“They’re spawning demons inside your church,” Wiles said. “They’re targeting your church with demonic activity.” He then again warned that “this technology will be used by the enemies of the cross to target, locate and execute Christians.”

Apparently the quote in question comes from this article, which is from yet another fake news website. The absence of critical thinking skills with these folks never ceases to amaze me. They constantly are falling for the dumbest fake stories without doing any fact checking at all. But beyond that, the whole idea that anything fun has to be evil tells me a lot about how sad Rick Wiles' life must be.

Or maybe the whole thing is just a show for his even sadder audience. I'll be waiting to see if, a few years from now, Wiles is caught driving around town in a van with darkened windows desperately trying to capture his first Pikachu. Then he'll go on his show and cry about "how he has sinned" by trying to "catch 'em all." If we're lucky, the scandal will destroy the idiot's ministry, because he sure is a dumbass.