I’m a nerd. It’s okay, no need to pity me, I’ve come to terms with it. My nerdiness means I have a passion for space operas. I grew up on Star Wars, and one of my fondest memories is the release of the Special Edition of the original trilogy into theaters. When I saw Episode IV: A New Hope it was a family outing: my father, sister, and myself. Eating popcorn, drinking soda, watching Star Wars. I was enthralled, she fell asleep. Needless to say, she didn’t come with when we saw Empire. After that though my love of space operas was ended, lying mostly dormant up until recently with the release of Mass Effect and it’s sequel, Mass Effect 2.

In both games, you play Commander Sheppard, humanity’s best hope for being accepted into the galactic community, and eventually the galaxies last hope for survival. Pure space opera greatness. What makes a space opera great, and you can find this in the original Star Wars trilogy and the Mass Effect universe, is a great cast of characters. This is especially true of the background characters: it’s the little touches that add a believability of the setting. In Star Wars, it’s the little things like the two Death Star Stormtroopers talking about new landspeeder engine models, or the patrons of the Mos Eisley Cantina. In Mass Effect, it’s the conversations that non player characters (NPC’s) have. From discussing the latest intergalactic politics, to the possibility of fish in the Presidium’s lakes (and even the latest space age video games) Mass Effect 2′s developers fill their game world with little touches that bring it to life. Touches like this one right here:

When I first laid my eyes on this “Mad Prophet”, I was still in the first couple of hours of the game. I was shocked. Now religion isn’t taboo in the Mass Effect universe. The developers lay out a plethora of galactic worldviews. One of the races, the hanar, view a previous species (the protheans) as gods, whom they refer to as the Enkindlers. The turian’s (Mass Effect’s most militaristic society, based largely on Rome) have their own share of religious views, similar to ancient Greco-Roman spiritualism. Even a muddled, deist view of the Christian God is present, as Ashley Williams (one of the players compatriots and a potential romantic pursuit) shares her belief with Shepard.

Still, to be faced with such explicit commentary on the Fundamentalist bullhorn movement was surprising. The alien here is a batarian, a species known for being extremely xenophobic and hostile towards humans. The choice here is obvious, it’s meant to convey a feeling of disgust and annoyance. You simply cannot like this character, for to do so would be to hate humans (i.e. you).

But it’s relevant isn’t it? Haven’t we all seen the bullhorn guy at our schools or in our cities, calling us sinners, dirty, hellbent? Oh sure, we can repent, as long as we admit that God hates us. And while I get frustrated with bullhorn guy, I can’t really be mad at him, or Mass Effect’s developers, for this commentary on modern Christianity. I get frustrated with me. See, like Rob Bell suggests in his video “Bullhorn” (which is part of the NOOMA series. Go buy them now. I’ll wait.) society has this perception because we’re not being effective enough at the greatest commandment. Love. We’ve been bought out of love, redeemed out of love, forgiven out of love. We love because He first loved us. And I think, if we’re honest it tends to stop there. “Sweet, I’m loved and validated. That’s wonderful. Just don’t make me change the way I interact with other people because I’m cool and popular and making jokes at other people’s expense is funny. Gossiping about the new girl makes me feel connected. I’m okay with ignoring the horrible atrocities in the Congo, the sex trafficking in India, because it doesn’t have to do with me. Want to go to Starbucks?”

Obviously that’s hyperbole, and obviously I’m not exempt here. I fail at loving. What if the game was programmed differently though? What if instead of a batarian preaching hatred, they had a batarian preaching love and justice. What if the developers looked at our world and said “Man, I need to show this Christian love in my game somehow.” That would be a Mad Prophet that had the potential to truly save the galaxy.

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