Thompson trades game-hating for God
Disbarred critic enrolls in seminary.
Jack Thompson, the disgraced lawyer notorious for his outspoken views on the evils of gaming, is plotting a new career in the church.
According to the Miami New Times, Thompson has enrolled in the Reformed Theological Seminary, an online organisation that, "serves the church by preparing its leaders through a program of graduate theological education based upon the authority of the inerrant Word of God and committed to the historic Reformed Faith."
"Some people probably thought I should have kept my view of the world within the religious cloister and not out in the public sphere," he explained. "But I had a responsibility to try to be god's voice in the world."
During his time as a lawyer, Thompson launched a number of attacks on videogaming. He attempted to implicate Doom, Quake and Grand Theft Auto in various murders, spoke out against 2005 Rockstar effort Bully, chastised The Sims 2 for containing too much nudity and claimed convicted mass murderer Lee Malvo trained for his crimes on Halo.
Thompson was eventually disbarred from the legal profession in 2008 for "cumulative misconduct, a repeated pattern of behavior relentlessly forced upon numerous unconnected individuals, a total lack of remorse or even slight acknowledgment of inappropriate conduct."
Aside from his studies at the seminary, Thompson is also writing a book with University of Miami School of Education professor Eugene Provenzo called Activism 101, the exact thrust of which is as-yet unclear.
"I'm a pain in the neck to a lot of people," he told the Miami New Times. "Thirty-one years fighting with the bar and the entertainment industry is a pretty good run," he says. "I'm surprised that I lasted that long."