Faith-Based Toys

Now Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from, news.bbc.co.uk July 30, 2007, with a headline: “Faith Based Toys to Hit U.S. Stores. The following are excerpts: Instead of Spiderman, or Brach’s Dolls, children in the U.S. could soon be collecting a talking Jesus toy, a bearded Moses, or a muscle-bound figure of Goliath.” From the middle of August, Wal-Mart, the biggest toy retailer in the U.S. will for the first time stock a full line of faith-based toys. The Bible based action figures will initially be given 2 feet of shelf space in 425 of the company’s 3300 stores nationwide. There the Tales of Glory Dolls, will take on what their makers are calling, the battle for the toy box with the nation’s most popular action figures. So, will the 12-inch Jesus doll quoting scripture, or the 3-inch figure of Daniel in the lion’s den, open up children’s imaginations and their parent’s wallets? David Socka, founder of, One to Believe, the company which makes the dolls, is confident the demand is there for God-honoring toys which reflect Christian teachings and morality. We get a lot of people, even people who are not of faith, don’t go to church, saying: I’ve got a 4 and a 6 year old, and I don’t know what to get them anymore, he said. If you go in a toy isle in any major retailer, you’ll see toys and dolls that promote and glorify evil, destruction, lying, cheating. In the girl’s aisle, where the dolls would be, you see dolls that are promoting promiscuity to very young girls, dolls will have very revealing clothes on, g-string underwear. What his company offers instead is something faith-based, that is not only fun to play with but also is solidifying a person’s spiritual wherewithal, and their spiritual journey, he said.
Tom:
Dave, as you know, I just returned from CBA, which is the Christian Bookstore Association, actually it’s their retail convention, and what you find there is just astounding. Not just this, this is a small part of it, but you have Jesus riding skateboards, images—so-called—of Jesus, figurines riding skateboards, motorcycles, all of that.
Dave:
Are these little skateboards that he’s on, or is he on there like a—
Tom:
No, he’s riding the skateboard, he’s rock climbing, he’s doing all these kinds of things. And I say he, not Jesus obviously, but call it a small idol because, really that’s what it is.
Dave:
What’s the purpose of that?
Tom:
Well, supposedly, and that’s this person’s, this individual who is creating these things, “we want something a little bit more spiritual.” Now, Dave, I tell you it makes me angry. I grew up as a Roman Catholic, as you know, and we had what we called our “dashboard Jesus” and it was a figurine and it was on the dashboard of our car. Now, here’s my point—
Dave:
To protect you.
Tom:
Yeah, to protect you, like St. Christopher, okay, but now it’s Jesus on the dashboard of a car. We never played with that, okay, as wrong as it was we took it seriously, but these are toys that 3-4-5-year olds play with. You have 4 children, do you see them play with toys, and so on, they are going to use it against Godzilla, or they are going to use it this way, and they are in charge.
Dave:
They didn’t know anything, but anyway, of course they have an imagination.
Tom:
Right, and not only that, but they are moving this figurine around, they are in charge, they are making this figurine do whatever they have in their imagination.
Dave:
Now you see Janna, our eldest daughter, she got into writing as a little child, and she used to write stories about nice naughties—these are nice naughties, she wanted to get some naughtiness in there, but it had to be nice, and so that’s where we are with these.
Tom:
The point here is, talk about trivializing? I mean, this could go as far as being blasphemy.
Dave:
It is.
Tom:
All right, it is, but that’s where we are. I mean, all of this is really about money, it’s all about a product, it’s all about marketing, but is it faith-based? What about faith-based toys, Dave?
Dave:
Tom, it will take you away from the faith. This says, “God honoring toys, which reflect Christian teachings and morality.” Well, Christian teachings are totally against such toys, this is idolatry; the second commandment, you don’t make idols, you don’t make any likeness. And now they are going to make likenesses of the Bible characters! How is that going to help? As you said, it will trivialize this whole thing. We’ve got Daniel in a lion’s den—No, he was in a real lion’s den with real lions.
Tom:
Dave, if anybody could see these action figures, faith-based, they look like the characters we talked about in the first segment. You know, Goliath now looks like he has been working out with weights and they are just power figures, dressed like these power characters.
Dave:
Well Tom, faith-based? This is not faith-based. Fun to play? They are also solidifying a person’s spiritual wherewithal and their spiritual journey? No, we go to the Bible for that. This is totally against scripture, I mean, they may mean well but—
Tom:
No, it’s trivializing the Word of God, and worse, because, Dave, the sad part here is our young children are now comparing David, who slew Goliath, Samson, and so on to these power figures.
Dave:
Of course, Tom, some people will say, What about flannel graphs, what about illustrated—It’s a difference, because they know when they see it illustrated on a piece of paper, they know that’s not real. These things are made to look real. These are idols, and it’s not helpful, Tom, but it’s going to turn them away from the truth. I got along very well with Bible stories. I read the Bible and we taught it in Sunday school, and we knew what it meant, but this is going to just mess the whole thing up