Good News for Kids?

Good News For Kids? [Excerpts]
Over the past few years, the genre of the child-centred Bible has exploded. On the one hand, it can feel a little desperate. As though the stories themselves aren’t enough and need to be razzle-dazzled up to compete with, say, Avengers: Age of Ultron. On the other hand, whatever works. But is it working?

In 2010, David C. Cook published The Action Bible: God’s Redemptive Story. Its 750 pages of bulging biceps and darkly furrowed brows [are] drawn by the Brazilian-American illustrator Sergio Cariello, an alumnus of both Marvel and DC Comics. General editor Doug Mauss writes in the introduction that “God is the original action hero. Everyone is so impressed when Superman blows a car over with his breath, yet God created the whole universe with His breath. Superman may save the day with his strength, but Jesus saved the whole world with His death.” I roll my eyes at stuff like this, but my nine-year-old, David, said, “That’s awesome.”

Still, it should be noted, David has kept The Action Bible next to his bed for two years; he has yet to open it. It’s overwhelmingly huge, which I think is the problem. But it’s not the biggest out there.

This May, the Florida-based Kingstone Comics will publish “the most complete graphic adaptation of the Bible ever done,” wrapping several shorter existing books into a three-volume, 2,000-page comic book Bible. In a 2013 Guardian article about the project, Kingstone’s chief executive Art Ayris said, “Boys are sometimes reluctant readers. We are a pretty testosterone-driven publishing company so these comics and graphic novels are pretty adept at catching their attention and drawing them into the story.”

That may have been true for past generations. Comic book scriptures are nothing new — they’ve been around since the 1940s.

With a foot in both the digital and print worlds, the Brick Testament website offers 424 stories and 4,613 illustrations executed meticulously in Lego (though it’s not sponsored or endorsed by the company). The stories and illustrations are all available online, or you can order the hardcover Brick Bible, a two-volume Old and New Testament set geared at older children, teens and adults. Individual Brick Bible stories for young kids are also available as paperbacks.

The Book of Revelation seems a natural for Lego. To illustrate Revelation 4, a section she calls “Heaven Revealed,” Brick Testament creator Elbe Spurling (formerly Brendan Powell Smith) depicts the book’s six-winged, eye-covered heavenly monsters — lion, bull, man and eagle — looking out over a clear blue plastic sea. A speech bubble hovers over the googly-eyed creatures, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was, who is, and is to come.” The graphic is funny because it’s so weird. However, the website’s King David section is brutal. Stories include “David Impregnates More Women,” “God Kills Man for Touching Ark,” “People of Rabbah Enslaved,” “David’s Son Rapes David’s Daughter” and “20,000 Israelites Killed.”

Whether it’s an over-whelming comic book tome, a gory website or a bland app, depending on media to communicate and interpret scripture isolates kids instead of drawing them into Christian communities. Even in tech-crazed 2016, nothing can take the place of reading or retelling the stories together, and talking about them with the people you love.

(Woolley, "Good News for Kids," United Church Observer, January 2016).

[TBC: As stated in the article, the Brick Testament was created by Elbe Spurling, who was born Brendan Powell Smith and gives this introduction on Facebook:  "I’m Elbe Spurling, a blue-haired transgender, lesbian, atheist artist and author of LEGO-illustrated religion and history books. I’m also a nice person trying to do some good in the world while I’m around.”

Though these "versions" of Scripture are said to be "pretty adept at catching [kid's] attention, it is instructive that the author of this article notes that although her son is "attracted" to it, "he has yet to open it." That's probably good. As Dave Hunt noted several years ago, "It is appalling that any mere man would change or ignore the meaning of God's Word under the vain delusion that he could improve upon what God has said and the way He has said it!"]