Talking Jesus Dolls Vanish
Talking Jesus Dolls Vanish: It makes the Lifeway catalog look positively evangelistic! At least the abominations of the medieval church were not made in China.
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oh my… kinda skirts the whole “make no graven image” a bit.
Ok. Devil’s Advocate here. Educate me on the difference between a toy like this, and a children’s story book with a picture of Jesus in it, which in turn would end up at the bottom of the same toy box? Both would teach the same thing, however one is 2 dimensional and one is 3 dimensional. Unless I am missing somthing here, if you call one a “graven image” then you must call the other the same. Then there are picture bibles, Christian TV cartoons, etc etc. The image of Christ is in all of these, they are all objects.
I have always wondered about this, I belive people (myself included) are hesitant to condone toys like this becuase of their realisim. They are just too close for comfort. The question remains, are the pictures in the “My first story of Jesus” book which i read my girls last night a graven image? If you answer “no” then do we need to re-think our opinon on the doll?
Note: The following could be a blog entry alone, further proving my theory that shorter blog posts get more comments.
@stelmodad: Yes and no…
@Rob: You raise a good question relative to stelmodad’s comment, “Then aren’t picture books of Jesus graven images, too?” While I will attempt to “educate” you (wink, wink), I want to be careful not to miscast what I think is the real problem with the Jesus doll. The issue isn’t the image itself, but rather the fact that the “Talking Jesus Doll” represents the capstone of the commodification of the gospel!
Throughout history God provides images of himself — theophanies like the Burning Bush, the Shekinah (“glory”), even the Law and the temple itself — that are tangible, describable images to represent his being and his presence. But the Jews took the image as the thing itself, so with the 2nd Commandment God is saying, “Do not create any images by which you attempt to limit, eclipse or supplement me.” It is important to keep in mind that it is God himself who is behind the cloud.
If it’s just about the images, then you’re right to rethink the Jesus doll. If we had cameras in the 1st Century, could we not have taken pictures of Jesus? He was fully God; yet he was fully Galilean. If it’s just about the images, then what’s the difference between a book and a doll? With a book Jesus is being presented, not being “made up” as part of child’s play. Even with children’s animated cartoons in which time travel is involved, you’re going back and meeting Jesus as he presents himself in scripture. But in the case with the Talking Jesus Doll you’re taking a physical body and essentially being asked to invent your own storyline.
Sure, the expectation is that kids will reenact gospel accounts, but the way it would actually play out reminds me of the Gnostic gospels that imagine Jesus as an eight year old boy who creates pigeons out of clay and then breathes life into them and watches them fly off. Jesus didn’t do things to wow his friends, but to display the glory of God and manifest His kingdom.
The Talking Jesus Doll also personifies the evangelical blasphemy that Jesus is a toy, a lucky charm, whose actions I direct, whose life I create, whose life I live vicariously via the doll. There is a reason G.I. Joe was my favorite action figure growing up, because he was the guy that I was not naturally!
While the folks in Valencia, CA may state some of the sincerest motivations, I have no doubts as to their real motivations. You can “help children learn important Bible lessons and [...] have them come to faith in Jesus” — for a cost of only $14.99! Yet Jesus gave himself freely, at great cost to himself. If they really wanted to do something, they would manufacture and give these dolls away (though it still misses the point).
Acutally, I don’t like Jesus picture books either…
@stelmodad: LOL…you’d get along great with the Westminster “Divines”
Scott:
Perfect example. thank you for clearing this up for me. heh. Want to take it to another level?.. What if you cut the picture of Jesus out of the book and made it a finger puppet?.
I could go on for years with different senerios.. But i think you covered what i knew, but failed to grasp with the whole question. Thanks.
Don’t throw me under the “old fashioned” bus. It’s not merely a matter of feeling uncomfortable treading on a commandment.
I have enough problems trivializing Jesus that I don’t need to do so more by diminishing His incarnation, work and acts of obedience by being complicit with pop culture “manifestations” of Him.
@stelmodad: I am sorry for misunderstanding your comment about not liking “Jesus picture books either…” or I wouldn’t have responded so sarcastically (i.e., poking at the WCF’s interpretation and our last lunch conversation). You know I’d never intentionally throw you under the bus, right? Update: Might give you a slight nudge…
Don’t hear my comments as defensive – so thanks for the apology but know that I took no offense. I was trying to clarify my late night flippant blog comment – not defend “my honor.”
Gotcha, thanks for clarifying since I’m kind of sleep deprived and my social filters aren’t working like they should. I do like what you said there…we’re all struggling Pharisees and Christ deniers.
I have a real picture that my Grandma took from an airplane of Jesus in the form of a Cloud. Check out my website, You wont be dissapointed!
My website is http://www.whatcanyousee.blogspot.com