Features

Parables from the toybox

"Suffer the little children," Jesus says in the Bible.Now kids press a button on a doll's back and Jesus' voice booms from a Wal-Mart shelf.

By Vanessa Gezari, Times Staff Writer
Published October 1, 2007

TAMPA - In the Wal-Mart toy aisle, Jesus stands next to Playskool's Busy Ball Popper, at the border of Fisher Price country.

This is the land of See n' Say, where pigs say oink and cows say moo, and where Jesus speaks in the voice of an impassioned Sunday school teacher, loud enough that other shoppers avert their eyes, fighting the urge to stare.

"I am Jesus," he says when you press a button on his back. "I am the son of God."

From a nearby shelf, Mary gazes down, her auburn hair covered by a pale blue scarf. There's Noah in a terra-cotta robe, figurines of Jonah and the whale and a muscle-bound Samson, "the strongest man to ever live," according to his box.

For the first time, the world's largest retailer is stocking a full line of faith-based toys alongside a GI Joe Combat Squad action figure with a gun the size of his body and a 3-foot remote-control concept car called Big Time Muscle. Around the corner from Mary and Esther at the Wal-Mart on Dale Mabry in the shadow of I-275, Bratz dolls flaunt miniskirts and ankle-lacing platform heels.

These are the kind of toys that Jesus, with his pointable plastic index fingers, homespun tunic and velvet sandals, was put here to counter - perhaps even to save. The child's imagination is an uncertain new battleground in the struggle between secular and religious culture: a private, shadowy place, heavily barricaded against adult intrusion. We may never know whether the Columbine shooters were made murderers by the video games they played, or whether Christian toys produce godly children.

Jesus' maker, David Socha, said he created the biblical toys to give girls an alternative to dolls in G-strings and boys a source of amusement not modeled on "demons" and "spawns of Satan."

"The Bible's full of violence, but I don't think violence is glorified in the Bible," said Socha, CEO of California-based One2Believe. "When I was growing up, I was always GI Joe. I was never the bad guy. Now, I think some kids are playing the bad guy. We're trying to bring wholesomeness back."

But the biblical figures aren't just about redeeming the toy box. Sales of Christian products topped $4.5-billion last year, and Wal-Mart's stock of Jesus and Mary dolls will be sold out before Christmas, Socha said. The dolls are available in 425 stores, mostly in the South and Midwest, which were already doing a brisk business in Bibles. You can also buy them at Target.com.

Theresa Sims, who strolled the Bratz aisle in the Tampa Wal-Mart with her 11-year-old daughter Roranda on a recent evening, said she would have to see the Jesus doll to know if she'd spend money on it, and she didn't seem inclined to walk around the corner and take a look.

What she does know is that she likes Bratz dolls - maybe even more than her daughter does. She has at least 10 at home, still in their packages. She doesn't understand when people talk about their "sexual overtones."

"I don't see that," she said. "The dolls are more conservative than how they dress the little kids."

Kim Baker owns the Jesus doll, but she didn't buy it at Wal-Mart. She recently started selling the toys from home as a Blessed Toys rep for One2Believe. Although her daughter owns a couple of Bratz dolls, Baker disapproves.

"The girls are buying Bratz dolls with belly rings and tons of makeup and lipstick, and our 6-year-olds want to dress like that," Baker said. "I don't want my 7-year-old to be like that."

Her 12-year-old son, Caleb, likes Spider-Man action figures, Transformers and PlayStation2, which Baker said "are not really evil." She forbade him to watch Harry Potter which she said promotes "a satanic witchcraft religion", but she still worries that he's drawn to violent toys, a trend she says began when she bought him David and Goliath dolls at a Christian bookstore when he was 3.

"He had a David and Goliath birthday party, and ever since that he's been interested in war," she said. "I thought, 'What did I get myself into?' But if it hadn't been that, it would have been Spider-Man and Pirates of the Caribbean."

On a recent afternoon in Baker's living room, where pictures of Jesus hang on the walls, she opened her first shipment of toys from One2Believe. Caleb paused his Transformers video game to watch. Out of the box came tiny figurines of Daniel and the lion.

"That's cool," Caleb said. "That's sweet!"

He made Daniel ride on the lion. He made Pharaoh pull the lion by the tail. He made Moses hit the lion with his staff.

"Hit you, hit you, hit you," he said. "Bad lion."

Mary and Jesus emerged next. Baker thought Mary's breasts were too big, and that Jesus was too muscular. She looked closer at the homespun garment covering his bulging chest.

"You can see his nipple!" she cried.

"Let's take his clothes off and see how muscular he is," Caleb said, stripping Jesus to the waist.

Baker's daughter, 7-year-old Moriah, cradled Mary. She went to her room and brought back a dark-haired doll and seated them next to each other. She thought Mary was prettier. She put Mary on a bay horse, standing her up like a circus performer, and laid a small Jesus figurine in Mary's arms.

A visitor asked what Jesus would do if he met a Transformer.

"He could say, 'I'm going to strike you dead' and break up all the Transformers," Moriah suggested.

"No, Jesus doesn't do that," Caleb said. "He's not violent. He'd quote Scripture and the Scripture's so powerful that he'd short-circuit them."

The children retreated to their bedrooms, leaving Jesus alone on the table.

Moriah tried to build Mary a house, but the box she chose wasn't big enough. Caleb played with a Transformer named Jazz, turning him into a silver sports car. After a while, he gazed longingly toward the TV.

"Mom, mom," he pleaded.

"Yes, go ahead and play your game."

"Woo woo!" Caleb yelled, and ran.

Vanessa Gezari can be reached at (727) 893-8650 or vgezari@sptimes.com.

Fast Facts

Jesus a.k.a. The Son of God

Height: about 11 inches

Retail price: about $15

Associates: Moses, Mary, Esther, Noah, David

In his own words: "When it started to get late, I knew that the people must be hungry. I wanted to feed everyone, but I didn't have any money. There was a young boy nearby with five loaves of bread and two fish. It wasn't enough food to feed so many people. But I took the bread and fish, and I said a blessing over it. Then I handed out the food to all of the people . . .

"When all the people saw this miracle, they were very excited! But they did not know I was the Son of God, or that I was sent to save them."

For more information, go to One2Believe.com.

[Last modified October 1, 2007, 12:31:43]