Monday, September 3, 2007

This Makes Me Want to Hurl...

I saw this while catching up on some of my favorite blogs today. Thanks to A Little Leaven for highlighting this "action figure".


This really bugs me. I know that kids learn more with "hands on" play, but have we gone so low as to mass produce our Saviour and King in a plastic mold?

What do your kids do when handed an action figure or doll? If they are anything like mine, they play with them and make them talk and do things like drive action figure cars and get married (my girls anyway). Do we really want our children playing with a Jesus action figure and making it speak? Pretending it will marry "Barbie" or battle with GI Joe?

It annoys me when people assume to know what God would say or do in any given situation without cracking open the Bible. So we hand "Jesus" to our children to make up scenarios? I realize that this is just a plastic figurine and NOT the King of the Universe, but I am tired enough of people making up their own versions of God to encourage my kids to do it.

Is anything holy and sacred anymore??

6 comments:

Susie said...

I agree...this is sad! And esp. because it's the "deluxe" model. Isn't Jesus -- the Son of God -- the PERFECT model? Wow!

I cringe to think what some kids would do with this toy...

Ami said...

I actually saw this at Walmart today. I couldn't believe it either.

Samantha from Colonial Curve Cottage said...

That is a little bit nasty isn't it? Honestly, I don't know how to feel about it. Outrage, or I dont' even know. It seems 'he who has the loudest voice wins' anymore. When is it too much and when do we say enough?

Laura said...

Things like this always smack of disobedience to me. God has commanded in Scripture that we not create images to represent God because He knows our sin nature would lead us to worship them in place of Him rather than bring us closer to Him.

"Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.' You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom. Then the LORD spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form--only a voice. So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. The LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it. So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire,so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female..." - Deut. 4:10-15 (emphasis mine)

The above, to me, seems to be Moses reinforcing the importance of the second commandment (you know, after that whole 'golden calf' incident):

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." - Deut. 5:8-10

Yes, Jesus took on flesh and was witnessed and smelled and touched by people. However, the difference is that God the Father crafted that image, and it was not recorded (as far as we know) in His time. The words of Jesus, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were recorded, but not His image. Therefore, I think that we must assume that the making of images of what we believe God to look like is still forbidden according to the Law:

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." - Matt. 5:17-20

[Said in my best Forrest Gump voice] And that's all I have to say about that. ;)

Anonymous said...

You need to settle down!

Angel at Aduladi' said...

Sorry you feel that way "Anon". When it comes to the most crucial element in my world (Christ), I tend not to take it lightly.