Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Oh Dear Lord, What Have We Wrought?
OpinionJournal writes about biblical action figures. Not exactly news to the observant, but the move to the mainstream press raises the significance tremendously.
There are really two effects at play in phenomena like this. First we do indeed trivialize the significant. The important seems less important when reduced to a plastic figure. God forbids graven images, as He does all thing, for a reason. It is too easy to confuse the image with the reality. Nobody worships this figures, but they tend to put shape to that which should be shapeless. They limit how we think about the subject.
With our thoughts so limited, we come to the next problem, which is instead of gaining understanding, we simply recite platitudes. Now, indeed the platitudes are truth and worthy of knowing - but if they remain only platitudes can transformation then occur?
If it is indeed the renewing of the mind that leads to transformation, then I think there is more mental activity at play than simply stuffing one's head full of simple statements and images. Example - most of you can tell me the molecular formula for water, I hate to break it to you, but that does not make you a chemist.
A Lord, help us to go deep!
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Anyone seeking a mischievous stocking stuffer for Christopher Hitchens or less exalted scoffers need look no further. A growing phalanx of religious action figures--including Adam, Eve, Daniel, Job, Esther, Goliath, Samson and Jesus--offer a tweaking reminder that despite Heathendom's best efforts, the faith-based marketplace is forever expanding.Here is my question, "At what point does 'accessibility' become trivialization?" Or perhaps there is a different formulation, "At what point does teaching become indoctrination?"
Plastic saints, to be sure, aren't exactly new. Mary, mother of Jesus, has long ridden shotgun in Catholic vehicles. Yet some of the faithful, including a few with a gift for retail, concluded that she needed reinforcements. David Socha, chief executive of One2believe, which offers a line of religious action figures, told the Associated Press that there is a "battle for the toy box" under way, in which good and evil vie for the young. "If you're very religious, it's a battle for your children's minds and what they're playing with and pretending," he said. "There are remakes out there of Satan and evil things."
There are really two effects at play in phenomena like this. First we do indeed trivialize the significant. The important seems less important when reduced to a plastic figure. God forbids graven images, as He does all thing, for a reason. It is too easy to confuse the image with the reality. Nobody worships this figures, but they tend to put shape to that which should be shapeless. They limit how we think about the subject.
With our thoughts so limited, we come to the next problem, which is instead of gaining understanding, we simply recite platitudes. Now, indeed the platitudes are truth and worthy of knowing - but if they remain only platitudes can transformation then occur?
If it is indeed the renewing of the mind that leads to transformation, then I think there is more mental activity at play than simply stuffing one's head full of simple statements and images. Example - most of you can tell me the molecular formula for water, I hate to break it to you, but that does not make you a chemist.
A Lord, help us to go deep!
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