Jesus to battle Barbie on Wal-Mart shelves
Pastor Dale Morgan
Jesus to battle Barbie on Wal-Mart shelves*
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 2:03am BST 01/08/2007
A foot-high plastic Jesus doll that quotes Scripture and a three-inch
Daniel in the lions' den are about to do battle with Barbie and Bratz in
toy aisles across America.
The nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has announced that it will
start carrying a line of faith-based toys in 425 of its 3,376 stores
later this month to see if characters such as Spirit Warrior Samson can
rival the popularity of superhero figures like Spiderman.
The move is a first for the chain, which has carried religious-themed
products including stationery and books before but never a line of toys.
A spokesman for Wal-Mart said that the "faith-enriching toys", made by
One2believe, a Californian company, would go on sale mainly in stores in
the Midwest and South, the country's religious heartlands.
David Socha, the chief executive of One2Believe, described his products
as "real superheroes they (children) can believe in" and part of a
"battle for the toy box" that offers parents an alternative to dolls and
figures with violent or sexual overtones.
"The gradual decline of what children are offered is definitely heavy on
our heart," said Mr Socha yesterday, a father of two who first started
working with toys as a child in his parents' New York toy shop. "If you
walk down the toy aisles you see a lot of reproductions of Satan, or
dolls that promote promiscuity.
"I think we have to glorify good not bad and most parents want an
alternative to what's out there. That's what we aim to provide and I
believe there is a very large market here."
The company hopes to tap into a feeling shared by many parents about the
growing inappropriateness of toys such as the mini-skirted Bratz dolls,
which earlier this year were described as "worrisome" by the American
Psychological Association for their association with "objectified adult
sexuality".
Mr Socha said it was not only Christian parents who would rather their
children played with Goliath, Moses, Mary or Noah than a comic book
character or make-up lathered doll. "We have been pleasantly surprised
that even people of lukewarm faith or no faith see the figures as a way
to tell kids great stories, with or without the religious aspect."
The Jesus doll is the runaway best-seller, Mr Socha added, followed by
Moses and Mary.
The toys are based on stories from the Bible. As well as Daniel, a Tales
of Glory figure for younger children who comes with a lion and den and
costs around £4, there are 12-inch Peter and Paul Messenger of Faith
dolls that recite Scripture when a button is pressed. These cost around
£10. Many of the figures come with a story book.
Wal-Mart's move is part of a growing trend as businesses try to tap into
the multi-billion-dollar market in religious and family-themed products
popular with the segment of America that turned Mel Gibson's The Passion
of the Christ into a £185 million goldmine.
Ellen Johnson, the president of American Atheists, told Canada's
National Post: "Personally, I don't think kids are going to go for it.
Nobody's really all that interested in Jesus. Kids aren't."