Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Toys for Tots - of all kinds

Occasionally I take on something "deep" here, that I'd like to recall at some point in the future as something I sat down and thought about. Well, one of those things came up today. Toys for Tots is not accepting 4,000 one foot tall adult (I guess like Barbie is an "adult") Jesus dolls . Their reasoning is that they might offend those not of the Christian faith. Now people are moaning about how the program is for Christmas and why should it matter that Jews and Muslims (even though allegedly both religions acknowledge Jesus as a prophet) wouldn't want a Jesus doll. I can honestly say that I do not think I would want my granddaughter (who is of an age to be one of the "tots" served by the Marines' program) to have a Jesus doll that recites "Scripture" - like this : "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again". It's not just a Christian product - it appears to be an evangelical product and if the product manufacturer wants to sell these to persons who believe they will give their child (or, heaven knows - no pun intended- children they are in contact with) a religiously-oriented toy that the child will appreciate, then fine. Those children might be spouting off their religiously indoctrinated ideas to all around and that's fine, too, as long as it's their parents that have provided the incentive of a talking Jesus, Mary or even Moses doll. The Marines happen to be an organization affiliated with the U.S. government. Even though the individual Marines are doing this on their own, the group, as a whole, has the stamp of government on it, thereby subjecting them to the freedom of/from religion amendment to the Constitution.
Besides, people, it isn't just about getting gifts to cute little Christian kids for Christmas - it's Toys for Tots. Do you see the word Christmas in there anywhere? Shut up and donate a couple of plain old baby dolls to the Toys for Tots - the child can make it the Baby Jesus if he or she is inclined in that direction, assuming the parental unit(s) approve.
Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, I go to the Toys for Tots site and find this :
BREAKING NEWS
The Talking Jesus doll issue has been resolved. Toys for Tots has found appropriate places for these items. We have notified the donor of our willingness to handle this transaction.
So now everybody should be happy. Guess Jesus is going to wind up in the deep Midwest or down South in the heart of the Bible belt. Good luck, Jesus...

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