faith-based toys.

We discussed this last yr, when our church gave out Jesus Dolls from One2Believe to needy kids here where we are located...

Some loved the idea here, some hated it...

But we did it, and kids were blessed at Christmas...
Here is a link to that thread... http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=35842&highlight=jesus+dolls

But the reference to my blog does not work now... I have since deleted the blog. If I can get the story up, I will post it here, what was on the blog...

And if given the chance, we would do it again.

 

Here is a link to our denominations magazine, in which our story appears on page 10, on the right side... http://wvbc.ab.edu/WV Baptist/My Webs/Archives Revised/FEBRUARY MARCH 2007.pdf

 

I understand the point you are making, and I also hope they're serious about the Bible. But if what they produce actually encourages kids to engage in Bible stories rather than zombie-monster toys, God will use their materialistic goals for His good purposes, no?

 

Here is one of my posts in my blog about it...
When Rev. Tim Barnhouse, Pastor of North Mill Creek Baptist Church heard a news report on November, 14th while driving out of Petersburg, he couldn’t believe what he heard. It was reported that the Toys for Tots program ran by the Marines had rejected 4,000 Jesus dolls on the grounds that they might offend families if a child received a Jesus doll for Christmas.
Rev. Barnhouse went to work. He emailed the Marines, the President, and the company, One2Believe, that produced the dolls. In the email to One2Believe, he let them know that North Mill Creek Baptist would be happy to distribute these dolls to children in WV.
The next day, on the Toys for Tots website it was stated that,
“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”
Thinking that this situation had been settled, Rev. Barnhouse went about his other business. But on November 29th, he received a phone call from a representative of One2Believe offering the church a donation of 96 of these dolls. The church just had to pay the shipping charge. When Rev. Barnhouse relayed this to the church the following Sunday, within minutes the money was raised to ship the dolls.
Rev. Barnhouse said, “These dolls are a Godsend. There are 96 children that God wants our church to bless, and we intend to follow God’s leading.”
God is really blessing North Mill Creek Baptist Church, and the children of Petersburg, WV.

 

Here is more about them.. it appears they support some ministries...

http://www.one2believe.com/vision.asp

 

What I posted above is basically what is in the PDF...

Yeah, they donated 96 dolls that ran, I think about 20 dollars each...
They can't be all bad...

 

Thanks for all this--it's good to know something about the company producing these products and the products themselves as they become available "mainstream".

 

Why would it be a problem for them to keep the money from the toys they sold? I'm sure there is some cost involved in production even if the toys are "Christian." I guess if they were a "non-profit" organization it might mess up their tax status or something, but if not, what's the problem? Toy makers have to make a living, too.

By the way, I saw a beautiful toy nativity set at Walmart that had the Focus on the Family logo on the back of the package. I'm thinking about getting the set for my kids for Christmas, as it's something they would like to play with. (Yes, I dislike Walmart, too, but in our area sometimes we have to shop there.) The toys were not made in China, either. Surprise, surprise!

 

Is something wrong being a business? Word, Zondervan, Baker, Eerdman's, Holman, Nelson, Oxford, Cambridge, etc. et al., are all publishers of Bibles as well as other Christian books and paraphanelia, and make a profit from it. That's how they stay in business. Even Scripture says "The laborer is worthy of his hire", I believe. J. C. Penny is a pretty good example of a business run by a Christian, at least when it was founded. There is certainly nothing intrinsically wrong with being a "non-profit" entity. Most churches and 'Christian organizations' are "non-profit".

But there is also nothing intrinsically wrong with being a "for profit" entity, as well. God bless 'em.

Ed

 

Or maybe they could make a Ray Comfort doll to convert the zombie-monster toys.

I'd love to have an Adrian Rogers do....er, action figure to go on my shelf next to my Ronald Reagan, Johnny Cash, and R. Lee Ermey action figures.

 

But we don't know everything a company does, nor should they have to tell us.

My husband's company is in a construction related business. They are very generous. When schools and churches buy from them they frequently take a check back to those places after the job is done. They do NOT publicize that! They may give a portion of the product or go back and give tickets to games or any variety of things. Again, they do not publicize this. They are very humble about their giving.

I'm not so humble about telling people about their generosity.

 

I got a couple of samples of the toys from One2Believe...i liked the cute little Jonah playset and gave it to one of our children, the talking Jesus action figure is still in my office and will probably stay there because honestly it kind of creeps me out. You can see his ripped arms and 6 pack stomach through his clothes...so i'm not so sure about it.

 

All "non-profit" means is that there are no stockholders. They can still distribute most of the net surplus as wages and benefits . . . to themselves.

 

Excellent point, Bitsy!

As to the idea of greed mentioned earlier, it's not greed to sell inspirational products, it's a ministry (whether the company intends it to be or not) I've purchased books, cd's, dvd's, and inspirational cards that have blessed me and others. Saying it's greedy to charge for these items is like saying it's greedy for a pastor to recieve a salary for the work he does at church.

In our area some of the Christian bookstores are open all day on Sundays. I think that is a bad testimony. (A lady in our church has to miss services often because she works at one of these places and they require her to work on Sundays.) Is that what you meant about being greedy and not putting God first, Scribe? If so, I agree.

 

"Sucker born every minute," P. T. Baunum. "Faith-based" way to rip off the ignorant faithful.