Appropriateness of Jesus in playtime...

[Terry Jenkins]

Looking to gather thoughts here; my son has taken to calling one of his action figures 'Jesus' and including him in his general play...

I'm happy that he is taking such an interest in his faith (and he is really enjoying Sunday School and the teachings of the Bible) but I'm concerned about the appropriateness of 'Jesus' as an action figure and it getting mixed up all sorts of make believe scenarios. Has anyone else had this issue? Even if not, does anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Paidiske]

How old is your son?

It's very normal, and age-appropriate, for young children - up to about age eight or so - to engage in imaginative play which interweaves real life and fiction and faith and so on. As they get older and their cognitive skills develop, they learn to put these things in different categories and to engage with them differently, but at that young age they don't have that skill yet.

So I'd say at a young age don't worry, time and growth will sort all of that out; in the meantime encourage exploration and encountering new ideas and let it all tumble around together, that's perfectly normal.

 

[Terry Jenkins]

Thanks for your thoughts. He is 7 (nearly 8). I think the point about encouraging and supporting is a good one. I had actually thought about helping him build out some of the play that fits in with his faith - and helping to add context at the same time. For example, he's also into Batman and certainly likes adding to that collection (i.e adding Robin, The Bat Cave play set, etc). Rather than just having a 'Jesus' figure - I had thought about helping him build out a 'set'... not sure is that's a good idea or not

 

[Paidiske]

Why not? You can get peg doll sets and the like for various Biblical people, and they can be great for imaginative play.

 

[Terry Jenkins]

Have ordered up a set - will see how well they're received. In the meantime, I'm determined to get the lightsaber off of 'Jesus' at least. My son has assigned the role to a figure of Qui-Gon Jinn from the 1999 Star Wars film 'The Phantom Menace' (U rated). The character does bare some resemblance to popular depictions of Jesus, most noticeably Christ Pantocrator (both in terms of features and older worldly robes), but I'm really not comfortable with him 'striking down' Judas.

 

[Greg J.]

I'd be uncomfortable too, because Jesus did not strike down Judas. Judas chose to do a string of things hurtful to himself.

It may be useful to identify what things Jesus did that have the appearance of something that is true about Jesus. Sin and disobedience should appear to be source of hurt and punishment. Jesus should appear to be the savior from hurt and punishment as long as people do what he says. In other words, harm is coming: do you want Jesus' help against it? Jesus tells people what to do to avoid pain, but what happens if people don't do it? (I don't know how to demonstrate this to kids; with adults, it could cause legalism or self-righteousness.)

God gave orders in the OT to cause death, but that was punishment for the worst sins possible. Peter struck a servant with his "light saber," but what Jesus did was to heal the man (his ear). Trying to understand that God might cause pain in response to sin is probably not going to work properly, but what might is: teaching that the long-term consequences of sinning will hurt, and Jesus is trying to stop that from happening.

I'd hope there are educational materials out there that have already done some of this work for children of different ages.

 

[Terry Jenkins]

Thanks for your thoughts Greg. It's an interesting point on the educational materials and one I'm struggling with. The wooden peg doll set arrived but was immediately discarded for the more colourful, 'all singing all dancing toys' (admittedly it's early days). But I think next steps may well be to help him 'collect' figures that 'fit' Biblical characters. For example, Qui-Gon Jinn was chosen because he resembles popular depictions of Jesus - I wonder whether it could be an opportunity to seek out appropriate figures together and also use it as a chance to teach him about the people as we go along. For example, we could start with the twelve disciples...

I've managed to get rid of the 'lightsaber' by the way, and have replaced it with a staff... so far so good.

 

[Terry Jenkins]

Feeling enthused by this now. Spoke to one of Adam's Sunday school teachers and the Vicar and they think it could be a good way of making the education process engaging and enjoyable. The challenge now is finding 'representatives' for the disciples in the same way as Qui Gon Jinn 'represents Jesus. To give you an idea, this is what we're looking for only for the disciples now (pictured isn't the exact Qui Gon he has)...

If anybody spots actions figures they think appropriate - please do flag!

 

[Terry Jenkins]

Help!! Have run into a problem; one of the figures Adam has selected (for John) is an old figure of mine from when I was young - it's of Lando Calrissian, a character from the original Star Wars films, who was (is) black - but he asked "can John be black?" I of course said the figure could be John, but now I wonder whether I address that Jesus and his followers were from the Middle East and therefore would have been brown in complexion...?

Is so, this opens up a whole bunch of questions as to why so many of those featured in the Bible are often depicted as white, which I feel may be a bit 'deep' for his age. Is this even important? Perhaps, I'm just over thinking it. But then again, he should know where Nazareth is and the history of it's people/culture.

 

[Greg J.]

Show him pictures of people from the Middle East (such as Jews—some of whom are darker than "white"; Google bedouin) and tell him this is what Jews look like today, but we don't have any pictures of Jesus and the Apostles. That would probably satisfy him. (I wouldn't call the Biblical characters "black" or "white" simply because the modern meanings are full of connotations that don't apply.)

 

[Terry Jenkins]

It occurred to me that I never provided an update. In the end, the race issue lead us down a rabbit hole which my wife and I tried to climb out of by doing away with toys that were either black or white and instead using the peaceful Gungan people (green) depicted in 'The Phantom Menace' (U rated) to represent Biblical characters. It seemed like a safe approach - plus Gungan figures can be picked up fairly cheaply second-hand... they were notoriously unpopular. What reminded me of all this is that my son created a touching nativity scene this year, which although takes up a large part of the dining room table, I haven't had the heart to move. The Joseph figure has gone missing - no one seems to know where he went, goodness knows we've searched - but my son replaced him with 'Boss Nass', the leader of the Gungans. At first it was jarring to see the stern and stout character in the setting and I expressed concern, but my son simply said “we do not know what Joseph looked like, only that he was a great carpenter and helped Mary.” I was incredibly proud.

Sometimes, it takes a child to show us the way when our own feelings are unclear.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year!