Christian parents freak out after learning that Bible featuring stories illustrated with Legos, tells a few TOO MANY Biblical stories.

Okay so "The Brick Bible" was published in 2011 by Brendan Powell Smith as a fun method for telling Biblical stories in a new and interesting manner.

Here is how it is described over at Amazon: 

Brendan Powell Smith has spent the last decade creating nearly 5,000 scenes from the bible--with Legos. His wonderfully original sets are featured on his website thebricktestament.com, but for the first time 1,400 photographs of these creative designs--depicting the Old Testament from Earth's creation to the Books of Kings--are brought together in book format. The Holy Bible is complex; sometimes dark, and other times joyous, and Smith's masterful work is a far cry from what a small child might build. The beauty of The Brick Bible is that everyone, from the devout to nonbelievers, will find something breathtaking, fascinating, or entertaining within this collection. Smith's subtle touch brings out the nuances of each scene and makes you reconsider the way you look at Legos--it's something that needs to be seen to be believed.

And here are some of the illustrations. 

Nice right? Wrong!

At least wrong according to certain Christian parents who have gone to Amazon in order to complain that the book is not censored to their liking. 



Such as this one:

Is this being advertised as a children's book? I flipped through this in a local bookstore, found very adult themed lego pictures> such as sex and violence. 

NOT FOR KIDS 

shameful book this is - no warning label or nothing. 

And this one:  

I bought this book in the store thinking that it would be a cute way to introduce the bible to my kids until I got it home. I started looking through the book and they the pictures were very inapproiate for children. They were very graphic with blood and violence that a child should not see done with toys. While the pictures in this book were created by legos this book is diffently not for children. 

And this one: 

I bought both the old and new testament versions of these books because my kids are big lego fans. I understand all topics covered in the Bible aren't G rated, but I'm not ready to discuss rape and similar topics with my children. 

Or this one, who claims to be somewhat of an expert:

I bought these books for my Lego-fanatic son for Christmas, thinking this was a perfect marriage of Bible exposure and his beloved Legos. When I picked it up to read it however, it was quickly apparent that it was not Biblically sound, and many of the images (and implied narrative) were inappropriate for children or plain incorrect. 

I understand the Bible is bloody, and there is more gore and murder in the Bible than most books ever printed, which is not my quarrel with the Brick Bibles. I do not shield my older children from those aspects, so that characteristic of the books did not bother me too much (with the exception that I do not think rape should be depicted in Lego bricks). What did bother me is the use of Legos images to imply large amounts of information that dissuade the reader from the actual lessons within the Bible--if I were unfamiliar with the Bible, I know I would not follow such a whacked-out perpetually angry, tantrum of a God portrayed here. Who would? There was little to no forgiveness, very little love, and a distinct lack of explanation of the gravity of sin (or what the sins entailed) as the reason for the carnage in some of the stories. 

The text is spare, so the images tell the story. Unfortunately, the pictures--commonly held to be worth a thousand words--do not tell of a greater truth, nor do they tell the story correctly because there is no context. And there are some images that just do not need to be there, like the waist-down naked Lego girl having her legs spread for a virginity check, or the aforementioned rape. 

I do not know the author or his religious bent, but I do know inaccuracies (and deception) when I see them. I am trained to recognize and engage in the psychology of marketing and images, and study how they help us to create and order our world. I recognize that this book lacks the integral thread of God's story throughout its disjointed telling, and I recognize the subtle insults to the stories themselves and consequently, to those that believe as a whole. 

Parents, before you hand this book over to your child, at least look it over in detail. If you have not purchased it, pass it by--it is not for kids. 

And this one: 

I was so excited when I saw this book at Sam's club then sadly disappointed in the content when I got it home and actually read it. Glad I did before I gave it to my kids. As other viewers have mentioned, the author is NOT a person with a high regard for the truth of scripture. His main focus is on truthful "parts" of the Old Testament with his primary focus on all that is violence and judgement and depicts God as an angry frowning God. Anyone who values the Bible in its entirety and sees scripture as the story of a holy and loving God who works his perfect will for the redemption of mankind, should bypass this cynical and lopsided viewpoint. It is definitely not presented in a child- appropriate manner.

At this point one has to wonder if these people have actually ever READ the Bible. Or if they simply assumed that because it was done in Legos that it would be sanitized for their enjoyment. It is worth noting that the author Brendan Powell Smith does not misrepresent the stories in the Bible, in fact he represents them quite graphically.

He also offers a series aimed directly at children, with much less rape and torture.

But hey a true Christian should be able to accept the Bible in its entirety, AND have the patience and faith to explain it to their children. Right?