Brick Stories

At college I came across a link to a lego Bible story website. You can check it out for yourself at thebricktestament.com. The site creator has put a lot of time into presenting the stories. He claims to spend at least a day doing the set for each one. I find them high quality.

The site has a rating system on each of its Bible stories. N = lego nudity, S = lego sexuality, V = lego violence, C = (mild) cursing.

The author of the site claims to be an atheist. Together with the ratings system one might suspect he is trying to make the Bible look vulgar and lewd. On the other hand he isn't afraid to look at the offensive parts of the Bible, which is so often neglected in these times.

When the extreme message of the Bible is in our view, we are left with one question: "Is this where I find my life?"

The Bible is always asking, always demanding answers from its audience. It asks us, "What about you? Will you return like that single leper and thank God for the things He has given you?" And, "What about you? Will you open the door of your heart and let Christ in?" Etc.

The aspect of its "social acceptability" is not only irrelevant but simply an evasion of our commitment to it. I would suggest to you that the Bible refuses to be evaluated on such terms.

The author of the site claims people are becoming less and less aware of what the Bible really says, and that he is trying to bring it to them.

Whether or not his intentions are undermining the Bible, he certainly is not afraid of looking at the extreme stories in the Bible. My favorite story is the testing of Abraham.

One thing that bothers me about "Bible scholars" is that they seem to take it as their mission to soften the explicit message of the text. When Jesus said it is better to gouge out your eye and go into heaven blind, the Bible scholars are there ready to say, "Jesus doesn't really mean that."

In fact, I don't think I have ever heard that passage quoted without someone immediately stepping in and saying, "Jesus is being figurative," which is to say, "Literally gouging out your eye is not better than going to hell."

And so we keep the Bible scholars close as a way of freeing ourselves from the text and the question it demands of us.

The Brick Testament isn't like that. It adds radicalness liberally to its interpretations. For example the text says, "Give to everyone who asks..." And we see a picture of someone driving off with a Christian's sports car saying, "Christians are soo cool!".

Good luck finding something like that at Bible school.

A certain weakness with the site is that it has recently grown more political. For example in one picture we see the text about how we are to forgive and a picture pops up of George W. Bush giving Osama Bin Laden a pat on the back and forgiving Al Qaida.

I think this softens the radicalness of the message. Instead of forgiving one's neighbor he suggests we should forgive an organization. Or an organization should forgive an organization. Or an organization should be "tolerant" of another organization. And pretty soon nothing is left for the individual to do - the very thing Jesus is the most interested in.

For the most part, this website has a lot to offer.

Check it out if you have the time.