Legos have become a Satanic threat

[grandy]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/d...ck/7759/satanic_legos_threaten_polish_priest/

Father Slawomir Kostrzewa of Poland has warned that Legos have become a Satanic threat. New angry facial expressions on Lego characters, as well as the supernatural themes in the ?Monster Fighters? series, could ?destroy children?s souls.? For decades, religious conservatives have warned the public about the spiritual dangers of everything from comic books to Dungeons & Dragons. Paradoxically, culture warriors like Fr. Kostrzewatarget products not just because they perceive them to be evil but because they depict a supernatural battle between good and evil. Fr. Kostrzewa may see himself as a warrior defending the innocent from evil, but when the same cosmic battle is portrayed in children?s blocks, it?s regarded as demonic distortion. In this sense, moral crusaders demonstrate alienation from their own cosmology of spiritual warfare.

Like so many others, Fr Kostrzewa, who has previously warned about the spiritual dangers of such children?s products as Hello Kitty and My Little Pony, makes such claims to help establish his authority as an ?expert in evil.? These would-be experts in evil often seek to appropriate the cultural authority of the medical establishment by alluding to psychological studies. Fr. Kostrzewa, for instance, pointed to a 2013 study by a Dr. Christoph Bartneck, a professor of technology, who noted that the faces of Lego characters have become more diverse and now include a variety of angry expressions which, Kostrzewa argued, serve to warp the moral understanding of children by portraying evil characters that appear happy and good characters that appear sad. The message to children, according to Kostrzewa, is that sin and occultism is pleasurable and fun despite the fact that Dr. Bartneck has rejected this interpretation as a distortion of his research. While Kostrzewa?s claims have been mocked in Poland, at least some Poles have taken them seriously, with one woman expressing her belief that Legos have a connection to the Church of Satan.

This concern about the facial expressions of Lego characters is part of a broader claim made by religious conservatives about popular culture. ?Monster Fighters? Legos as well as horror movies, role-playing games (RPGs), and the other pop culture artifacts accused of luring children into the occult, all feature a supernatural battle between good and evil that is largely derived from Christianity itself. Yet the very people most invested in such a worldview see these narratives not as a reinforcement of their views but as a demonic counterfeit that somehow blurs the lines between good and evil.

One explanation for this paradox is that popular culture offers a rival brand of spiritual warfare. The real fear of cultural conservatives like Fr. Kostrzewa may not be that Legos will lead children to worship Satan, but that the battle against evil is more exciting when enacted through Legos than through the teachings and rituals of the Catholic Church; or perhaps it's because they portray spiritual warfare as a child?s fantasy rather than a cosmic certainty. Ultimately, I suspect that Fr. Kostrzewa is less worried about children?s souls and more about securing his own brand as the original ?Monster Fighter.?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...o-is-a-tool-of-Satan-warns-Polish-priest.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2...ading_children_to_dark_side_priest_warns.html

http://www.mercurynews.com/weird-news/ci_25493814/anti-lego-comments-put-priest-spotlight

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...lego-destroy-children-souls-article-1.1742761

 

[Michchamp]

this is nonsense. I played with Lego's all the time as a kid, and in fact, they were my favorite toy.

I didn't turn out to be a... oh.

 

[Mitchrapp]

this is nonsense. I played with Lego's all the time as a kid, and in fact, they were my favorite toy.

I didn't turn out to be a... oh.

Lol.

I loved legos and my favorite, tinker toys.

 

[JScottWriter]

I guess I am having my son become satanic because he loves the expensive things.

 

[sggatecl]

I'm so glad I don't believe in fairy tales or I might be influenced by this.

 

[TheVictors]

LEGOS are freaking out of control these days with all the co-branding and crap. From Star Wars to Pirates of the Caribbean ....if Disney makes it, there are $34 "collectible" lego characters.

unreal what an infatuation kids have these days. I remember having legos as a kid, but not that many and none that were from a movie or hollywood.

 

[Gulo Blue]

I had this set. It was badass.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Do you see all those bitchin' arrows and computers! I might have to try to find the pieces and rebuild the thing. Odds of success aren't very good, I suppose.

...no dice, I can tell digging through these that most of those classic pieces aren't here. Crap. That sucks.

 

[byco42]

If you don't believe in the devil, it's not that difficult to dispute those people who do and cite examples of his non-influence in the world. This professor needs Satan to refute his existence and influence. He's just the sort of useful idiot Satan relies on to spread his half-truths.

 

[Thumb]

Crack-pot calling the kettle a weirdo.

 

[Michchamp]

LEGOS are freaking out of control these days with all the co-branding and crap. From Star Wars to Pirates of the Caribbean ....if Disney makes it, there are $34 "collectible" lego characters.

unreal what an infatuation kids have these days. I remember having legos as a kid, but not that many and none that were from a movie or hollywood.

Yeah it's a shame. They're a lot less conducive to imagination.

Still it seems like you can still buy basic brick sets and go from there.

 

[xer0]

Toys, or any of this other stuff listed aren't the problem.

The problem begins and ends with religious nutjobs and their idiotic, nonsensical belief systems.

 

[TheVictors]

The sad thing as a Dad is with these new Lego kits they have and 28-page instruction manuals. "Hey Dad, can you help me build this Tie Fighter?" = Will you build it? = When these Legos invariably fall apart as a toy like spaceship, boat or plane will, You will be blamed.

I keep telling the little guy; there's no right or wrong way to play Legos!! Just build stuff you think of...


Ironically or not, that was the lesson from the Lego Movie.

 

[Thumb]

the best thing you can get is what my stepkids used to have, a lego table and just a bunch of random bricks. The surface of the table is lego material, so they can just build multiple things, they used to make little cities with roads and stuff.

Best $100 I ever spent really, it even had a drawer to put them in afterwards, less chance of finding them in the carpet with your bare feet. (worst part about legos)

 

[tinselwolverine]

The Rockem' Sockem Robots were my favorite toy growing up.

I always kinda thought the Red Rocker was a tool of Satan though.

And to a degree a tool of Brezhnev.

But the Blue Bomber?

That mechanical mother fucker was the shit.

 

[zyxt9]

Strip away the religious talk and for a moment grasp what he is trying to say.

Companies need a reminder that when targeting 5 year olds, they shouldn't be using elements that 10+ year olds are able to process with reasonable ease. Targeting younger kids with older concepts has continued to create societal problems for a significant number of children. Putting strongly suggestive sexual senarios on ABC Family at 8:00AM Saturday morning (or any morning) should not be considered acceptable programming for that network, but that is what was on a couple weeks agoand my wife and I were dumbfounded, especially being the Disney fans that we are. It was the show with Joey Lawrence and it had him and the leading lady asked him if he wanted to "use" the couch or desk, he said desk, and she cleared it off, hopped on, he embraces her, she wraps herself around him and cut to commercial results in my wife and I going, WTF?!?!? We had never seen the show before (frankly not even understanding how that channel was on) but apparently from talking to others this is pretty common now, shows targeting junior high and younger aged children with sexual content of at least a suggestive nature. No wonder she was being felt up when she taught 5th grade.

So while this guy is obviously over the top with the religious babble, he does have a legit reason to be concerned with what our kids are learning and experiencing, especially when so many kids are being left alone or the parents just don't care. Yew,bad parenting is a huge issue in itself,but does the media have to make things that much more difficult? I'm not the best parent, but not the worst either, and I know my son comes across things that I have to explain he should not repeat/mimic/copy...but the media could help parents out a little bit by examining their content relative to target audience and other factors to help parents out. Instead they just keep pushing the extremes under the premise that such content is required for their ratings and sales.

 

[Mitchrapp]

It's been going on forever. I remember taking my kids to movies that were for 'young children' but then you see scene after scene that only a much older person would understand.

 

[zyxt9]

I'm ok with double entendre and hidden words, phrases, or actions....the particular scene would have been fine with just them coming together to kiss, but it went too far. How many 10 year old kids will look at that and assume that is normal way to interact at their age.

I love the artistry in the hidden things that only adults would understand, don't have an issue with that. Seems more and more they are not able or willing to put in that degree of work so they just say to do the more simplistic and blatant. As the number of channels and shows have increased, quality has decreased. There are obviously exceptions, but some of the stuff is almost the equivalent of products coming off a Chinese sweat shop assembly line. "oops, sorry we used lead paint....again...and your kid now has mental issues as a result. Sorry about that, but hey, you should have known better as a patent than to trust the packaging and what appeared to be a quality product on the shelf,shame on you!"

Oops, I guess I will be raked over the coals for using a strawman example now by champ, but maybe now that he is a parent he might actually see where I was going with that example and be gentle with me this time. Lol

 

[Michchamp]

It's been going on forever. I remember taking my kids to movies that were for 'young children' but then you see scene after scene that only a much older person would understand.

"free willie's willie" and "the little mermaid... Gangbang" weren't actually kids movies. But I see how you coulda been confused

 

[zyxt9]

"free willie's willie" and "the little mermaid... Gangbang" weren't actually kids movies. But I see how you coulda been confused

Little Mermaid I have a hard time watching without cracking up...

Darling it's better, down where it's wetter!!! Yeah baby!!!!! Lollipop

Edit...Lollipop??? Since when did LOL get auto changed to lollipop???? That's pretty funny in its own right that it happened in this post.