Parent Alert: The Brick Testament

As a parent of three children under the age of five, I dread the day when they will discover the wonders of the Internet. I often wonder how I am going to keep my children from explicit material. I can only guess that most parents use some sort of filter or something, but we all know that there are ways around these filters.

Of course, I imagine that any parent could probably trust Disney.com or other various family-friendly sites. Many of the businesses that operate these websites even encourage kids to ask their parents permission to log on. However, I would imagine that busy parents do not have the time to peruse every site their children view, and so they would probably blindly accept any site that looked kid-friendly.

In a search for Lego-related material, I found a site called The Brick Testament that looked ideal for children. The Brick Testament, for those who do not know, is a site devoted to dioramas of Bible Stories made entirely with Lego bricks. That's right, you can actually see stories from Genesis, Exodus, and even the life of Christ all done with Lego figurines and, in some cases, very nice Lego buildings as well. I was actually quite surprised at how much biblical material is there, such as Noah's Ark, the ten plagues, even the crucifixion.

I'm certain that what most parents, especially Christian parents, would probably not shy their children away from a site devoted to Legos and Bible. However, it should be known that the site is by no means kid-friendly.

For example, there are several scenes on the Brick Testament which have explicit Lego sex. You don't see any anatomy, but you do see some of the figures in Lego on top of each other in naked yellow. There is also one scene in the flood story where it shows a Lego person having what looks to be unnatural relations with a sheep. In addition to this sexual content, there is also bloody Lego violence in the form of bright red bricks.

I think we all know that the Bible is full of material that is not G-rated, but often times it feels like The Brick Testament goes out of its way to show things that are just plain indecent.

Perhaps it is partially because the strip's creator, the Reverend Brendan Powell Smith, is actually not a real reverend. Not only that, a recent press release on The Brick Testament shows that he has appeared in over four hundred porn films. Of course, I have no idea if this is true, but who would want their children to visit a site created by someone who even claims to be in 400 porn flicks?

However, I wouldn't use that information to shun Mr. Smith's cool Lego site entirely. If anything, I would see that as a warning sign that parents should not let their children view the site alone. In fact, Smith has been kind enough to put ratings before the Lego Bible stories so there is warning of nudity, sexual content, violence, and even cursing. Again, just because those elements are there, I would not recommend an altogether ban. After all, this is not a porn site, but a Lego site, and one that excels in creativity. I highly recommend viewing the Garden of Eden story with its lavish Lego garden, as well as Joshua's march on Jericho.

In short, parents could use The Brick Testament as a lesson to teach kids to watch out for things. I mean, just because someone puts a Bible related product out, does not necessarily mean it is biblical.