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| 189 12 The Battle for the Toy Box Marketing and Play in the Development of Children’s Religious Identities Rebecca Sachs Norris “Will you join ‘The Battle for the Toy Box’?” asks the poster in large letters across the top. The seriousness of this battle is shown through the image of muscular Samson and Goliath action figures locked in combat and the accompanying text: “one2believe, a faith based toy company, has been given an opportunity to spread the word of God to children throughout America. . . . one2believe is in a Battle for the Toy Box. Which side are you on?” (“Battle for the Toybox” 2007: 190). What’s going on here? Aren’t toys supposed to be fun? Playthings are indeed fun, but they are not merely fun, especially today, when marketing research and media promotion are so thoroughly embedded in the materials—television, movies, and computers as well as toys— that children are exposed to on a daily basis. For those doing research with children, it is important to consider the cultural contexts and multiple subtexts of ordinary items found in children’s daily lives. Seemingly innocent or harmless items such as toys are potentially formative influences, their influence being shaped by diverse motivations such as parental needs and wishes, socioeconomic factors, neuroscientific research, profitability, and the intentional or unintentional impact of graphic images. In light of these types of factors, children’s needs or wishes may seem to have become distant, dim, and distorted, or even to have disappeared. The Battle Is Joined While toys may not commonly be regarded as battle weapons, as in the scenario above, they are implements in parental struggles to prepare their children for what parents want and expect them to become. Playthings are supposed to do this by instilling values and developing social, mental, and 190 | Rebecca Sachs Norris physical skills. Buying toys with these anticipated results also reassures parents about their parenting abilities and helps them feel better about themselves . Although material about toys, especially educational toys, seems to be child-oriented, it is largely the parents’ hopes and fears that are being addressed. Moreover, marketing plays a strong part in creating these items, bringing into question who really benefits from them. Religious games and toys, which are directed toward parental moral and religious concerns, are a growing segment of the educational toy industry. Contemporary religious games and toys are fascinating, perplexing, and often contradictory. Although they abound online, many people are unaware that they exist. As well, on first sight many adults are not sure what to make of the games. Are they serious or satire? Are they for children or adults? While there are satirical games, most current religious games are not satirical . Games such as Missionary Conquest, Episcopopoly, BuddhaWheel, The Hajj Fun Game, or Kosherland, and toys that include a variety of talking Bible dolls (Christian) as well as Razanne and Fulla (Muslim), and Gali Girls (Jewish) bring together religion, commerce, play, and politics. Just as play is used in kindergartens, elementary schools, and religious schools as a fun way to attract children to the learning tasks at hand, these games call on the intrinsic appeal games have for children. Most are colorful; many include humor (not always successfully) or attempt to be contemporary and relevant. They are intended as educational tools, meant to instill morals as well as implant knowledge, to be one more element in a child’s spiritual formation. As religious studies scholar Susan B. Ridgely notes (2005), most studies of children’s religiosity and spirituality are from the adult perspective. Books on children’s spiritual formation present what adults need to do to develop and form children’s religious identities. As adults, can we ever know children’s inner spiritual lives? We are limited by having to comprehend children’s worlds through the lens of our adult experience and understanding. Knowing children’s play lives is much more difficult, because one of the difficulties of researching children’s play is that when it is supervised, it changes. Chaya Kulkarni, the director of Infant Mental Health Promotion (IMP) at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, asserts that children get much more out of toys and that it is “far more meaningful” when a parent participates in the play as well (“Do ‘Educational Toys’ Really Teach?” 2009), but these interactions are not that simple, since children don’t like adult interference in play,1 to the extent that they may even change their activities when observed...

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