Religious dolls are on sale during the Christmas season

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VENTURA, Calif. -- It's not the Wii, but the new talking Jesus doll is grabbing national attention this holiday season.The toys are not like your typical G.I. Joe action figure or your old pull-string plaything. The Barbie-size dolls don't walk on water, but an integrated circuit chip similar to those found in computers gives them the ability to recite Bible verses and stories.The dolls are one of the hottest toys at GodSpace, a Catholic bookstore and gift shop in Thousand Oaks, Calif."To find toys of this quality that are posable and that talk and have a story is just awesome," said Claudia Satori, owner of GodSpace.There are eight "Messengers of Faith" talking dolls: Jesus, Mary, Moses, Peter, Paul, Noah, David and Esther. Most of these can be found at GodSpace, as well as the brawny, non-speaking warriors Samson and Goliath.The Jesus dolls recite Bible passages such as "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" and "Love your neighbor as yourself."GodSpace, along with Wal-Mart and Target, started selling the dolls this fall. Since then, the toy line has been featured on CNN, Fox News and in USA Today.Target sells the toys only through its Web site, while Wal-Mart carries them nationally in about 425 stores, predominantly in markets across the Southern and Midwest states.To determine where the toys would be sold, Wal-Mart focused on places where there is a large concentration of churches near its stores and looked at shopping patterns to measure the popularity of faith-based products, said Jami Lamontagne, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.The talking dolls are the brainchild of David Socha, founder of one2believe in Valencia, Calif. The company has developed the Tales of Glory line that features about 30 toys, including a 17-piece Nativity set and eight talking dolls.The company is coming out with a Spanish-speaking version next year.The purpose of the toys is to "nourish children's souls," Socha said. The toy industry veteran noted he's watched the "gradual moral decline of toys," and he doesn't want his children playing with a lot of what's on the market because the toys glorify the wrong things."A lot of the girl dolls are very promiscuous in their look and dress," and a lot of the toys for boys are very violent, Socha said.While his aim is to offer a wholesome alternative, the commercialization of a holy figure might be a turnoff for some."Even among those who are faithful, there might be some who are very offended" to find their savior sitting on a shelf in a nonreligious setting, speaking in a box wrapped in plastic and slapped with a price sticker, said Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst from Needham & Co. in New York.There's also the challenge of when the toy runs its course and is no longer popular."No one wants to mark down Jesus," McGowan said.He doubts the toys will find wide distribution. "These kind of overtly religious products usually find a market, but it's usually a very small one," he said.On the Net:www.one2believe.com(Contact Jenni Mintz of the Ventura County Star in California at www.venturacountystar.com.)