Sams Club: The Brick Bible Banned After Complaints of Overly-Sexual Lego Men
For more than a decade Brendan Powell Smith has been telling the story of the Bible in his own special way. The Lego Bible explores the intricacies of the good book through the use of the building blocks. Now one major retailer has removed the item from store shelves because it states that the depictions are overtly sexual.
On his Web site, Smith's Brick Testament contains a series of interpretations of sexually suggestive passages of the Bible, but in the latest book version, those sections were removed.
"I have just been informed that Sam's Club is pulling “The Brick Bible” from the shelves of all of their retail locations nationwide due to the complaints of a handful of people that it is vulgar and violent," Smith wrote on his Facebook. "This despite the book containing only straightforward illustrations of Bible stories using direct quotes from scripture."
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A Sam's Club spokesperson said, "We offered the print version only of 'The Brick Bible' in our clubs....Sam's Club received numerous concerns from our members and parents about the mature content in what is perceived as a children's book. Accordingly, Sam's Club made a business decision to discontinue sales,” according to CNET.
Smith said that the only complaint he'd managed to uncover himself is one post on the Sam's Club Facebook wall contending that The Brick Bible was created by someone who “doesn't believe in God."
Smith explained to CNET that his publisher, Skyhorse Publishing, told him that Sam's Club had ordered 12,000 copies of "The Brick Bible."
He also addressed the fact that "it was reps from Walmart and Sam's Club who had seen an advance version of the book and said they were very interested to place a large order of the book for their stores, but only if we were willing to remove or replace a dozen of the Old Testament illustrations that showed Lego people in sexual poses.”
A Sam's Club spokesperson said that the company had never been involved in any pre-publication discussions about the content of the book. The book is still available at several other retailers.
