The Bible in bricks

Could Qui-Gon Jinn from the Star Wars movies, cloaked with the robes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, pose as Jesus Christ? Could the severe expression on the face of an old Ninja master, combined with the white beard of a wizard, pass as "God?"

Why not? Apparently through toy bricks, creating is as easy as uttering, "Let there be light." All kids have to do is mix and match pieces, and join different parts together, to give life to imagination. Voila! The illusion is set in a concrete model. But for Reverend Brendan Powell Smith, child’s play should not be constricted by the Lego box label that claims: "for ages 5 & up." Probably convincing himself that, after all, he was still an "& up," when he set out to work on The Brick Testament, an innovative way of telling Bible stories in colorful brick models.

About three years ago, what may have been considered "divine inspiration" kicked in and hit Reverend Smith who endeavored to retell and illustrate biblical stories in a way that is faithful to the scriptures, "without being evangelical or supporting the particular doctrines of denomination." He began building scenes entirely out of Lego pieces which he buys in malls and old collections he scores from eBay. Recently, he raided stores, almost panic-buying Lego collections of Harry Potter and Star Wars.

Rev. Smith attests that 99 percent of the Lego pieces we see in The Brick Testament are exactly how they came in some Lego set. "There are only very few occasions on which I feel compelled to physically alter Lego parts. One example is God’s white hair. Lego has never produced a white-hair piece, so I took it upon myself to carve one out of a white space helmet. I guess I could have just left God bald, but somehow that just didn’t seem right," he explained.

The website www. thebricktestament.com was launched in October 2001 with only six stories from Genesis. Within a couple of weeks, there were 20,000 visits to the site, and word-of-mouth continued to spread very quickly. Now there are about 140 stories on the website.  In the summer of 2002, Rev. Smith got a call from a publisher who was interested in putting out The Brick Testament in book form; and by fall of 2003 the first book, a collection of stories from Genesis, was released. All 15,000 copies of the first print had sold out by Christmas.  A second book is due out next fall. For this, Rev. Smith is working on a series of illustrated versions of Jesus’ parables from the gospels.

While God needed six days to build our world, Rev. Smith takes about a full week of work to create 11 to 12 illustrations, including scripting, building, photography, photo processing, and publication. God continuously builds, even in this day and age. Rev. Smith alternates creation and destruction.

"Unfortunately I have to dismantle just about everything I create for The Brick Testament.  My Lego collection truly is very large, but I still find that I need to break things down after a week or two in order to have enough raw materials to keep building new stories.  There are a few things I’m particularly fond of, like the Tower of Babel that I’ve kept around for a long time," he explained.

We have an image of God standing over paradise, commanding life and existence. Rev. Smith works from home, in his living room that tends to get completely covered in bins of Lego.

"I don’t usually have the Bible at my side, but rather a script I’ve printed out, showing which Bible passage each photo should be illustrating, along with any other notes and ideas I’ve jotted down," he added.

Yes, the captions for each illustration are direct quotes from the Bible. The chapter and verse numbers are always provided in case people may want to check its accuracy. Earliest version of the site drew most of its quotations from the New Jerusalem Bible, picked for its high level of readability and generally accurate translation from the Hebrew and Greek originals.

"But this, like most modern translations is a copyrighted work, so I am now using what I would call ‘my own translation.’ But it is one that is heavily based on a couple of public domain modern English translations of the Bible. It helps that my girlfriend reads Hebrew, so I can always consult the original text if need be," Rev. Smith clarified. In the rare instances where characters are portrayed as saying or thinking words that are not direct quotes from the Bible, the text is displayed in gray instead of the usual black.

The son of a Sunday School superintendent, who, in his early teens, decided to be an atheist, says he is uncomfortable publicizing his current religious beliefs because he doesn’t want that to have too much of an influence over how people view The Brick Testament. 

"Hopefully it’s something everyone can enjoy, no matter what denomination, or even if they’re not a believer at all," Rev. Smith added.

Some churches are not only entertained, they also find The Brick Testament useful. Once or twice a week, Rev. Smith gets a request for permission to use images from the collection for Sunday School classes or other church-related programs. But not everyone is pleased. There have also been a handful of negative reactions from individual church-goers, "but not from anybody representing an entire religious community," he clarifies.

Some people may feel that using Lego to illustrate the Bible is disrespectful.  "Others have taken issues with the way I’ve depicted certain stories, but overall the positive reactions I’ve gotten about the book and the website far outweigh the negative comments," says Rev. Smith.

Wait a minute, is he really a "Reverend?" The following disclaimer is posted on the website: "‘Reverend’, when used before someone’s name, does not imply any particular position in a church. There is really no such thing as ‘a reverend’. The adjective is used by people such as ministers and priests, to show that they are revered members of their community. So the question really is, does anybody really revere The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith?"

The title was actually just a nickname Smith got back in junior high school when a classmate with a mouthful of sandwich tried to call out his name. Instead of "Brendan" it sounded more like "Rebran," close to "reverend."

"I liked the sound of it, so I started signing some of my homework assignments as Rev. Brendan Powell Smith.  I didn’t really think of it as impersonating a minister so much as just acting pompous and silly, as if I was really someone to revere.  Some teachers seemed to get a kick out of it. Others did not," he narrates.

Revered? Maybe not to that extent; but certainly admired for his ingenuity and craftsmanship. But there’s one other title Smith hopes to own. By coming up with The Brick Testament, he says he hopes to one day become a Pope. Now, that may be pushing things a bit too far; the chances obviously range from slim to none. But hey, if one can build, one can dream, right?