Pink Ouija Board 'Toy' Targeting Young Girls Sparks Boycott

Life Site News ^ | PAWTUCKET, Rhode Island, February 5, 2010 | Kathleen Gilbert

[GonzoII]

Friday February 5, 2010

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Pink Ouija Board 'Toy' Targeting Young Girls Sparks Boycott

By Kathleen Gilbert

PAWTUCKET, Rhode Island, February 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A boycott has been launched against toymaker giant Hasbro and Toys R Us for making and marketing a pink Ouija board targeting girls as young as eight years old.

The board's Toys R Us webpage - which has evidently been recently removed - boasted: "It has always been mysterious. It has always been mystifying. And now the OUIJA Board is just for you, girl."  The board comes with 72 "fun questions" to ask, including: "Who will call/text me next? Will I be a famous actor someday? Who wishes they could trade places with me?" 

However, a glow-in-the-dark Ouija board is still available on the Toys R Us website, which is also marketed for ages 8 and older.  The product description suggests: "Make up your own questions, and let the OUIJA Board satisfy your curiosity in virtually endless ways. OUIJA Board will answer. It's just a game - or is it?"

The vast majority of online comments, both positive and negative, on the glow-in-the-dark version strongly emphasized that the Ouija board is potentially dangerous and "not a game."  Several comments discussed in depth how to treat the "spirits" of the game politely, in order to avoid attack.  Only about half a dozen comments out of 123 claimed the game was "just a toy."

"This may be a game to you, but I assure you whomever you are playing with on the 'other side' it is not a game to them," wrote one contributor.

Another user wrote: "Although I love this game, it is very definitley (sic) NOT suited for 8 year olds, considering it works most of the time, and they could be talking to evil spirits."

Yet another user told the following story, which resembled the stories of several others who also posted their comments about the board: "they asked the board my middle name which noone in the room knew. its spelled it out perfectly. i was so freaked out. we all got really into the game but then the lights started flickering, by its self. of course us girls just screamed ang hugged each other and the door opened. omg it was so freaky we stopped playing that night."

John Cain of Ottawa, Canada, launched a boycott of Hasbro and Toys R Us after learning of the Ouija board targeted at young girls, reports Susan Brinkmann of Living His Life Abundantly International.

“Kids wouldn’t even think about Ouija boards unless it was marketed directly toward them,” said Cain.

Brinkmann points to the testimony of New York City policeman Ralph Sarchie, who has routinely assisted at exorcisms, and who says “innocent” board games like the Ouija board are immensely dangerous.

“There ought to be a law against these evil, occult `toys,’” wrote Sarchie in his book "Beware the Night." “I can hear some of you out there saying, ‘Hey, I used a Ouija board and nothing happened.’ Consider yourself lucky, then. It’s like playing Russian roulette. When you put the gun to your head, if you don’t hear a loud noise, you made it. Same thing with the board: The more times you pull the trigger, the more likely that on the next shot, your entire world will go black.”

Stephen Phelan of Human Life International threw his support behind the boycott.  Fr. Tom Euteneuer, HLI's president, is an experienced exorcist who has also strongly condemned Ouija boards.

“No responsible parent would want his or her child messing with this, and they need to be thrown out of houses and destroyed if you already have one,” said Phelan. "And tell a priest that someone in your family has been using a ouija board as soon as possible. ... No Christian family should support either of these companies with their money."

Toys R Us spokesman Bob Friedland told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) Friday that the pink ouija board, which the store has sold since 2008, was no longer shown as available "because we're making way for newer products." 

Asked whether Toys R Us had received complaints over the ouija board, Friedland responded, "nothing significant that I've been told about," and denied that outside criticism affected the decision to pull the game. 

Toys R Us still carries a glow-in-the dark Ouija board marketed to children 8-14 years old.

To sign up for the Hasbro/Toys R Us boycott click here.

Contact:

Hasbro email form

Toys R Us
customer service: 800-869-7787
email form

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10020511.html

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[Sam's Army]

"I guess then I’m not damned. Well not counting the seafood platter."

It's unfortunate that some on this site still continue to view Christianity as one of the major problems in this world.

If you are really concerned about having some shrimp cocktail for the Big Game tomorrow, perhaps this passage can give you some respite:

Mark 7:18-19 (Contemporary English Version) 18He answered, "Don't you know what I am talking about by now? You surely know that the food you put into your mouth cannot make you unclean. 19It doesn't go into your heart, but into your stomach, and then out of your body." By saying this, Jesus meant that all foods were fit to eat.

[Publius6961]

Checks or plaid?

Stripes.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If you left the Ouija alone, you were fortunate.

[Erik Latranyi]

Strawman. The topic of concern is whether those who follow Judeo-Christian teachings should fly in the face of God and disobey His teachings all in the name of "harmless fun".

Owning a piece of cardboard and some plastic does not fly in the face of God. Your posts are sounding more like those from Islamic Fundamentalists who believe women should not show any skin.

Is a camera against the teaching of Christ because you can engage in pornography with it?

Why do you own a computer when you could learn about satan from it?

The answer is NO because just owning a Ouija board does not make you believe in spirits or stray from Christ.

Love the sinner, hate the sin.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Also Acts 15. When gentiles were allowed into the church, they were not required to adopt Jewish rules of living.

[HiTech RedNeck]

If you had a piece of cardboard printed with “damn God” and you kept it knowing what it said, I’d think you were flirting with a curse.

[Erik Latranyi]

A Oiuja board is always evil no matter who is handling it.

Really?!

A piece of cardboard and plastic are evil just sitting there?!

Wow.....I believe evil lives in the hearts of men, not in a box of printed paper.

[HiTech RedNeck]

This “box of printed paper” was produced for the express purpose of communicating with the otherworld.

[Erik Latranyi]

If you had a piece of cardboard printed with “damn God” and you kept it knowing what it said, I’d think you were flirting with a curse.

It would only be wrong to keep such a thing if you believed it in your heart...and then the "thing" is not the problem, but what is in your heart that is the problem.

[goat granny]

Back in the 40’s my sister had one, you got bored with it pretty easy, but people were not looking for satan behind every tree...Too many today, assign to that being too much power.

[Sam's Army]

"Your posts are sounding more like those from Islamic Fundamentalists who believe women should not show any skin."

Oh, of course! Any Christian daring to try keep any part of God's teachings must be some raving Taliban-style tea-partier.

[Erik Latranyi]

This “box of printed paper” was produced for the express purpose of communicating with the otherworld.

Firearms were produced for the express purpose of killing your enemies.

Possession of a firearm does not make you a killer.

Possession of a box of printed paper does not make you an occulter.

[Erik Latranyi]

Oh, of course! Any Christian daring to try keep any part of God's teachings must be some raving Taliban-style tea-partier.

You are not trying to keep God's teachings.....you are trying to prevent possession of a piece of cardboard and some plastic.

[goat granny]

We called that a cootie catcher....

[Sam's Army]

"You are not trying to keep God's teachings...."

I'm not trying to keep God's teachings, huh?

Kid, you are one dishonest piece of work.

[goat granny]

If you had a hole in the sole of your shoe, you just put a piece of cardboard in it and went out to play...If the heel of your shoes were run down, you took them to the shoemaker at the corner and he put new heels on them for 1 dollar or less...the good old depression days of the 30’s and 40’s...What most people don’t realize that what brought us out of the depression was not FDR programs but WW 2.

[Antoninus]

What a bunch of nutcases screaming over a toy.

That would be true---if this were a toy.

[steve86]

If the evil spirits don’t see you as a likely prospect they aren’t going to waste their time with you. Applies to any area of life, not just Ouija Boards.

[LANCELOT41]

Wow! That’s about all I can say when I hear these religious rants about the Ouija board being evil is Wow! It amazes me that many people have just ignored or are oblivious to our history and all of the things that we have learned in the last two thousand years. Religious people like to just tell us the way it is without discussion because independent thought is a big no, no in very religious communities. I used to be a full blown Roman Catholic that prayed every night, went to church every sunday as well as on all of the holy days, went to religious schooling and received my confirmation and I lived by that code until I went into the world on my own and saw how it really works. I’ve studied the history of almost every religion that we have history on and have come to many conclusions, the first being that I am not a roman catholic or affiliated with any religion what-so-ever. Religion has killed more people than cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, guns, aids and cancer combined and that’s a fact. Almost every war that has ever been fought as been in the name of a religion and many of the worst atrocities to ever occur have been in the name of god. Not too long ago a handful of very religious men flew two airplanes into the world trade centers killing 3,000 Americans and they did it in the name of Allah. This is a topic I could right a 3,000 page book on, listing out all of the horrible things that have been done over the centuries in the name of one religion or another. The theme has always been believe what I tell you or you die!

Even after I came to my senses and realized that everything the church has ever provided an explanation for has eventually been proven to be totally wrong. In the face of proof that they are wrong, the church refuses to change it’s views until they give up trying to convince them, at which time the church finally comes out and says they may have been mistaken. Hell, in Italy up until 2006 they had a large problem with people slaughtering wild black cats because the one pope declared that they were of the devil. It took the church over four hundred years to finally come out in 2006 and tell people to stop killing the cats because they are not evil.

When my father died (i was still fervent believer) I had gone off to college and mother was left alone at home so I would drive a couple hundred miles every sunday in order to go to church with her. I continued to do so for several years after I no longer believed, just because I know it makes her happy. I actually went to church with her last weekend and it never ceases to boggle my mind when I listen to the priest talk about the past. Almost every word that came out of his mouth last sunday in regards to history was 100% historically wrong! There are too many FACTS that the church refuses to acknowledge the existence of but they are more than willing to acknowledge existence of this that there is no factual basis for what-so-ever.

People always tell me “well the bible says this or the bible says that” and my question to them is always the same, “which bible?”. The first hand-written english language bible manuscripts were produced in the 1380’s AD, the oldest latin bible (old testament) was written in 157AD which is more than 100 years after jesus died. The Old testament was pieced together from many different writings in many different languages, 157 AD was the first to have all of the languages translated into latin but there were many authors that spanned over hundreds and thousands of years. The first New Testament bible came to be between 117 A.D. and 138 A.D. also one hundred years after jesus died.
The problem with today’s interpretation of the bible is that for several hundred years it was controlled by the roman empire and in 325 A.D. the emperor Constantine assembled Nicaea Council which was also referred to as First Ecumenical Council and The Nicene Council. Prior to forming this Council Constantine was the leader of a cult that had nothing to do with christianity, judaism or any other modern religion. He brought this council together which consisted of just over 300 people and they would go through the bible removing things that they didn’t like and putting in new things that they do like. Most of what was removed from the bible by this council was and still is lost forever but what was put in remained until this day. This council did such memorable things as changing the date of Jesus’s birth to Dec. 25 and introducing Easter which was originally a pagan holiday.

I could go on forever but my point is that what we read and interpret from the bible was created by a group of just over 300 men that did away with what the did not like and added things that they though sounded good or were a way to help control their population.

It’s one thing to believe in God, it’s another to be religious and since the bible has been changed and rearranged some many hundred of times, it’s my belief that one has nothing to do with the other any more. But this is coming from a person that does not believe in either so you can take it how ever you want.

All that being said, anyone that believes that a Ouija board is evil needs to grow up and stop being a child. Do you still believe that there are monsters under you bed? Put the Ouija board under there and now you can have demons under you bed, LOL.

Do yourselves a favor and try learning how the world works on your own for a change rather than just buying whatever is being sold to you at the time. I know Mom & Dad are always right so how could they have been wrong on this? Mom & Dad lived in a time when they had access to about one millionth of the amount of knowledge that we have access to today. The last time that the human race had this much stored knowledge was before the burning of Alexandria and it’s famous library. Had that library not burned we would be even more technologically advanced than we are today.

Let the kids have fun and stop ruining good fun with foolish beliefs from the dark ages. The believed in wizards and trolls and all sorts of crazy things back then, we just took some of the crazy stuff that was impossible to prove wrong but had no actual evidence of and turned it into fact.

[Salvation]

Why would anyone give their child this instrument of the devil?

Glad to see this boycott. (i’ll stop by ToysRUs today — pretending to buy something and tell them I can’t because they are selling this product. Also tell them that you will not purchase anything made by Hasbro — they’ll get the word back to the manufacturer!)

I encourage others to do so too.