Crowdfunding websites have become a unique and innovative way for inventors, non-profits, and concerned citizens to raise funds and find new fans of their products and causes.

But lately, we’ve seen these crowdfunding sites take political stances, and they naturally lean left. Remember back in February when GoFundMe froze donations to Canada’s Freedom Convoy based on Justin Trudeau and his government-funded media’s disinformation about the convoy? GoFundMe eventually returned the donations, but they made their battle lines clear.

Kickstarter is now engaging in some similar political and religious censorship. Recently, the site for artists and inventors to fund new projects canceled a previously-approved fundraiser for a product called “Talking Jesus Doll.”

I’ll have to admit, the doll idea sounded sacrilegious to me until I dug deeper. It turns out, the doll actually teaches kids some of Jesus’ words directly from the Bible.

The company responsible for the Talking Jesus Doll explains on its website that “in the last few years, toys have been weaponized with wokeness. Now, almost every product from Big Toy aisle is pushing a gay, trans, anti-white, anti-police or anti-family agenda to separate your child from their family and from their Creator.”

“The only salvation this world has is in Jesus Christ,” the site continues. “And because children form their religious and moral beings as young as age 2, it is essential to introduce … your children to Jesus and His teachings at the earliest age. That is why we built The Talking Jesus Doll.”

I spoke with David Mauro, the founder of Live for Good, Inc., maker of the Talking Jesus Doll, on Monday afternoon, and he told me that his inspiration for the toy came from the stuffed animals that his three girls cherished. He realized that their toys had educational and sentimental value, but none of them had spiritual value. In fact, nothing like that existed, so he decided to make something that would fill that gap.

One of the great things about a toy like this, Mauro told me, is that it personifies Jesus in a way that kids can’t get from a book, a video, or an app on a phone or tablet. Another advantage to a toy like the Talking Jesus Doll is that when kids play with it, they have exposure to the words of Jesus straight from the Bible, which will benefit them when they get older.

Mauro explained on the company’s blog how the process of having a project approved on Kickstarter works.

“To get on Kickstarter, you have to go through a thorough evaluation process where they collect lots of information and review your project,” Mauro writes. “After we submitted our project, story, photos and funding goals to Kickstarter, they approved it.”

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A few weeks after the project got underway, and as the Talking Jesus Doll had backers paying their hard-earned money to help get the product off the ground, Kickstarter sent Mauro an email stating that the project didn’t fall within Kickstarter’s rules.

Mauro pressed Kickstarter on what the problem was, and the crowdfunder pointed to one paragraph on the Talking Jesus Doll’s page.

“And in the last few years we watched once-wholesome toys and television shows devolve into woke propaganda campaigns,” the paragraph read. “It’s true. Lego’s became LGBT, Mr. Potato Head went non-binary; Barbie became Bar-bi. Big Toy embraced the religion of wokeness which is designed to separate children from their families and their Creator.”

Rather than a problem, Mauro saw the paragraph as “evidence that our kids need Jesus now, more than ever.” So, rather than deleting the offending paragraph, he added links to each phrase that proved his point.

I highly recommend you read the post; Mauro clearly did his homework. But it wasn’t enough for Kickstarter, who pulled the plug on the project, which was 71% funded within four days!

“It could have been the paragraph,” Mauro writes. “It could have been the fact that our product is Jesus. We never got and never will get a clear explanation. Whatever it was, Kickstarter chose not to side with us or our backers. They caved.”

“We did not cave and will not,” he continues (with emphasis in the original). “Our Talking Jesus Doll says ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ (John 14:6). Jesus is Truth. Period. To deny the Truth is to deny Jesus. No amount of money is worth that.”

None of the money from the Kickstarter campaign went to Mauro and his company, although Kickstarter did refund the money that supporters donated. Mauro said that he’s heard from several backers who have ordered one of the dolls.

Even though Kickstarter tried to kill the Talking Jesus Doll project, good has come out of it. The doll should release soon, and it has become a successful product launch. Mauro has even pioneered a new type of toy — one with spiritual value (although, as he joked to me, “pioneers often have arrows in their backs”). He also knows that he couldn’t have done this alone.

“It’s a God thing,” he told me. “It’s not a me thing.”

“Remember that they tried to cancel Jesus once before … and we know how that turned out,” he concluded. And we know that Jesus’ story is the greatest true story ever told.

http://theendtimeradio.com