Marshall had a deep aversion to Precious Moments dolls, and not just to their creepiness. He rejected them for their religious message: that for an artifact to legitimately be religious, it must have as its prime feature the sacred message. These things, he felt, were an affront to that. Their prime attractions were cuteness, sentimentality, and family values; it was packaging religion in another guise, which he felt cheapened the meaning of Christianity. I would imagine that he would feel that Christianity doesn't need anything to jazz it up, doesn't need "packaging;" it stands for its own virtues, and to have some kind of mediating factor in the message is to in fact totally delegitimize it.

I liked that Nathan emphasized that we don't need to fall into relativism, and ignore our reactions, but that we should instead just be keenly aware of them, and what's going on with them. I agree with Marshall's points, though perhaps not with the same intensity and to the same extent. I still see some worth to them, though.