“Reaching The World One Piece At A Time.” That’s the slogan of a Christian candy company called Scripture Candy, Inc., which is printed on the packaging of the company’s Jesus candy.
This is the stated mission of Scripture Candy, Inc.:
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15
“At Scripture Candy, Inc. we are using a simple piece of candy in order to fulfill this commission. We want to ‘Reach The World One Piece At A Time.’
“We take the best tasting candies and wrap them in Scriptures so that they can be passed out to everyone. It's a great way to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A single piece of Scripture Candy is like that seed planted by the sower in the parable spoken by Jesus in Matthew 13; it has the potential of producing a tremendous harvest. Jesus said in Luke 10:2 ‘…The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few…’ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
According to Scripture Candy’s founder Brian Adkins, this is why he started his company:
“In 1991, while listening to ‘Focus on the Family’ on the radio doing a program on the occults and Halloween, GOD gave me the inspiration about turning a pagan holiday into something to glorify GOD. Since we give out candy as ‘treats’ during the holiday, if we could wrap the ‘Word’ around the candy, every piece we gave out would have the possibility of planting a seed in a person's life. Thus creating our tagline ‘Reaching The World One Piece At A Time.’
“The whole meaning behind ‘Scripture Candy, Inc.’ is to plant the seed of the ‘Word’ in everyone throughout the world.”
This candy is more of a Christian proselytizing kit than a package of candy. The candy cane package, for example, contains a stocking with the words “JESUS Sweetest Name I Know,” a bookmark with a cross and evangelical scripture verse on one side and a completely bogus history of the candy cane on the other — with the red stripes representing the blood of Christ, and the candy cane’s shape being a “J” for Jesus, an urban legend according to the real history — and a Christian coloring page, all of which are pictured on the back of the package. The only candy in the package is one single candy cane.
Nobody reading the above or looking at the packages of this company’s Jesus Candy could have any doubt that the intent of this “simple” candy is to proselytize, and that is exactly the message that multiple dozens of service members at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs got when this candy was displayed in their base exchange. These service members contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) about this candy because it sent precisely the proselytizing message that Scripture Candy’s founder Brian Adkins intended it to send, with this message now coming an official military entity.
This Jesus Candy is sold at other military bases besides Peterson Air Force Base, but as Paul Rosenberg reported on Crooks and Liars, there is a reason that so many complaints about the military’s promotion of it came from that particular base — the religious climate at that base is so bad that for some seeing this proselytizing candy in their base exchange was the straw that broke the camel’s back. How bad is the religious climate at this base? Bad enough that they refuse to release a religious climate survey that MRFF requested with a FOIA request over two years ago, a case that has now been turned over to MRFF’s attorney’s.
Rosenberg’s Crooks and Liars article caused the “Jesus Candy” story to be widely reported (Google “Jesus Candy” to see how many articles were written about this.), with dozens of right-wing and Christian news outlets railing against MRFF and its clients for complaining about something as “simple” as candy.
Reading the very intentional proselytizing mission of Scripture Candy’, Inc., those who are railing against MRFF and its clients have to admit one thing or another — either something as “simple” as candy can indeed be used as a means of proselytizing or someone needs to break the news to Scripture Candy’s founder Brian Adkins that the whole mission of his company is a pointless waste of time and sugar.