The unknowability of the holy Trinity is intentional: It’s one of the central mysteries of the Catholic faith. God is the father, the son, and the holy spirit, but exists as a single divine nature. It’s commonly expressed visually through a diagram known as the Shield of the Trinity, which illustrates that while the son, holy spirit, and the father are all God, they are distinct from one another. Different interpretations and methods of teaching the Trinity flirt with polytheism and heresy, but that hasn’t stopped a new trend from emerging in more progressive swathes of the faith: trying to teach kids about the holy Trinity using fidget spinners, the new, ubiquitous, and seemingly inventor-less toy that has seen recent explosive popularity.

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At the Catholic news site Crux, Father Jeffrey F. Kirby offers an argument (in prose) for the little spinning toys: “Believe it or not, the mania among young people these days over the fidget spinner can be an odd but very real call to prayer. As the person sees the need for mental rest … she can realize there are other broader and deeper resources for such renewal and rejuvenation.” Kirby avoids any theological projection onto the shape of the spinners. But at Unsettled Christianity, Toy Adams condemns the Trinity-as-spinner analogy on a more theological basis (“not to be a heresy hunter, but heresy is serious,” they write). “To compare the Trinity to a fidget spinner (as with the shamrock) is to commit the heresy of partialism, for it undercuts the full divinity of each person, so as to indicate that each are only one part of a three part God…The Trinity is a glorious mystery. Let’s let that be enough.”

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Catholicism is full of innumerable schisms, but the divide over dumbing down the Trinity to make it more easily digestible is a long-standing one. St. Patrick analogizing the Trinity to a shamrock (and also to water’s various chemical stages) has historically merited accusations of partialism (suggestions that God is composed of three parts) and heresy. Comparisons between fidget spinners and the shamrock came up frequently as I scoured Catholic message boards for this article. While some argue that the fidget’s spinning motion makes it a more effective illustrative tool, since it can “so perhaps better capture the dynamic movement, equality and relationality of the Godhead,” opposing contingencies maintain that “when you try to talk about God, you soon end up being a heretic.” The Archdiocese of New York did not respond to a request for comment.

Ultimately, the fidget spinner is a toy. It does not merit think pieces. It does not merit sermons. It does not merit The Atlantic’s characterization as “a rich, dense fossil of the immediate present.” It will not save the world, cure your ADHD, or explicate confusing theological concepts. A trendy, tactile plastic toy will not lead children to associate Catholicism with coolness, no matter how hard young, trendy priests may push. And it certainly won’t send anyone to hell.