New in the Watchdog Crosshairs: VeggieTales
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Thu, September 06, 2007
- Viewed 92
- (34) comments so far
But here’s my favorite line: “How many hours of this garbage do you want your children to watch? We have the Holy Bible, preserved through the centuries by the martyrs who gave their blood for their love of God’s Word. So what do we give our children? Trash movies that distort the sacred words of Scripture into little moralistic, works righteousness tales with dancing cartoon characters.”
When I was little, my Sunday School teachers made the Bible come alive with great stories from the Bible, and used creative tools like (gasp!) flannelgraph. Little did I know that they were taking my Holy and Just Savior and minimizing Him to sticky-backed paper. (I just thought it was cool… how’d they get that paper to stick?)
And the songs we used to sing… I remember one about me taking a trip on the “Happy Day Express”. If I remember right, the letters on the engine were J-E-S-U-S. How could they have taken the name of my crucified and risen Christ and put it on the side of a train (for crying out loud). (I just liked the song… I gate it an 8… it had a nice beat and I could dance to it).
And remember Davey and Goliath? (I’m aging myself here). But what a cute cartoon, but it took a very serious Bible story and made it into a fun learning piece for kids (although it was put on by the Lutherans, so I was already warned about its ‘liberalness’, even back then). 
But vegetables, especially talking vegetables… totally out of bounds. “Garbage” to be exact. An insult to martyrs, and a distortion of scripture.
Yeah, whatever.
Rant over.
What do you think?
Todd
Well, the watchdogs have a new entity in their crosshairs. Now they're ticked about a defenseless tomato and a lovable cucumber. This is just part of their expose': "The producers of these Veggie Tales movies desecrate Holy Scripture by perverting it into upbeat do-good stories completely absent the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Read that sentence again. Holy Scripture. That’s what we teach our children that the Bible is. Holy. Untouchable. Sacred. Must not be tampered with. But we are considered freaks in a world where nothing is sacred. Nothing is holy. Nothing is untouchable, particularly if there is cash to be made. These people are getting wealthy off the mistreatment of the Word of God..."
Comments
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Peter Hamm on Thu, September 06, 2007
The complaints seem to be voiced as if Big Idea means the Veggies to replace the Bible. No way. They are a great way to get kids interested in finding out more about what the Bible says.
I’d be concerned about people who DON’T use stories like these to teach kids Bible concepts. I mean… If I just read from them out of the KJV, how many of them are NOT going to just ditch the faith as soon as they are old enough to.
Paul J. on Thu, September 06, 2007
Don’t forget singing “Give me oil in my lamp” and adding those vile and ungodly lyrics “Give me gas in my Ford, keep me truckin’ for the Lord” or “Give me wax on my board, keep me surfin’ for the Lord”.
Good heavens.
Todd Rhoades on Thu, September 06, 2007
Hey, and if the devil doesn’t like it, he can sit on a tack.
Ouch.
Todd
Camey on Thu, September 06, 2007
Okay.. Todd.. Now I’ve got several different Veggie Tale songs running through my head. I definitely remember David and Goliath.. Watched it before going to church on Sunday mornings. Interestingly enough? There were times when God used it just as much if not more so to help me learn about Him…
In regards to the Veggies? I cannot begin to share all the testimonies of how a cucumber and a tomato have been used to open the hearts and minds of children, parents, grandparents, and etc…. to God….. lives we have personally seen changed… hearts that once were hardened. That’s not a Big Idea… That’s God.
Oh where is my hairbrush?
Todd Rhoades on Thu, September 06, 2007
Why do you need a hairbrush, you don’t have any hair?
(Sorry, Camey… couldn’t resist!)
Todd
Lisa on Thu, September 06, 2007
I’ll admit, I stopped being thrilled by Veggie Tales when, in King George and the Ducky, they retooled the story of David and Bathsheba as a lesson about sharing. Other than that, though, they might as well be offended by Focus on the Family’s “Adventures in Odyssey” and the characters’ occasional forays into the Bible itself through that dastardly invention, the “Imagination Station,” or through the master storytelling techniques of characters like John Avery Whittaker or Bernard Walton. I mean, gasp, they may on occasion use humor!
Brad Raby on Thu, September 06, 2007
I’m embarrassed to say that there was some controverys in my church as a child over “If the devil doesn’t like it he can sit on a tack” - Some thought we were making light of the very serious darkness and evil of that wiley serpent the devil.
I am so embarrassed.
nora on Thu, September 06, 2007
This is a new low for Slice. The outstanding thing about Veggie Tales is that they are one of the best cartoons out there—secular or religious. Bob and Larry are, IMO, outstanding presenters of the Holy Scriptures. No, not every story can be literally presented, as Linda pointed out about the story of David and Bathsheeba. It would be inappropriate to have a cartoon where Larry sees a female cucumber bathing on a nearby roof, sleeps with her, then kills her husband. Those kinds of stories are difficult to set to song. But they did an excellent job of presenting the very essence of that tale in the very same way that Nathan the prophet confronted David about his sin. He made it a story about greed, and about taking something that isn’t yours.
In addition, Big Idea has been able to take biblical stories to the masses, for example, the story of Jonah. As usual, Slice is not a representation of Christianity at all, but is merely playing the part of modern day Pharisees.
So is it my imagination, or does Aunt Ruth have a beard?
Jeff Whitmire on Thu, September 06, 2007
It’s a good thing they are on the job so we don’t degrade to trivializing the Truth contained in the Scriptures. After all, Jesus never lowered himself to using common stories to relay important teaching… oh, wait…. nevermind.
I need a water buffalo.
Leonard on Thu, September 06, 2007
We are the bloggers who don’t do anything, we just stay home and blog around and if you ask us to do anything…we’ll just tell you to sit in a tack.
Sometimes when I read these things I wonder if people think God is an uptight ninny who micro manages the cosmos, worried someone out there is going to diminish His holiness.
SIGH
Dan on Thu, September 06, 2007
I love the humor in Veggie Tales! I’m surprised the “watch dog” sites haven’t torn apart “The Ballad of Little Joe” (the story of Joseph). I mean, Little Joe actually quotes the Eagles. When he’s being sold by his brothers he says, “Hey, desperodo’s-you better come to your senses!” Love it!
Jeff South on Thu, September 06, 2007
I give up. The folks at Slice have no sense of humor and obviously seem to forget it was Jesus that used stories and imagery to teach valuable lessons about the Father. He had to find a way to get his point across in a way that was appropriate to his audience.
Oh, and Jeff Whitmire you may not have a water buffalo. Next thing you know we’ll all be wanting water buffaloes. People will be asking “where is MY water buffalo?” Stop being so silly!
Granata on Thu, September 06, 2007
This post took me out of my lurking status on this blog. What a joke! Veggie Tales has brought light into many venues that other “christian programs” could not. They’re on NBC!
Larry Boatright on Thu, September 06, 2007
wow.
I just cannot believe this kind of stuff. Thanks for posting it though!
“God is bigger than the boogeyman, He’s bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on tv.”
Blasphemous…
Jeff Whitmire on Thu, September 06, 2007
You know what’s cool though?
God is bigger than the narrow-minded-blogger-people too http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/smile.gif
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