When I need to find out the news beyond the headline story of the day, I have found that one of the best places to go to get a pulse of what’s news and what news is actually interesting for discussion, I often go to FARK. (Warning: If you go there, you’re best bet is to avoid the comment threads on the RH side, which can be vulgar. Additionally, some actual discernment is needed when selecting the stories to read, so it’s not something I recommend to children or immature adults, either).

Imagine my surprise last summer when I checked out the list of stories and found this one:

(Some Tomato) “Christian” website declares war on the Veggie Tales. What will QWERTY say about this?

[NOTE: The link is dead, but you can see the source being linked to.]

After reading the story and the sad comment thread beneath it, I braced myself and decided to read the FARK comment thread about the article. It was truly sad to see how the outside world viewed this intra-church sniping and foolishness. (mild examples: Wow. Someone there disses “Adventures in Oddysey” by Focus on the Family. THAT is hardcore. or It’s gotta be tough to write for Landover Baptist when the real sites are this unintentionally satirical. )

Well, it’s not uncommon to expect such foolishness to repeat itself, and so it has… and I have to say that I’m still a bit perplexed on a number of items:

Cartoons and Artistic Adaptation

This article takes issue with the upcoming Veggie Tales adaptation of The Prodigal Son, set against a Wizard of Oz meme.

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.

First off, I’m failing to see where such hysteria is warranted. It is not as if Paul Vischer (producer of VT) is claiming that Veggie Tales is scripture, or a tool aimed at evangelizing children with a full outlay of the plan of salvation. Rather, it is, and always has been, a modern method of relaying some scriptural stories and parables to children, typically pre-school and lower elementary school aged. Additionally, enough (clean) pop-culture and catchy music is woven in so that adults aren’t bored to tears, but will be conversant and interested enough that good discussion might arise between parent and child on the topics presented. There is no ‘mistreatment of the Word of God’, despite the screeching hyperbole to the contrary.

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