Evidently, NBC has no problem offending Christians with Madonna's mock crucifixion but has a big problem with a computer animated tomato asserting that God can give us strength.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that Veggie Tales was on last Satruday on network tv, so I DVRed it and watched it with my kids.  It wasn't as good as the DVDs usually are, but it was still entertaining.  Come to find out that NBC had given Veggie Tales creator, Phil Vischer, the task fo editing it down for length, which he did.  Despite the fact that he had each episode down the correct time, NBC decided to go further and cut out the parts that referred to God, especially the Bible verses that come at the beginning and end of the show.

Visher posits an explanation:

The people who produce kids shows tend to come from the Washington, D.C./New York/Boston school of programming, which is primarily PBS or the Los Angeles school, which is “give them anything they want” – action, disrespect and so on.

There hasn’t been a lot of kids’ programming coming from a Christian worldview, so I don’t think that NBC ever had to wrestle with this. They had no principle that they could apply. I had to spend time going through what they were saying. What I seemed to have figured out is that they are OK with a Bible story if it’s in a historical context. We could say, “The Bible says God gave Samson his strength.” That was fine. But we couldn’t have Bob the Tomato turn to the kids and say, “God can give us strength too.” They said that’s not okay. When you apply a Bible verse to the audience, they said that is proselytizing. Parents who are atheists or Hindu may not like having their children be preached to.

There’s a heightened sensitivity because it’s for kids and it’s delivering a message. If it were on Sunday morning, then it would probably be okay.

A tomato can refer to the Bible on how Samson got his strength, but not the God can gove us strength, too.  What kind of world have we created, here? 

Vischer doesn't seem to want a big hullabaloo over this, and I personally won't be writing any nasty emails to NBC.  However, I find it hard to reconcile some of the lessons I've seen in Veggie Tales programs with the his attitude.  In many of the stories, the characters teach children to have courage and to put God first.  They also warn kids not to follow the world's ways, but to follow God's instead.  I'm wondering if they're going to write a show in which Larry the Cucumber advises Junior Asparagas to avoid using the "G" word because the Grapes of Math might otherwise go back to their old, Steinbeckian name.

As for NBC, they should go hide in shame.  Veggie Tales is only mildly religious as it is.  Even in their original forms, they don't mention Jesus or dwell at all on the concept of salvation.  There's no Creationism or evolution bashing.  There's no moralizing on sexual issues or anti-abortion rhetoric.  It's basically 7th Heaven with vegetables. 

We know Jesus is offensive and only suitable for television when He is being mocked or lampooned.  But since when did the generic concept of "God" become a ratings and ad revenue killer?

My Mind is Clean