Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

Should Talking Vegetables

Be Used to Teach the Bible?
G ary D e M ar
1
Meaty Tales
Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?
Copyright © 2009 Gary DeMar

Published by:
The American Vision, Inc.
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Powder Springs, Georgia 30127-5385
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1-800-628-9460

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Produced in the United States of America.

 Should Talking Vegetables
Be Used to Teach the Bible?

G ary D e M ar

American Vision Press

Powder Springs, Georgia
 MeatyTales Theme Song1

If you like your roast beef with gravy

If you talk to your pork chop
If you smile when you see baloney
And hang out at the butcher’s shop . . .
(Have we got a show for you!)
MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, Meaty-
Tales,
MeatyTales, MeatyTales, MeatyTales, Meaty-
Tales . . .
Bacon . . .
Fillet Mignon . . .

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 MeatyTales!
Turn the grill on . . .
MeatyTales!
Barbeque . . .
Hot beef stew . . .
Burgers too . . .
MeatyTales!
Leg o’ lamb . . .
Honey ham . . .
Can of Spam . . .
MeatyTales!
There’s never ever ever ever ever ever ever been
a show like MeatyTales . . .
There’s never ever ever ever ever ever ever been
a show like MeatyTales . . .
It’s time for MeatyTales!!!

Hi kids! I’m Mikey the Meatball!

And I’m Harvey the Hot Dog!

• VeggieTales: The super-popular ani-

mated series starring armless and leg-
less vegetables, fruits, and gourds.

• VeggieTellers: The creators of

VeggieTales.

• VeggieTalers: Enthusiastic watchers

of anything VeggieTales.

• VeggieTating: Knowing too many

Silly Songs by heart.

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

What?! You didn’t recognize the parody of the VeggieTales

theme song (see lyrics here)? Where have you been? You are
completely out of the loop! VeggieTales has been one of to-
day’s hottest entertainment crazes. Before Pixar’s Toy Story,
there was VeggieTales.2 Since 1993, tens of millions of DVDs
and video tapes have been sold through outlets like Wal-Mart,
Costco, and Target. Even the restaurant chain Chuck E. Cheese
got into the act when it added VeggieTales movies and songs
to the entertainment menu at its more than 300 restaurants
across the United States. This doesn’t include millions of CDs,
books, and related spinoffs. Entire websites are devoted to the
characters and their stories. NBC even wanted to include Veg-
gieTales in its Saturday morning lineup but without the Bible
verse at the end.3 I’m with NBC on this one. I do not want
impressionable children identifying God’s Word with animat-
ed vegetables. Is it any wonder that Christian teenagers leave
their childish faith behind when they enter college because the
Bible had been reworked as a series of stories about moral les-
sons performed by talking veggies?4

Eli and Samuel

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 MeatyTales!
In an attempt to do my part in bringing wholesome but
substantive entertainment to kids everywhere, I have cre-
ated MeatyTales. Like VeggieTales, there is a theme song and
MeatyTales characters. I’m hoping that Harvey the Hot Dog
and Mikey the Meatball will cause the same types of smiles
and giggles that Archibald Asparagus and Madame Blueberry
evoke. Of course, I’m not serious. Turning King David into a leg
of lamb instead of a cucumber still trivializes the Bible’s very
serious redemptive message. The parody song and MeatyTale
characters were designed to get your attention so I could make
some points about communicating God’s Word to children.

The Meat of the Word

In a couple of back issues of Biblical Worldview magazine,5 I

had made some off-hand negative remarks about the ever-pop-
ular VeggieTales videos. I suggested that a more appropriate

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

series should carry the title MeatyTales.® The “meaty” reference

was to call attention to the need for more substance in what
we teach children (Heb. 5:12, 14), especially as it relates to bib-
lical content and application. Armless and legless vegetables
portraying Bible characters are not the best way to commu-
nicate a comprehensive and sustaining Christian worldview
to children. Will the next generation of Christians be able to
compete against the worldviews of naturalism, materialism,
atheism, Islam, postmodernism, or whatever new “ism” has
attached itself to the American soul after a steady diet of Veg-
gieTales? Do you think Muslims would ever depict Muham-
mad as a dancing and singing vegetable? You are what you eat
and what you don’t eat.
VeggieTalers see the animated vegetables (fruits and le-
gumes not to be excluded) as a way to compete with the gee-
whiz graphics found in Nintendo, Game Boy, Play Station 2,
Xbox, and razzle-dazzle movie special effects. The stuff is clev-
er and fun to watch. The tunes are catchy and the humor so-
phisticated. A director of preschool ministry at a large church
in Marietta, Georgia, says that “kids today have so much in
front of them . . . [that when] they come to church . . . they’re
bored. You can’t just open a Bible and start reading to them.”6
Most children leave these games behind as they get older, and
we wonder and worry about the ones who don’t. We shouldn’t
be surprised when children decide to outgrow the Bible be-
cause of its attachment to juvenile teaching themes. The Bible
is an adult book to be taught in an adult way even to children.
There is no segregation of children from biblical teaching and
preaching (Ezra 10:1; Neh. 12:43). It’s up to parents to make
the biblical message understandable to their children, but this
does not mean that they or churches should trivialize the con-
tent of that message.

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 MeatyTales!

Larry the Cucumber

The Seed of a Big Idea

In 1991, Phil Vischer, then a 30-year-old Bible college dropout,

first started developing ideas for a new computer-animated
kids’ show. He had almost no money, no connections, and one
computer. But he also had a big idea: to make kids’ movies that
would push kids towards God, not away from Him and the
values contained in His Word. Certainly a worthy desire. He
started working out of a spare bedroom in his basement, with
a little cash borrowed from some friends. Given his limited
resources, Phil decided the characters for his show had to be
extremely simple and easy to draw and animate: no arms, no
legs, no hair and no clothes. And what exactly did Phil want to
accomplish with these bald, limbless vegetables? The answer?

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

Big Idea’s mission statement: “To markedly enhance the moral

and spiritual fabric of our society through creative media.” In
December of 1993, Phil and two of his friends completed the
first video in the now multi-million-selling series, Where’s God
When I’M S-Scared? Since then, the Big Idea staff has grown
from 3 to nearly 200, with projects ranging from videos, CDs,
games, and toys to a touring live stage show and a full-length
movie. The G-rated Jonah debuted in theaters October 4, 2002.

Jonah: VeggieTales
1st full-length film

A typical VeggieTales video usually contains at least two

animated features: an Aesop’s fable-like story that contains a
moral lesson, a completely random (but humorous) Silly Song
with Larry, or a Bible story, with vegetables such as Larry the
Cucumber, Jr. Asparagus, and Pa Grape (who’s not even a veg-
etable) filling in the roles of King David, King Saul, and the
prophet Samuel. “Wait a minute,” you may ask, “Talking veg-
etables teaching a lesson about lying by using a giant fib from

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 MeatyTales!

outer space? That’s cute. And a dancing cucumber serenading

little tikes with songs about his hairbrush and his water buf-
falo? How charming. But making the story of King David and
Bathsheba into King George and the Ducky . . . is everyone else
ok with that?” After watching several VeggieTales videos (I
now know the “Hair Brush” song and the “VeggieTales Theme
Song” by heart, sort of), I came away with several observa-
tions, some good and some bad.

“Be Sure to Eat Your Vegetables . . .

They’re Good for You”

I love the edgy humor, not-so-subtle allusions to pop culture,

and witty songs—much of which are lost on the kids. Parents
laugh along with their children because Mom and Dad get the
jokes. The superior quality of the features has attracted tal-
ented people from Disney, Dreamworks, and CBS. Now that’s
a switch. There’s a lesson here for those Christians who turn
out schlock and junk in the name of Jesus. You know the stuff.
WWJD lollipops, “Jesus is the Real Thing” baseball caps, “Tes-

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

tamints—The Mints with a Message,” Manna Mints, Scripture

Soap, and John 1:10 sweatbands.7 Is it any wonder that non-
Christians don’t take us seriously? Christian artisans should
be the best at what they do and the standard for the world
to imitate, not the other way around. When someone like Jim
Hill, a columnist for the online publication Digital Media FX
and self-professed heathen, gushes over the sophistication, hu-
mor, and profundity of VeggieTales, there’s hope for Christian
art. Yes, VeggieTales, for all their silliness, is art, but what ulti-
mate message is it communicating?
The storytelling with its moral lessons needs to be com-
mended as well. Even the Silly Songs are cute and certainly
better than the mind-numbing Teletubbies. I can understand
young children finding them engaging and fun to watch.
Much of the humor is sophisticated enough that it flies over
the heads of the intended audience. John Stapp, manager of
Seattle Washington’s Family Christian Store, explained the
appeal: “The reason they’re so popular is they work on several
levels of humor. The kids like them because they’re cartoons,
and they’re funny and there’s a lot of action, but the dialogue

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

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 MeatyTales!
gets in things that are lost on the kids. There are zingers only
adults pick up, they’re just charming.”8
Of course, this was true of Bugs Bunny, Rocky and Bull-
winkle,9 George of the Jungle,10 and the more recent Pinky and
the Brain (one of my favorites), also with its own catchy and
silly theme song.11 The cartoonists for these shows wrote for
themselves.12 That’s what made them good and enduring. An
early inspiration for the creators of VeggieTales was the wacky
humor of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Anyone familiar with
the influential British comedy troupe can see the homage giv-
en to the series in several story lines. None of this bothers me.
Christians should be funny, over the top at times, and live on
the creative cutting edge.

Chocolate Bunnies and Rubber Duckies

It’s the telling of the Bible stories that drives me out of my

gourd. Or should I say the retelling of Bible stories? Conserva-
tive Christians demand accurate Bible translations, but they
don’t seem too concerned when the Bible is fictionalized in
order to convey a message not actually found in the biblical
story. Eugene Peterson, author of the contemporary language

Aesop, from the famous Aesop’s Fables

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

translation of the Bible The Message, makes note of the fact

that “the Bible is hard. I don’t think we should compromise the
accuracy of the Bible for ease of reading.”13 The VeggieTellers
are way too liberal in the use of their literary license. Acknowl-
edging that “kids learn more and listen better when lessons
are presented in fun, entertaining ways”14 is one thing, but to
rewrite the Bible and denude it of its true message seems to be
adding to and taking away from God’s Word (Rev. 22:18–19).
For example, instead of King Nebuchadnezzar trying to get
Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego to worship a giant golden
statue, the story is retold as Nebby K. Nezzar as a despotic
manufacturer of chocolate bunnies who forces Shack, Rack,
and Benny to worship a giant chocolate bunny. This is sup-
posed to be more appealing to modern children than the origi-
nal story, and no doubt it is. But this and other stories are not
true to the Bible, not only in content but in purpose.
VeggieTellers present the Bible as a compilation of morality
tales and obscure its redemptive message by presenting moral-
ity as the Bible’s end-message. Many Christians are under the
false assumption that if we just get our children to follow a
certain moral worldview, all will be right with the world. If this
is true, then what is unique about the Christian message? A
moral worldview can be found in diverse literary and religious
traditions, many of which have a great deal in common with
biblical morality: Ancient Egyptian, Roman, Babylonian, Hin-
du, Jewish, Ancient Chinese, Platonic, Aristotelian, Greek, Old
Norse, Australian Aborigines, Anglo-Saxon, and Christian. C.
S. Lewis called this common morality “the Tao” or the Natural
Law.15 The moral lessons of VeggieTales could just have easily
been chosen from these diverse cultures and religious tradi-
tions with the same cuteness, silliness, and profundity. No one
would know the difference. I have a problem, however, with
VeggieTales being sold as “Bible stories.”

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 MeatyTales!
The Bible tells a comprehensive story. Its many elements
cannot be separated from the whole or its many parts. Biblical
stories always include the fall, judgment, redemption, and mo-
rality. Morality, even biblical morality, cannot be taught alone
without degenerating into works righteousness. Why pick a
Bible story to make some moral point when the retelling of the
story misses everything the Bible is trying to communicate? If
the Bible were a compilation of moral stories that could stand
on their own, then there would be no need for the birth, death,
and resurrection of Jesus. This is why VeggieTales stories gen-
erally focus on the Old Testament. Here’s how one writer de-
scribes the emphasis:

Jesus’ narrative is marginal to the series. With

only a few exceptions, it is entirely absent from
every episode. And the exceptions themselves
are telling. The Toy that Saved Christmas is
a Christmas story in the tradition of Merry
Christmas, Charlie Brown, where the gospel is
in the narrative, rather than being the narra-
tive. Jesus’ only prominent role in Are You My

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

Neighbor is the unnamed and invisible source

of the parable of the Good Samaritan—indeed,
there the biblical prooftext is given from Leviti-
cus rather than any of its New Testament cita-
tions. In God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?! Jesus
is only named as the source for the command
to forgive seventy-times-seven times. In every
other respect and in every other episode, Jesus
appears dispensable to the series. Every story is
either an Old Testament retelling or a modern-
day parable, in which the Savior himself never
appears. The Ten Commandments receive well
deserved attention, but rarely in the form that
Jesus offered in his own words and deeds.16

By leaving Jesus out of the picture, VeggieTales are nothing

more than moral stories that are common to numerous cul-
tures. Mike Nawrocki is honest enough to admit, “We’re not
going to tell a story with Jesus in it directly.”17 The VegieTellers
have other problems once they delve into real biblical theology.
“We really wanted to avoid portraying Jesus as a vegetable. We
felt that would be stepping over the line.”18 Good for them. If
turning Jesus into a vegetable is stepping over the line, then how
is it not stepping over the line to portray types and shadows of
Jesus from the Old Testament (e.g., King David) as silly talking
vegetables? The Bible is not against using symbols, types, meta-
phors, and other literary devices to make theological and moral
points, but these are never used to trivialize the message
This raises the issue of trivializing and truncating the Bi-
ble’s message. Studies have shown that most of Christianity’s
converts are teenagers.19 Studies also show that a high percent-
age of these same teenagers walk away from their childhood
faith as they approach adulthood.20

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 MeatyTales!

Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30—both

evangelical and mainline—who went to church
regularly in high school said they quit attending
by age 23, according to the survey by LifeWay
Research. And 34% of those said they had not re-
turned, even sporadically, by age 30. That means
about one in four Protestant young people have
left the church. . . . “Too many youth groups are
holding tanks with pizza. There’s no life trans-
formation taking place,” [Ed] Stetzer [director of
Nashville-based LifeWay Research] says. “People
are looking for a faith that can change them and
to be a part of changing the world.”21

They are hit with arguments against Christianity that they

never had to consider as teenagers since few churches actually
teach on worldview issues and apologetic methodology. Chris-
tianity is perceived to be a religion for children. Children get
the message that the Bible can be treated lightly. High school

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youth groups are run more like secular encounter groups rath-
er than the rigorous study of God’s Word and its real-world
application.22 Although not written specifically about Veggie
Tales, the following comments are appropriate: “It is tragic
that churches have trivialized God by creating a user-friendly
deity who lacks mystery and transcendence.”23
Am I overreacting? You be the judge. How does the follow-
ing story of David and Bathsheba, hardly recognizable as King
George and the Ducky, measure up to the Bible? After Jimmy
and Jerry Gourd unsuccessfully attempt to host the show (com-
plete with cardboard Bob and Larry costumes, and an indepen-
dent film entitled “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and
Came Down With All the Bananas”), Bob the Tomato proceeds
to narrate the story of King George and the Ducky. The kingdom
of King George (played by the always goofy and lisping Larry
the Cucumber in a robe) is off at war (albeit a pie war), but all he
wants to do is take baths with his rubber ducky. One day, while
taking a bath, King George overhears a very familiar squeak.
When he looks out over his balcony, he sees Thomas (Jr. As-
paragus) taking a bath with his ducky, his favorite (and only) toy.
King George becomes insanely selfish, and even though he has a
whole closet-full of perfectly good rubber duckies, he wants that
one. So he sends Thomas to the front lines of the war (“He’ll be
creamed!” he, he), so that he can sleep with—er—steal his faith-
ful subject’s wife—er—ducky. Well, to make a short story, um,
even shorter, the prophet Nathan (Pa Grape) tells King George
a story (with the aid of a beautiful flannel graph) about the rich
man and the poor man with the sheep … you know. Anyway,
King George decides to make things right. Thomas comes home
from the pie wars (without his mind) and King George gives
him a hot bath and his own rubber ducky. Thomas gets his mind
back and his ducky back, and King George promises never to be
selfish again. (Too bad things didn’t work out so well for Uriah

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the Hittite and David in the Bible.) Is this the way you want your
children to learn the Bible?
Sufferin’ Succotash!

Putting aside the issue of whether it’s appropriate to turn Bible

characters into vegetables, the VeggieTales rendition of the in-
spired Bible stories are inaccurate and hopelessly trivial. If my
Bible memory serves me, Uriah the Hittite was killed when
David sent him to the front lines of the war, and Bathsheba
lost her baby that was conceived through her adulterous affair
with David (2 Sam. 11). To tell the stories in any other way is
unbiblical. Children can understand the basics of unfaithful-
ness and murder without resorting to the use of bathtub toys.
Now some VeggieTalers might say that such topics are too
sophisticated for children. Impressionable youngsters should
not be exposed to negative and sometimes embarrassing story
telling. Then I suggest that VeggieTales stick to Silly Songs and
moral lessons and leave the Bible stories alone. The day will
come when they will be mature enough to handle the “meat of
the word.” Teach them the truth about the Bible while they are
young. Fill their little sponge-like brains with Bible stories told
in an engaging but accurate way.
My wife has taught elementary school and first-grade Sun-
day School for years. Among other things, she has them learn
the Ten Commandments. They can understand the seventh
commandment quite well. So much so that they are on the
edge of their seats as she explains what the commandment
means in real-life terms without going into too much detail.
They get it without the aid of duckies or talking vegetables.
The Bible has no problem with its own content. If some of
its parts are embarrassing to explain to our children, then the
problem is with us. At times the Bible does use euphemisms:
“Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to

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Cain” (Gen. 4:1). It’s obvious that the Hebrew word translated
“know” means, in this context, “have sexual relations with”
(cf. 19:5, 8). When Ehud killed the king of Eglon, the king was
in “his roof chamber” behind locked doors “covering his feet”
(Judges 3:24). What does it mean to “cover your feet”? He was,

King David and Bathsheba

as translators render it, “relieving himself.” The fat king was on

the toilet when he was assassinated by Ehud (3:22).
Too many Christians want an edited version of the Bible,
devoid of topics like adultery (Judges 19:22–25), incest (Gen.
19:31–36), rape (Gen. 34:2; Judges 19:22–25), cutting off
thumbs (Judges 1:6–7), cannibalism (2 Kings 6:28), decapita-
tion (2 Sam. 16:9), dismemberment (1 Sam. 15:32–33), gouging
out of eyes (Judges 16:21), hanging (Joshua 10:26–27), human

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 MeatyTales!
sacrifice (2 Kings 3:27), and suicide (Acts 1:18). How should we
explain the graphic sexual allusions in Ezekiel 16, the sexual
symbolism of Hosea, or the erotic overtones of the Song of

Ehud assassinates King Eglon

Solomon?24 When G. Bryant Wright, Senior Pastor of Johnson

Ferry Baptist Church, posted his sermon title “Tough Love in
Dealing with Raunchy Sex” on the church’s outside signboard,
some people objected.25 If you object to the sermon topic, or
even to the public display of the sermon title, then you object
to the Bible. How these are taught certainly takes discretion. I
believe one of the reasons that homosexuality is increasing in
acceptance is because few people want to talk about what ho-
mosexuality really is. The homosexual community knew what
it was doing when it chose “gay” to describe their sexual pre-
dilections. Can you imagine where we would be today on the
issue of homosexual marriage if Christians had simply defined
“homosexual” and did not use the euphemistic “gay”?

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

What about fictional story telling and animating the in-

animate? Is this a problem? Not at all. Rivers and trees are said
to clap their hands (Psalm 98:8; Isa. 55:12). Jesus used parables
as teaching devices. The Old Testament is filled with pictur-
esque and descriptive narratives. Isaiah describes God as “sit-
ting above the vault of the earth” looking down on its inhabit-
ants who look like “grasshoppers” (Isa. 40:22). There’s Jotham’s
parable of the three trees that speak (Judges 9:7–15). Maybe
the people at Big Ideas got their inspiration for Pa Grape from
the vine in the story. Probably not, since the grapes are used to
make wine “which cheers God and men” (9:13), certainly a ta-
boo in fundamentalist circles where VeggieTales are a big hit.

Dave and the Giant Pickle

I need to make one last point. What is the purpose of Bible sto-
ries? They are not included in God’s Word just for teaching mor-
al lessons, although there are moral lessons to be learned. A lot
of biblical story telling misses the redemptive historical content.
Here’s the VeggieTales version of David and Goliath. The show
opens not in the traditional way with Bob and Larry introduc-
ing themselves, but with Larry the Cucumber prancing around
in purple spandex and plungers on his head calling himself Lar-
ryBoy. When Bob asks Larry what he’s doing, Larry replies that
he doesn’t want to be plain old Larry anymore; he wants to be
LarryBoy, a super vegetable who will save the world. Bob then
proceeds to tell Larry the story of Dave, a little guy (Jr. Aspara-
gus again), and how he defeats the Giant Pickle, a big thing (spe-
cial guest appearance by a Giant Pickle). Between tipping sheep
and French (Philistine) peas, and a duet between Dave and King
Saul (Archibald Asparagus), Bob eventually makes the point
that with God’s help, little guys can do big things too! The clos-
ing verse from Qwerty (the talking computer companion and

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 MeatyTales!

named after the first six letters on the top row of a typewriter
keyboard) is “With God, all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).
So, of course, Larry the–oh, um LarryBoy says, “Well, I’ve al-
ways wanted to be a chicken, does that mean God can make me
a chicken?” (Sure, Larry, come and join the staff over here at the
MeatyTales studios, and we’ll fix you right up.) So Bob tells him
no, that it just means that we can do whatever God wants us to
do. A little deep for a four year old, don’t you think?
Is this why God put the story of David and Goliath in the
Bible, to show that with God’s help little guys can do big things?
Not at all. The Bible is about Jesus Christ. No matter where
you point your finger, Jesus speaks through the words and sto-
ries of Scripture (Luke 24:27, 44). After the fall, God made a
promise to Adam and Eve: “And I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel”
(Gen. 3:15). As we read the Bible, God reminds us of this long-
ago promise. We see it when we read how the woman Jael put
a tent peg through the head of Sisera (Judges 4:12–22), when
“a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s
head, crushing his skull” (9:53), and when David lopped off the
head of Goliath (1 Sam. 17:51).
The redemptive promise culminates when the stake of the
cross crushes the head of the serpent at Golgatha, “the place
of the skull” (Matt. 27:33; Mark 15:22; Luke 23:33; John 19:17).
Told this way, the Bible stories are interpreted in their proper
redemptive context. And how do these redemptive stories ap-
ply to us? “And God will soon crush Satan under your feet”
(Rom. 16:20). The story of “Dave and the Giant Pickle” obvi-
ously misses the biblical point, and children are not learning
the Bible as a result.

David beheads Goliath

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 MeatyTales!
Conclusion

If you want to enjoy VeggieTales, stick to Silly Songs and moral

lessons, and leave the telling of Bible stories to someone else. In-
stead of sitting your children down in front of a television screen
to watch VeggieTales, practice telling the stories of the Bible.
Read a good translation, become familiar with the story well
enough that you don’t have to read it, and then dramatize it to
for your young children. Keep these sessions relatively short. No
longer than ten minutes. Stick to the Bible. The goal is for your
children to get familiar with story. The next day, briefly summa-
rize the story of the day before and ask simple factual questions.
As your children mature, the questioning phase will kick in and
they will begin to ask the deeper questions.

Notes
1. The “Meaty Tales” Parody song was written by “Veronica Culpepper.”
2. Phil Vischer, Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God,
and Talking Vegetables (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006). For a
short introduction to the company’s history, see here.
3. Bob Unruh, “VeggieTales too Christian for NBC” (September
22, 2006): www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_
ID=52068
4. Hillary Warren, There’s Never Been a Show Like Veggie Tales: Sacred
Messages in a Secular Market (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2005).
5. For example, Gary DeMar, “Who’s Judging the Judges?,” Biblical
Worldview (May 2002).
6. Quoted in Phil Kloer, “The Veggies Kids Love,” Atlanta Journal-
Constitution (May 18, 2002), B1.
7. Deborah Geering, “Sweet-tooth religion,” Atlanta Journal-Constitu-
tion (August 31, 2002), B1, 5; Gayle White, “W.W.J.D. (What Would
Jesus Display),” Atlanta Journal-Constitution (September 8, 2002),
M1, 4; John B. Murdoch, “Kneel, Santa, Kneel,” Christian Adver-
tising Forum (September-October 1986), 6, 24.

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 Should Talking Vegetables Be Used to Teach the Bible?

8. Stephanie Dunnewind, “Video veggies hit it big,” Seattle Times

(August 5, 2000)
9. The main plot line featured Rocky, the flying squirrel, Bullwinkle,
his devoted moose companion, Mr. Big, the evil midget, and his
Pottsylvanian accomplices, the infamous Boris and Natasha. The
show also included Fractured Fairy Tales, parodies of children’s
fairy tales, Aesop’s Fables, in which a philosopher father teaches his
son the ways of the world, Peabody’s Improbable History, depicting
an intelligent, person-like dog and his “pet boy” Sherman traveling
through history, and Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, the adven-
tures of a Canadian Mountie, trying to catch the bad guy, the evil
Snidely Whiplash. The show ran from the fall of 1959 through 1973.
10. George of the Jungle: http://yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/
saturday/sa1060.php
11. Pinky and the Brain: http://members.cruzio.com/~keeper/
P0.html#1 and http://duryea.org/pinky/
12. One of the creators of Rocky and Bullwinkle says as much: Jay Ward
“knew what he liked (and how to promote it), and what he liked
was wildly offbeat and pointedly satirical. It also was never sala-
cious; after all, although they wrote Rocky to amuse themselves, the
writers knew that the children were watching too. In short, as Ward
was fond of repeating, the scripts had to be Jay rated” (Louis Chu-
novic, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book [New York: Bantam Books,
1996], 40). As a child, Ward acted in several films in the 1940s. In
his first film, he plays John Schofield who is shown in the opening
scenes of the film Edison: The Man (1940), starring Spencer Tracy,
interviewing the elderly Edison “on the night of the celebration in
1929 of the fiftieth anniversary of his invention of the electric lamp.”
(Bosley Crowther, a review of “Edison, The Man (1940),” The New
York Times [June 7, 1940]).
13. Quoted in a review with Doug LeBlanc, “‘I Didn’t Want to be Cute,’”
Christianity Today (October 7, 2002), 107.
14. Annette Bourland, editor of Clubhouse Jr. magazine, quoted in
Susan Goodwin Graham, “Learn to Discern with help from a few
frogs,” Focus on the Family (October 2002), 3.
15. C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man or Reflections on Education with
Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of

27
 MeatyTales!
Schools (New York: The Macmillan Co., [1947] 1965). Lewis uses
“the Tao” as a shorthand term for Natural Law, the law of fair play,
the rule of decent behavior, virtue, and the moral law, moral pre-
cepts that are common to many cultures: The Laws of General and
Special Beneficence, Duties to Parents, Elders, Ancestors, Children
and Posterity, the Law of Justice, the Law of Good faith and Veracity,
the Law of Mercy, The Law of Magnanimity, et al.
16. “Veggie Ethics: What ‘America’s Favorite Vegetables’ Say About
Evangelicalism,” Theology Today, 2000: http://www.westmont.
edu/~work/articles/veggie.html
17. Quoted in Phil Kloer, “The Veggies Kids Love,” Atlanta Journal-
Constitution (May 18, 2002), B2.
18. Quoted in Kloer, “The Veggies Kids Love,” B2.
19. Larry Poston, “The Adult Gospel,” Christianity Today (August 20,
1990).
20. Ken Ham and Britt Beemer, Already Gone: Why Your Kids Will
Quit Church and What You Can Do To Stop It (Green Forest, AR:
Master Books, 2009).
21. Cathy Lynn Grossman, “Young adults aren’t sticking with church,”
USA TODAY (August 6, 2007), 6D.
22. Cathy Mickels and Audrey McKeever, Spiritual Junk Food: The
Dumbing Down of Christian Youth (Mukilteo, WA: Winepress Pub-
lishing, 1999).
23. Brent Muirhead, “Growth Movement is Flawed,” Letters, Atlanta
Journal-Constitution (September 26, 2002), 10A.
24. Brian Godawa, “Sex, Violence & Profanity in the Bible,” Holly-
wood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 188–208.
25. Gayle White, “Church sign too, uh, explicit for some,” Atlanta
Journal-Constitution (September 28, 2002), B1–2.

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