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Veggie Tales?

When I first deconverted/became atheist, I removed every veggie tales video, kids bible storybook, etc. from the house. For Easter last week (which my son and I celebrated by going to the swimming pool all day long) my mom dropped by with a basket of some plastic eggs and a Veggie Tales video. It's "King George & the Ducky" which is based off the story of David & Bathsheba sanitized and made cute. My son remembers Bob & Larry from my own Christian days and he loves the show. He's watched the video a couple of times now.

After a lot of nail biting, I think I'm just going to not comment. He also loves Dora, Winnie the Pooh, Little Einsteins, etc. If I don't present Veggie Tales as any different, he probably won't believe it anymore, right? Or if I should comment, what do I say? My son is 3. I "got saved" at his age. I don't want that happening to him, but I don't want to be over protecting him from religious influences (like I was protected from secular ones).

How do you handle issues like this?

Tags: grandparents, reality, salvation, tales, veggie

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sarah on April 24, 2009 at 7:48am

I avoided the Veggie Tales with my kids, but I'm not sure I would do it again now. My girls are actually still young enough to watch them, but we don't watch much t.v. anymore, so there's no point in buying or renting them. My son, on the other hand, probably should have seen them when he was younger because he was exposed to virtually no religious culture. Now he doesn't know the basic bible stories, nor does he care to. At least with the girls, we listen to a podcast with many different stories and included in those are bible stories. I think you are right, if Veggie Tales is just another show he sees, it's not going to make a huge impact on him.

Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on April 25, 2009 at 7:57am

He's definitely going to be at least a little exposed. I remember the day he came home from private preschool with a coloring sheet "J is for Jesus". I just used it as a teachable moment. "Some people believe in a god who had a son named Jesus. Mommy doesn't believe in a god. Mommy is an atheist." I usually follow this up with "You can decide what you believe."

Permalink Reply by Ute Mitchell on April 24, 2009 at 8:15am

I think, we as atheists tend to get a bit too worried about what to keep away from our children. The truth is, we don't want to keep everything religion away from them. In order to give them a well rounded education we need to show and teach them about religion. How will they ever be able to understand, what's going on in the world, when anything religious has been kept away.
Also, once your child is a teenager he'll find religion a very tempting idea, being that you kept him away from it, and avoided anything that has to do with religion. You know?

My kids are 8 and 6 now, and they have a very clear understanding about what is fact an fiction. We homeschool, and in our history curriculum it's all about religion these days. Why? Because religion was so predominant then and has shaped the world into what it is today. My daughter knows what's going on in church, she has read several bible stories, and she has zero interest in becoming a Christian. ;)
We have also read about Buddhism and Islam. She finds it fascinating to learn about the different religions, their gods, their rules. Why can a Catholic priest not get married? Why are women not allowed in a mosque at certain times of the month? Why, if Buddha is not a supreme being, do people worship him?

I would not worry about a little show, that he truly enjoys. At this point he doesn't quite understand the concept of religion anyway. And when he does start asking questions, you can educate him. :)

Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on April 25, 2009 at 7:59am

I hope to be a fly on the wall the first time my niece (same age as my son) tries to "lead him to Christ". I'm sure it will happen someday, because she's being raised evangelical and he's not. I just hope he's got enough critical thinking under his belt by then not to buy it. My parents never told me about Santa so when neighborhood kids did, I thought they were credulous idiots lol.

Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on April 25, 2009 at 8:00am

My mom did at least ask *which* VT video of the four she had purchased she could give to him. I opted out of the non-Biblical story ones that are just "GOd LOoooooves you!" and picked the silliest one.

Permalink Reply by Laura on April 24, 2009 at 9:50am

I was still religious when pregnant, so I bought a bunch of them. Really, they twist the Bible stories so much that they are almost barely recognizable half the time. I let my 2-year old daughter to continue to watch them because they are far less annoying than Dora (so of course it is Dora she wants to watch 24/7, haha). The ones we have anyways don't ever say anything at all about getting saved. When she is a little older, we'll talk about how they are just pretend, but as they are so cartoonish, I doubt it will be too much of a problem. We live in the South and she goes to Sunday school and church when she is with her dad, so I am much more worried about that than I am a bunch of little vegetables talking about God in between throwing slushies and chocolate bunnies.

Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on April 25, 2009 at 8:00am

Good points. They are quite sanitized versions of the bible stories.

Dora drives me nuts!

Permalink Reply by Brenda on April 24, 2009 at 10:34am

Our kids never got into vege tales. They were into Thomas the Tank for a long time. I heard that there is some relgious background to that show, but I could never pick up on it. The kids are past it now and are all about Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I personally enjoy Max & Ruby and Charlie & Lola, but I never get to pick the show anymore :(

Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on April 25, 2009 at 8:01am

Haha, I don't pick the show either. He's far more interested in My Friends Tigger & Pooh for the most part, so hopefully this just falls by the wayside.

Permalink Reply by Dawn K on April 26, 2009 at 10:58am

The original author was a pastor. It's an interesting story how they came about. His son was sick with the measles and the father made up the first Thomas stories to keep him entertained. I never saw anything remotely religious in the shows either.

I really dislike Ruby and Max. My son watched that this morning on my lap and Ruby just annoys the heck out of me. Where exactly are the parents anyway?

Permalink Reply by Sarah on April 26, 2009 at 4:32pm

Ditto Dawn. Ruby is so bossy. I don't enjoy that show at all. I do love Charlie and Lola though and we watch that a lot.

Permalink Reply by Dawn K on April 24, 2009 at 1:05pm

Since you have it I wouldn't worry about it. Most likely he'll outgrow it or turn to some other program before too long. I personally have avoided Veggie Tales partly because of the religion but more because I just find them obnoxious. You've said before that you are compiling a book of myths and bible stories right along with them, I think you are right in putting veggie tales in the same light as your book of myths.

At this point all of his TV friends are equally real. Probably during the next couple of years you can start teaching him that most of what he sees on TV is just pretend. I took this route with my now 5yo, around 3 1/2 - 4 ish and now he frequently asks me if something is real or just made up.