My kid watched some VeggieTales and we aren’t even Christian. It was at worst a 6/10 show as kid’s cartoons go. Had some fairly high quality gags.
The first film is excellent.
Y’all are dissing the barbie movies without stopping to mention that the books are very good Christian literature. Isn’t that a form of media? And i mean very good in the sense of good children’s literature, although they are also pretty good at preaching a Christian message.
I liked veggie tales enough that i watched several of them with my kids, despite not being Christian. I found it fascinating how they stripped the racism and genocide from the book of Esther.
I’ve definitely heard versions of that regarding the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and the “Ramona” series too.
Really?
Holy crap animated gifs in links embed.
Okay, that’s one of the funniest swypos I’ve made. 
I intended to say Narnia books, if that wasn’t clear.
Barbie or no 
, The Chronicles of Narnia are kind of like what has been said earlier in this thread, Christian literature that doesn’t call itself “Christian literature”. Those that use Christian as a descriptor tend to be the cheesy crud. However there are plenty of media with strong Christian themes (a number of songs by U2 or Sufjan Stevens or Chance the Rapper for instance) which aren’t consider the same thing as “Christian music”.
Fred Clarke of the Slacktivist blog has a bit where he talks about how restricted “Christian Bookstores” are
" “LifeWay Christian Bookstore, how may I help you?”
“Hi, I’m looking for a Christian book.”
“Well, you’ve called the right place. What’s the title? I’ll see if I can find it for you.”
“It’s called The Brothers Karamazov .”
“ The Brothers …?”
“Karamazov. With a ‘K.’ It’s by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.”"
The point being that The Brothers K is a book steeped in Christian themes, but doesn’t fit into the narrow range of books permitted in a Christian bookstore.
Yep. And they take out most any sort of conflict or anything that makes things interesting, which seems to be a feature of that particular strain of Christianity. I mean, Christian rock could make some pretty interesting songs, if they were willing to reflect the struggles that drive true redemption, but they always take the lighter, sunnier “Everything’s awesome, because I love Jesus” tack.
Which seems to be a reinforcement of the whole sunny Christian thing; how often have you met avowed evangelicals or other overtly religious sorts who aren’t relentlessly and saccharinely sweet and sunny? As in, saying anything negative or not super-positive is unholy? I know it’s the default around here, and it’s weird as hell. I think the music is a way to reinforce that in a singing-to-the-choir sort of way.
And I think the children’s media is just an early manifestation of that.
Always? You just haven’t been listening to the right Christian rock.
I mean, you can make the argument that since U2 is a band composed of avowed Christians, that any of their music that references Christian themes is “Christian Rock”, but I’m talking more about explicit Christian Rock bands where their Christianity is part of their marketing. It seems mostly through reading in that thread, that there are a whole lot of the former making some really thought provoking emotionally charged songs, but not very many of the latter.
No, that thread included plenty of examples of the kind of artists who released albums on Christian labels that were sold in Christian stores.
Veggie Tales is kind of the apotheosis of Christian children’s programming. It’s always brought up as an example on threads like these because it’s the only Christian cartoon that had anything like crossover appeal.
Here’s a sample of some really bad Christian cartoons.
There’s a type of children’s video that I call a granny-bamboozler: Lil Jimmy asks Grandma for a popular kid’s movie, say Pixar’s Cars. Grandma notices something that looks a lot like Cars (A Car’s Life, etc.), but made with less budget than the short film that precedes Cars, at the dollar store and buys it for Jimmy, not seeing the difference. They’re both cartoons about cars, so Jimmy will like both of them the same, right?
Similarly, Christian kidvid is marketed to parents and grandparents and the main selling point isn’t the quality, it’s the Christianity and any lack of controversy. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Grade-Z Veggie Tales knockoff out there that producers claim is more whole wholesome and pious than Veggie Tales, with none of those irreverent jokes!
The irony is that the Bible itself never shied away from violence or controversy. The Old Testament, especially, is chock-full of genocide, homicide, etc. And kids are encouraged to read the Bible. Yet somehow these same kids apparently can only be provided with the blandest of entertainment media to watch. (Unless it’s The Passion of the Christ.)
And some bad Christian children’s movies:
Top 6 Worst Religious Animated Movies - YouTube
Norman disagrees with you.
So does Rolling Stone Magazine’s who placed it #333 spot in 500 Greatest Songs of All Time .
That’s because the parents who are doing the encouraging don’t realize that all that stuff is in there, because most of them have never read it, aside from the same dozen stories that come up repeatedly in their pastors’ sermons.
Norman Greenbaum is, and always has been, an observant Jew. BTW, Spirit in the Sky would never be played on a Christian radio station.
Lest anyone think that there are only a small handful of Christian children’s shows that are bad, here are 22 shows for Christian tykes that shouldn’t be watched without a bottle of tequila by your side:
22 INSANE Christian Shows FOR KIDS! - YouTube