The Burr in the Burgh

If you aren't aware, Veggie Tales are popular cartoons that re-tell Bible stories with all the characters represented as talking vegetables. The quality of the animation and humor is pretty good and they have a stong moral emphasis.

Rev. Paul McCain, over at Cyberbrethren brought the product pictured above to our attention recently.

I have two points I'd like to make. The first one having to do with the Veggie Tales Nativity scene here. And the second point regards Veggie Tales in general.

First, this nativity scene is very cute, I admit. I'm sure they'll sell a bunch of them. And sometimes I really get tired of being a curmudgeon. But this is just too goofy folks. We are talking about turning the Almighty Son of God, the eternal Creator of all things, into a carrot. Would you think it disrespectful of God if we made a cartoon of the life of Jesus and represented our Lord as a radish? Or maybe the cartoons would use animals instead. Would you think it appropriate to have a nativity scene with a puppy in the manger? Or maybe Jesus as a frog nailed to the cross. What's next? A Mr. Potatoehead Holy Ghost?

Why is it that we equate cute with harmless? This Veggie Tales scene is cute, but not harmless. I have no doubt that the real baby Jesus was adorable. Aren't all babies? Well, almost, right? But the shepherds came to worship him. The scene of Christ's birth should be more than just sweet and cute. It should inspire awe and reverance and holy fear. Thanks Veggie Tales for undermining the birth of the Savior.

And secondly, on Veggie Tales in general. I have a son who is now 10 years old. When he was little, we bought and played Veggie Tales videos for him. And some of my orthodox confreres might want to poison my beer after I say this, but in a way I kinda like them. I have absolutely nothing against moralizing to children. We should moralize to our children. Only negligent irresponsible parents fail to moralize to their children.

HOWEVER, I'm still not thrilled with portraying the great biblical saints as produce. Please do not honor me (not that I'm in the ranking with the biblical saints) by painting me as a turnip. But my chief concern with Veggie Tales is the moralizing. Now, I know what I just wrote above. I'm not contradicting myself. I am in favor of moralizing, I just don't think that is the chief purpose of the Holy Scriptures. When we tell the story of God, the point is not "be moral" or "be good" and certainly not "be nice." The point of the plot of the bible is Jesus Christ, Savior of sinners. If that is not the point of telling the bible story, then you have not spoken the Word of God, no matter where you got your script.

If you want to moralize your children - and you should - use Aesop's fables. There's a lot of good natural law morality there. Or use the Bible, but if you use the Bible and fail to end with the cross, you may as well stick with Aesop.

And by the way, Veggie Tales, a tomato is a fruit.

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Hey all,
I just noticed that I've been given two very prestigious blogging pats on the back.

First, I was notified that one of my recent posts received the Golden Aardvark Aaward by Aardvark Alley.

And then I saw that I've been named the very first Lutheran Blog of the week.

First of all - and I'll keep this short maestro - I'd like to thank all my fans. It's all for you!!! And I want to thank my wife who puts up with a lot of *&$#@ from me, I'm sad to say. And finally, I'd like to thank myself because I couldn't have done it without me.

You may now all address me as Excellency please.

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My darling niece in Colorado sent us a Halloween e-mail with a pretty creepy vid attachment. I've found it on the net and link to it. I don't believe in ghosts and I'll maybe explain that in a future post. But I do believe in evil spirits who may very well masquerade as spirits of the dead to deceive us.

Well anyway, some car company was making a commercial and caught something really bizarre on their film. Watch closely as the car winds down the road for a faint misty figure. As the car pulls out from behind a grove of trees, an odd mist figure appears to be following the car. Is it only a natural mist or something supernatural? I'll let you decide.

And make sure your sound is turned on because you can faintly hear the cameraman muttering about the phenomena.

Here's the link.

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So a FoxNews story reports that more Americans believe in the existence of heaven than hell. Why does this not surprise me? Here's the question I'd like to hear answered. Of those Americans who believe in the existence of hell, how many of them think the chances are high that they'll go there?

I'm not a bible-thumping, asp-wielding, tent-revivaling, hellfire & brimstone preacher. But I do believe in the existence of hell. And so did Jesus. Read the Gospels. No one in the whole Bible talks more about hell and damnation that Jesus Christ. In fact, most of what we know about hell comes from the lips of the Savior.

I'm on a Christian radio talk show every Sunday night from 9-11 p.m. here in Pittsburgh. And last night, we had a caller who argued the case that Jesus was uber-tolerant and would never hurt a flea. And I told the woman, Gabrielle (ironically), that it was very evident that she had not actually read the recorded accounts of the life of Jesus. Her understanding of Jesus is like the one I described in this earlier post. The hippy peacenik Jesus, a little high on weed. "They call me mellow yellow." The Greenpeace Vegan Jesus. The Precious Moments figurine, a.k.a. the child of god(dess). Gabby, the caller, doesn't want Jesus. She wants Phil Donahue.

I'm not glad there is a hell. But there is. And it is foolish to believe - counter to the very words of Jesus Christ - that no one goes there. The preacher who never talks about hell is incompetent and should be challenged. I don't mention hell often and I don't like mentioning it when I do. Sometimes I do not enjoy preaching God's Word. But it is His Word I am called to deliver. Not my own. Not what my congregation would like to hear.

I'll wager that most people in America think, if there is a heaven, that they'll go there. Sadly, I doubt that very much. Jesus is not vague in Matthew 7 when He says that the gate to heaven is narrow and few will find it while the gate to destruction is wide and many are on their way.

And that's one reason why I have very mixed feelings about Halloween. My son will go begging for candy like all his neighbors tonight. And I will stand at the door giving Butterfingers to the little princesses, and Scream guys, and imps, and the teenager wearing the white t-shirt that simply says "Official Halloween Costume" on the front. But anything that makes light of the devil or hell is dangerous in my opinion. I wouldn't make jokes about cancer to a woman about to die with tumors pillaging her body. And I don't think we should laugh at devildom when the majority of human beings are going to be damned.

In any case, that's why we preach the gospel, right?

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Note the new poll down the right side of the blog.

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Last year, I recall reading about a school district in Washington state which was banning the celebration of Halloween. If you think this was done to appease some Christian fundies, you'd be wrong. The fact is, the decision was made because Halloween depictions of witches were offensive to . . . witches. The Wiccans complained. This year, the same thing is happening in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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As many of you know, my wife, Julie, has written a number of children's books. She has several more in the works now. But I thought I'd bring these holiday books to your attention since we are entering that time of year. Note especially the Saint Nicholas book. St. Nick day is Dec 6.

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Thanks to Wendy at Tales from the Dorkside for bringing this to our attention. The editors at Time magazine have compiled a list of what they consider the 100 greatest English language novels from 1923 to the present. Here is the whole list.

These are the ones I've read. What about you?

• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I number 15. Should be more, I suppose, but I can't help thinking of all the great books not on their list too.

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Thanks to Beggars All for bringing this to our attention. There is a new trailer out for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie. Go here. The book has long meant a lot to me. So I'm on pins and needles waiting for the movie. If it is well-made and sticks to the text, this could be a very useful tool for the Church.

First, because it is a ripping story. Full of strange creatures, an evil witch, mighty wonders and bloody battles.

Second, because it conveys Christian truth expertly in the narrative:

• Sin. The character of Edward illustrates the hold that sin has on our nature. It is like an addiction. It's a hunger, a desire, a passion, lust, envy, greed, pride, idolatry. It's all the same. Sin is being curved in on oneself. Sin is - at its core - looking for fulfillment in anyone or anything other than God through Christ.
• The Devil. Satan has control over the world, but not complete control. Ultimately, he is still God's devil. And God is supreme. Yet, under the devil's sway, all of creation is cast into a winter-never-Christmas. All color is gone. Life no longer blooms. Warmth is a memory.
• Substitutionary Atonement. The one eternal Son of God submits to the law and is cruelly murdered in place of the sinner. His death releases the sinner from his bondage forever.
• Resurrection. There is nothing at all remarkable about the resurrection of God's Son. What else would "The Life" do but live. The remarkable thing is that He died in the first place.
  
• Christus Victor. The Lord will crush the serpent's head. The witch and her followers will be damned.

Others who've written about C.S. Lewis and Christian theology in The Chronicles of Narnia can expound on this much further and much better. But all of what I've mentioned is clearly portrayed in the narrative of the upcoming film (assuming it remains faithful ot the book).

And that is why I believe this film has the potential for being a much better tool for Christian evangelism than Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ. Gibson showed. This tells. And I think telling is better than showing alone.

Gibson showed us the crucifixion, but never explained its meaning. Image has value. But without explanation, the image alone can easily mislead. Luther complained that people meditate on the passion of the Christ and either feel sorry for Jesus or get mad at the Jews, neither of which were the intent of his suffering and death.

I admire Lewis's accomplishments. Hopefully this film will help us tell about Christ to a generation who simply don't know anything, though they think they know enough.

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People are complaining that there are no black players on the Houston Astros's lineup. See here. Apparently, this is the first time this has been the case for a World Series team in fifty years. Now I could understand the complaint if someone were alleging that qualified black players were being discriminated against and kept off the team on the basis of their race. That would be terrible.

But, as yet, no one has made that allegation. Even those who are complaining about the situation state that the cause is that the majority of black athletes are going into other sports, such as basketball and football.

The Astros general manager said,"I think it's a huge, huge problem for baseball." I'm just not seeing the point. Why is this a problem if we're not talking about discrimination? Are black athletes bad people for choosing other sports to pursue? There aren't a lot of African Americans playing professional hockey either. So what? How many Asian-Americans play football? What's the problem?

Baseball is a fine sport and an American tradition. And I'd be delighted to see plenty of talented African American players on every team. But are there not enough legitimate reasons for outrage in this world that we have to get stirred up over this?

HT: Bunnie Diehl

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A terrific treat. My wife wrote a brief review here. And a film geek friend wrote this review. Check them out.

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As a Pittsburgher, this article concerned me very much. Particularly the bit about FUMA's incompetence. FUMA = Federal Undead Management Agency.

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This is something I've been meaning to do for a while. There are millions of blogs out there. Many of them quite good. It's just not possible to put every worthwhile blog on one's blogroll. I do try to promote my fellow LCMS (Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod) bloggers. But tonight I added a new category. Simply Blogs of Interest. They are mostly religious in nature, but not necessarily. I don't necessarily endorse or agree with every single thing they write. But I do read them on a regular basis and encourage you to check them out.

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Blog carnivals are great ways to discover new and interesting blogs. Go see this week's Lutheran Blog Carnival hosted by Be Strong in the Grace.

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Antonio was in kindergarten at Baldwinsville Elementary School in New York. Antonio was assigned to draw a picture about saving the environment. Antonia created a poster of people holding hands around the world with recycle bins, etc. And along the edge was an unidentified bearded man reaching his arms toward the earth. Antonio acknowledged that the bearded man represents Jesus. The school did allow Antonio's picture to be displayed with all the others but someone first folded down the side that had the Jesus figure so he couldn't be seen. None of the other posters were censored in any way. And Antonio's parents have been fighting this in court since 1999. Here is the news release.

Am I bonkers or is this just getting out of hand? IN WHAT SENSE does a five-year-old's drawing of Jesus break the law? The Constitution simply says that Congress shall not establish an official religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof. It says nothing about children drawing pictures of Jesus. Simply allowing a child to express his beliefs does not mean the state is imposing a religion on anyone else. Let the Jews draw Moses. Let the Muslims draw Mohammed. Let the Mormons draw Joseph Smith. Let the Jedis draw Yoda. Good grief! Before you know it, they'll be telling us we can't say "under God" in the pledge of allegiance or something.

Hat tip: Lost Budgie Blog

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Someone I know has in his e-mail signature this quip: I like cats. . . they taste just like chicken.

Some people are dog people and others are cat people. I must be a pet hermaphrodite because I own some of each. Actually I think I'm just compensating. I don't like dogs so much as I like wolves and dogs are the closest I can get. And I don't like cats so much as I like lions. You get the idea.

A few days ago, I posted a link to a funny vid of kitty cats doing wild and crazy things. So a friend sent me this link. It's about some German inventor who claims he's found a way to make cheap diesel fuel out of dead cats. My friend is yanking my chain.

But if the bizarre story is true. I don't have a problem with using cat carcasses for fuel. Set up a system so all the pets that are euthanized by veterinarians every day get picked up and shipped to the conversion station where the cheap diesel fuel is produced. Why not?

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Have you ever noticed that many cultists like to use the Christian bible to try to prove their errant positions? The Mormons, for instance, quote the King James Bible to you in your living room while you politely offer them coffee, tea or Pepsi.

In the second century, St. Irenaeus wrote against the gnostic heretics. And he too noticed that false teachers love to throw out bible proof texts. A couple of centuries later, the Arians were tying to make the bible say things it doesn't say. This is a common thing.

St. Irenaeus used this illustration. He said to imagine a large and beautiful mosaic of a king made from many gems and stones and precious metals. Now imagine that some rascal sneaks along and craftily re-arranges the tiles into something new, a picture of a mangey dog. All the pieces were the same. They'd just been misused and put out of order.

That is what the heretics do with God's Word. They use faulty or idiosyncratic translations. They quote half a verse. They pull things from context. They misapply and mislead. Anyone could quote the bible to justify nearly anything. In order to understand the Bible, there are rules of interpretation that must be followed. And chief among them is that no reading shall counter the analogy of faith, the kerygma. In other words, the Bible must be understood in light of the Gospel. I firmly support sola scriptura. But that does not change the fact that we have a fundamental understanding of the faith handed down from the preaching of the apostles, encapsulated in the historic creeds, and confessed through the ages. By this approach, no reading of scripture may contradict the analogy of faith.

And that was the point of St. Irenaeus. You can twist the bits and pieces all you like, but without the grand design, you won't see the picture correctly.

All of this came to mind when I discovered a trend in the blogosphere. Somehow people are creating new movie trailers for old movies and doing so in a way that completely changes your impression of the film. They use only footage from the film but arrange it in a new manner so that it appears to be something it is not.

Here is Alfred Hitchcock's famous thriller Psycho presented as a tender love story.

Here is the syrupy love story Titanic presented as a horror movie.

And here is the nightmarish Stanley Kubrick flick, Shining, presented as a warm-hearted family dramady.

Further info here.

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As almost everyone in the English-speaking world knows by now, C.S. Lewis's classic The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is being adapted into a feature film, due out this December. Naturally, one is concerned that Disney not mess it up. Why would anyone think that? Because of how they almost always mess up fairy tales and folklore with their sappy and often soul-less renditions. Turning Pocahontas from a devoted Christian into a tree-hugging new ager is a key example. However, the initial reports from those who've seen major bits of the film are that the Christian doctrine contained in the story has not been removed, watered-down or ruined by the Disney Imagineers.

While most Christians who are familiar with the book are delighted (if mildly skeptical) that it is being launched on the silver screen, not everyone is pleased. Writer Philip Pullman claims that C.S. Lewis's fanatasy classic lacks any evidence of - get this - love. I suppose giving one's life for the salvation of all doesn't count as love. Jesus said, "There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Let me see here. Pullman or Jesus? Jesus or Pullman? Which one is right about this whole definition of love thing?

Philip Pullman is an outspoken atheist whose own fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, portrays the Christian Church as evil and God as a demented fraud. It seems that he is like many contemporary folk who equate love with being nice. And since Aslan is not always nice, he is not loving enough for Pullman. The books says that Aslan is not a tame lion. And I would say that God is not a tame God. He is dangerous. He is merciful, but He is also severe.

I love the Narnia books precisely because they portray Christ as spiritually muscular. He is very compassionate, but never weak. And He will do anything it takes to save us, even if that means he has to hurt us (or kill us) to do it.

What Pullman wants is not the Jesus of the Scriptures, the Jesus of authentic Christianity, but a vegan hippie Jesus who is in touch with his inner puppy. A live-and-let-live Jesus. A Timothy Leary Jesus. A flower power Jesus who exfoliates with his loofah in between group hugs.

Pullman is not alone in this. Many folks today are turned off by the blood, sweat and tears of Biblical Christianity (not that you actually find much of this anymore). What they really seek is nice-ianity. And when true religion does not match their poppy-induced caricature, they say the church is wrong.


UPDATE: I've written a new article discussing the controversy over "The Golden Compass" movie. Go here. It will take you to a link where you can download my article.

Hat tip to Jottings and Such

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Right.

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