Which would be great if that's all that we'd learned about "Veggie Tales" this week...
Unfortunately, "Veggie Tales" co-creator Phil Vischer had to start talking about LGBTQ-inclusive cartoons. He was recently interviewed by The Christian Post about cartoons, same-sex relationships, and LGBTQ issues. And he's basically against such stories, including the gay parenting episode of "Doc McStuffins" or the same-sex wedding episode of "Arthur":
“Parents are definitely going to have to deal with a growing LGBT presence in children’s media,” Vischer told The Christian Post. “It’s going to show up more and more as the world has decided that LGBT issues are in the same categories as race and civil rights issues. So to say you shouldn’t have a same-sex couple on 'Sesame Street' is the equivalent of saying you shouldn’t have a black couple on 'Sesame Street...'
“The most striking thing about that episode of Arthur wasn’t that they thought it was time to introduce kids to gay marriage; it was the reaction of all the kids on the show,” he said. “None of them asked questions about why two men were getting married. Their reaction was, ‘Oh, OK! Great!’ It’s such a strong message of, well kids, of course you’re fine with gay marriage, because there’s nothing to question about it,” Vischer continued. “That’s a little more concerning.”Long-time readers of this blog know that I'm a married gay dad. Husband Mark and I have been together since the mid-90s and have been parents since 2000. Our two boys participated even got to participate in our second (legal) wedding back in 2010. One thing that we experienced almost universally is that kids have been pretty much nonplussed about same-sex marriages and relationships over the past two decades.
Vischer went on to grudgingly accept that Christian media will soon be "forced" to address LGBTQ issues from a (non-progressive) Christian perspective:
“I think it will have to be addressed at some point; I do think it's a matter of time,” he said. “But right now, I think it would be difficult for a couple of reasons. First: the nuance of how to treat LGBT issues isn’t agreed upon within the Church; and secondly, some parents may want to have that talk with their kids. It’s tricky because it’s so divisive. It would be hard to do it in a way that works and matches everyone's expectations.” “It would be easy to do it poorly,” he insisted. “It’s still so controversial; I'm not sure what I would add that would be helpful enough in the conversation that it’s worth the number of people I could offend.”Once again, I just drove my youngest son to his first year of college yesterday. It's so weird that people still believe that my family and others like it are "controversial." To me, it's completely old news and it has been for decades.
But suffice it to say, Vischer managed to take his entertaining non-denominational media brand and completely transform itself into yet another non-affirming Christian message.
Chances are that I won't have many opportunities to watch any "Veggie Tales" stories in the future. But I promise you this: I will watch the show if they ever do their take of Sodom & Gomorrah. And I'll write it about it here on this blog!