Ow, my toe.

[Jezehbelle]

So, a majority of my family is Christian, and I have no real beef with that, other than my mom going to the same excessively controlling, manipulative and dark church we did when we were kids, but I've mostly gotten over that.

Anywho, I watch my sister's kids during the day. Yeah. Nanny. 12-14 hours a day (and this is why I haven't been on), since summer started (woo!). I love these kids -- I've been with these kids like this (pretty much) for the last three years (as in, taught one how to walk, two of them how to talk, two how to use a toilet, three how to ride a bike, and now, I'm teaching two of them how to read x __x;; ).

When they have Wednesday night kids night at church, I get them ready, do their memory verses with them and so on.

And you know, I do like VeggieTales. Yeah, whatever, but there's some good stories in there and they're mostly funny. (I kinda personally like it when the younger two start talking about how something in the story wasn't fair, like the Wailing Wall story.)
We were watching Sumo of the Opera last night, and they had a short about St Patrick. It was funny up until he was sold as a slave and moved to Ireland and they started talking about the Druids and Paganism.

That Pagans don't worship any gods, essentially, and that instead they worship things like a twig and pond scum.
"Oh mighty pond scum. You are so mighty and scummy."

As a pantheist... I kinda got a little offended. I didn't make a scene, and I didn't really try to explain it to them, since they're 4 and 5, I don't think they'd get it when I told them that VeggieTales was a propaganda hate machine. xp


I know, it's VeggieTales. But still. If it were true, I don't think it would've irritated me, buuut...
Ow my toe. ):

Do any of you worship pond scum? Or a twig? Not a tree, a twig.
Do you guys get a little offended about stuff like this, or do you never hear it? OR do you hear it, but it totally doesn't matter to you?

Or veggietales.  

[Azana Brown]

Honestly, they're explaining from a very right-wing bias in potentially the only way a little kid would get it. If they were to go into a full-on lecture about it, with no points of comedy, the children would quickly lose interest. Most VeggieTales things I really, really don't like, but there was one I was forced to watch. It didn't have much of any Christian reference, like the Bible, etc., but taught a really good lesson about rumors. I think as long as they don't misinform (like they obviously did here), I'm okay with it. It's not entirely up to them, though. People should educate kids that that message was simply to be funny and wasn't the honest truth of it.

It's annoying when people so grossly misunderstand things like this, but I can't single-handedly correct all of them, and many of them wouldn't listen anyway. I hear it now and then, especially when I wear my ankh. People either confuse it for a cross or think I'm a goth (despite the fact that nothing else I wear is goth) or a big fan of Sandman (you have no idea how much I hear about Death wearing it).

No worshipping of twigs and pond scum here, but I do recognize the presence of god/s in nature.  

[Starlock]

The writers may so unaware that they probably don't even realize that what they're saying could be construed as offensive. Their example deliberately makes the system sound stupid to the average person, but in some ways, I'm amused by that. It takes someone of serious character to honor ALL things... and I mean ALL things, ALL the things of Nature. To say that Pagans don't worship Gods though is downright incorrect; it is that the Divine is withthin all things!

Even if they are aware, it's lost on the audience. The implications, though, are a bit irritating. You know something is a culturally embedded prejudice when it shows up even in a kid's show. That makes me sad.