Gettys Promoting Founder of Veggie Tales

Phil Vischer

One of the speakers scheduled for Keith and Kristyn Getty’s Sing! Worship Conference 2020 is Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales. The announcement promises “three days of deep theology, timeless artistry and rich congregational worship,” but there is no deep theology in VeggieTales. From its inception, it was a dangerous bridge to the world, creating in children a taste for every type of worldly music. The VeggieTale movie Jonah featured “Jump, Jive an’ Wail” by secular rocker Brian Setzer of the Stray Cats. Following are the lyrics: “Baby, baby it looks like it’s gonna hail ... You better come inside Let me teach you how to jive and wail ... Papa’s in the icebox lookin’ for a can of ale ... Mama’s in the backyard learning how to jive and wail.” Vischer says that laughter is a key to teaching. So why didn’t Jesus, the Master Teacher, make people laugh while He taught them spiritual truths? We believe the ultra silly VeggieTales approach to teaching spiritual truths CHEAPENS the things of God. It brings eternal truth down to the level of worldly cartoons. The Bible says that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child” (Proverbs 22:15). The last thing we need to do is encourage the innate silliness of children, as if they are not already silly enough without the help of sincere but misguided adults. Consider the VeggieTales version of Nebuchadnezzar forcing Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego to worship the idol in the book of Daniel. Nebby K. Nezzer, manufacturer of chocolate bunnies, tries to force Shack, Rack, and Benny to worship a giant bunny. The VeggieTales song “Dave and the Giant Pickle” is dedicated to the psycho-babble theme of “self-esteem.” “Oh Santa” from “Silly Songs with Larry” is about the mythical Santa Claus. The VeggieTales movie Jonah had the king of Nineveh claiming he didn’t know that the things they were doing were wrong and pretending that their chief sin was slapping each other with fish. What a fearful example of trivializing sin! The Gettys have no boundaries and are a bridge to anything and everything. (See “The Gettys: Pied Pipers of Contemporary Worship Music” at www.wayoflife.org.)

​(Friday Church News Notes, January 31, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143)

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