What Does It Teach the Kids?

 

Come, O Children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Psalm 34:11

 

Several years ago I found a book for young children explaining the Resurrection of Christ. I was delighted to introduce it to our grandchildren.

We read it a few times. Later, our then-four-year-old granddaughter corrected me when I said that “Easter” is not about bunnies. She went and got the book and showed me several pages (7 out of 12) that had a picture of bunnies, one of them on a balloon held by a member of the choir (in a sanctuary).

This week, a Christian Mom told me she had just thrown out a “Veggie Tales” DVD called, “King George and the Duckie.” This is the conversation that sent her to the trash can:

• King George: Go get it for me. [talking about someone else’s property]
• Louis: I can’t do that.
• King George: Why not?
• Louis: He might tell people. Other people will think you will come and take their things. You can’t run a kingdom like that.

In principle, this is true. If other people learn that a King is taking things that don’t belong to him, his reputation will suffer. But, is his ruined reputation the reason he shouldn’t steal? The words “steal” or “God’s Law” are not in the story line.

Humanistic Thinking

This teaching comes from humanistic thinking. It teaches our children that what others think is more important than what God’s Law says.

God gives all parents the responsibility of teaching our children all that he has commanded. Deuteronomy 6:7 says, “You shall teach them (“these words that I command you,” verse 6) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Even when we allow our children to view entertaining/educational materials that we all consider better than mainstream TV, we have a responsibility to know what they teach.

These two examples, the “Christian” book on the Resurrection and the well-known Veggie tales, which have a good reputation as not just “safe” for our children, but biblically informed, are the false teachers of their generation.

Better Than Ideology

We tend toward a “better than” ideology. We think it is better to teach our children that the Resurrection of Jesus is the most important thing about Easter (it is). Even if we leave the bunnies in the story, at least they know about the Resurrection.  Or, teaching a principle for living that says “other people won’t trust you if you take something that belongs to someone else,” is better than teaching that it is ok to steal. Neither gives the complete biblical view.

Just as I had not seen the bunnies in the pages of the book, I wonder how many of us miss things like this conversation in Veggie Tales. Our children are seeing it all and hearing it all.

Young children cannot discern humanistic teaching from biblical teaching. If we are to obey God’s command to teach our children, we need to know what they are learning.

How much of what our children are reading or watching needs to be thrown away?