Friday, October 19, 2007

Pirate Ships and Swash-buckling Veggies

What did the church do before film? The first two millennia of the church must have been a real drag.

It's hard to imagine what kind of pastoral teaching ministry would need the Veggie Tale crew to help them teach the word of God. Larry the Cucumber, Mr. Lunt, and Pa Grape are going to be Pirates, "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" from BigIdea Productions and Universal Pictures. I know that the whole idea of Pirates for Christ is a bit much for many people, but renting theaters and filling them with people to hear the "truth" and then explaining the "parables" is, at least to me, "off the charts" ("here there be monsters"). The whole idea is to help children understand that heroes don't have to be big and strong, or smart, or pretty. Ok, I get it. But isn't this trivializing the effects of the gospel and the Holy Spirit in the lives of children a bit (more than a bit)?

Don't get me wrong. The trailer is cute. And the story will, I am sure, be engaging. But churches using it in their teaching ministry - renting whole theaters for the purpose! It sounds to me like a whole lot of thought went into the marketing of this. And they found just the right market - gullible pastors or churches who have either lost touch with the power of God's word, or lost control of their youth and children's ministries.

"Arrrgh, where be the land, Matey?"

"Avast, no where near here."

(Pardon the poor pirate lingo.)

http://www.veggiepirates.com/
http://screenings.bigidea.com/events/list
Original source: CR Newswire email, November 19, 2007.

The Rock and the Hard Place, Politically

I have been pondering the upcoming presidential election. In my musings, I found this article by Justin Taylor. It is definitely worth reading. I have thought most of these thoughts, but have not articulated them all at once. I do not know that Mr. Taylor has any answers, but he definitely puts some things into perspective.