Ummm, Parent of DS Friend told me I was using religious propaganda on their son...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So if I am raising my kids as Christians and I hear vaguely that something has non Christian ideas in it, I should just immediately decide it is wrong and harmful to my child without knowing anything about it? Interesting approach you have. You may hate everything Christian or that has faith or mention of God but calling Silly Songs with Larry proselytizing is just laughable.

Who said anything about that? Certainly I didn't. How you raise your children is your business. Likewise, how I raise my children is my business. And while there are certainly non-religious people who hate everything religious, it would be a mistake to assume that therefore all non-religious people hate everything religious. And I did not say that "Silly Songs with Larry" is proselytizing -- I said that Veggie Tales is Christian. How do I know this? Because Veggie Tales says so.

So if anything is Christian you just immediately label that as proselytizing? Proselytizing is an action so perhaps you could speak to what aspects of veggie tales were actively proselytizing?

"Since 1993 Veggie Tales has been helping children discover that God Made Them Special - And He Loves Them Very Much!"

http://veggietales.com/vtmain/whoweare/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, here's what I think:

1. We are non-religious. If I learned that my child had been shown Veggie Tales on a playdate, I would be upset. I don't like being proselytized, and I especially don't want my child being proselytized.
2. However, my reaction would be, "Since we are non-religious, do you think that in future you could not show my child Veggie Tales on playdates?", rather than "That's it, you horrible person, no playdates ever again!".

If you apologized sincerely, then I think that the next step is up to her, to accept your apology or not.

+1. Maybe she has dealt with a lot of proselytizing and had a gut reaction. You sound sad about your son losing this friendship--his first in a new town, so if you want, send her an e-mail telling her you didn't think about it because it is non-religious and you yourself are Jewish/Agnostic (I assume you mean culturally Jewish but religiously agnostic?) and you certainly have no desire to convert her son, your own son, or anyone else to Christianity or whatever the heck religion Veggie Tales is.

On another note, before my kids were old enough to watch TV, I once put on an episode of Veggie Tales for my nephew. I'm an Atheist. I had no idea until very recently that that show was religious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So if I am raising my kids as Christians and I hear vaguely that something has non Christian ideas in it, I should just immediately decide it is wrong and harmful to my child without knowing anything about it? Interesting approach you have. You may hate everything Christian or that has faith or mention of God but calling Silly Songs with Larry proselytizing is just laughable.

Who said anything about that? Certainly I didn't. How you raise your children is your business. Likewise, how I raise my children is my business. And while there are certainly non-religious people who hate everything religious, it would be a mistake to assume that therefore all non-religious people hate everything religious. And I did not say that "Silly Songs with Larry" is proselytizing -- I said that Veggie Tales is Christian. How do I know this? Because Veggie Tales says so.

So if anything is Christian you just immediately label that as proselytizing? Proselytizing is an action so perhaps you could speak to what aspects of veggie tales were actively proselytizing?

"Since 1993 Veggie Tales has been helping children discover that God Made Them Special - And He Loves Them Very Much!"

http://veggietales.com/vtmain/whoweare/

Wow. Such villainy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op you didn't ruin anything. You were able to see what kind of person this was and she is not someone you want to be friends with. As your kids are young that also means that her son is not a good friend for your son as he comes with his mom. Some people are very intolerant. You don't need that kind of intolerance around your son. better you find out now then later.

+1. You absolutely do not need these people in your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, here's what I think:

1. We are non-religious. If I learned that my child had been shown Veggie Tales on a playdate, I would be upset. I don't like being proselytized, and I especially don't want my child being proselytized.
2. However, my reaction would be, "Since we are non-religious, do you think that in future you could not show my child Veggie Tales on playdates?", rather than "That's it, you horrible person, no playdates ever again!".

If you apologized sincerely, then I think that the next step is up to her, to accept your apology or not.

Oh look, the mom from the playdate just showed up! The horrors of Veggie Tales. Given the lyrics of Silly Songs with Larry - I have no clue what your idea of proselytizing is... Talking about cucumbers? Hairbrushes?

http://www.songlyrics.com/veggietales/silly-songs-with-larry/

Here are the lyrics to the album - perhaps you could point out as someone who is non-religious what is so offensive about these lyrics?

Nope, I am the PP. I am not the mother from the playdate.

I have not ever seen a Veggie Tales, so I have no idea about whether each individual Veggie Tales has Christian content. But Veggie Tales, in general, being Christian is not some silly idea that I made up.

http://veggietales.com/vtmain/whoweare/

So, you don't know anything about them so thought you'd do some Googling and that makes you the expert?

BTW, isn't it horrible to tell children that God made them very special and that He loves them very much? Terrible isn't it? Such nasty things for little ears to hear.

Non-believers don't want people telling their children that. Would you want a non-believer telling your kid that there's no god and god didn't make him?

Same thing.

I wouldn't care. That doesn't scare me.

It also doesn't matter if you tell your children there is no God. He loves them anyway.

[Anonymous]

We have some VTs that do mention Christianity or God and some that don't, but I just looked up "Silly Songs with Larry" lyrics and I think they show Vikings in a bad light.

[Anonymous]

The issue isn't the particular episode of Veggie Tales, it's that you support the Veggie Tales empire.
(there must be a better word than 'empire') It's sort-of-like people boycotting Chick-Fila

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not religious but I also don't shelter my kids from religious content. I figure they need to learn that some people believe in God or Allah or whatever or nothing. It's all about being educated.

But I find it really interesting that parents that are non-religious will not let their kids hear anything about God or the Bible or anything Chrisitan but they all have books on mythology.

Just an interesting observation.

OP, People around here are crazy. Don't worry about this 1 kid or 1 mom. Your son will find friends with normal parents eventually. They will also have friends with crazy parents. It's all a part of growing up. I have 1 friend who has a 13 yo and still can't watch Disney channel - because it is too advanced. So we don't watch Disney channel when she is over. Whatever....

Did you just call your own observation "interesting?"

[Anonymous]

Um, I have no idea what Veggie Tales are. We don't own a TV so I wouldn't love the idea of my kid watching it at some one else's home but if this person was doing me a favor by watching my kid, I'm pretty sure I'd manage to not freak out about it and express my gratitude to the person who cared for my kid in my absence. That lady sounds nuts. What is she going to do when her kid gets invited to a friend's bat mitzvah? Say "No Larla, we don't celebrate major life achievements if they relate to faith." and then have her be the only one in her class to miss the party?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So if anything is Christian you just immediately label that as proselytizing? Proselytizing is an action so perhaps you could speak to what aspects of veggie tales were actively proselytizing?

"Since 1993 Veggie Tales has been helping children discover that God Made Them Special - And He Loves Them Very Much!"

http://veggietales.com/vtmain/whoweare/

Wow. Such villainy.

The question was not about villainy. The question was about proselytizing.

Non-religious people, by and large, do not believe that there is a God, let alone that God made children special and loves them very much, let alone that children should "discover" something that they (the non-religious people) believe to be untrue. Given this, it should not be hard to understand why non-religious people might consider "helping children discover that God Made Them Special -And He Loves Them Very Much!" to be proselytizing.

And not just non-religious people, either. Believers in polytheistic religions, for example, might consider it proselytizing, since polytheism is believing in more than one god. And religious Jews might consider it proselytizing also, since "God loves you" is not (in my understanding) a major feature of Judaism. These are just examples -- there are a lot of religions I know next to nothing about, and if you wanted to know more, you'd have to ask believers in those religions how they would feel about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not religious but I also don't shelter my kids from religious content. I figure they need to learn that some people believe in God or Allah or whatever or nothing. It's all about being educated.

But I find it really interesting that parents that are non-religious will not let their kids hear anything about God or the Bible or anything Chrisitan but they all have books on mythology.

Just an interesting observation.

OP, People around here are crazy. Don't worry about this 1 kid or 1 mom. Your son will find friends with normal parents eventually. They will also have friends with crazy parents. It's all a part of growing up. I have 1 friend who has a 13 yo and still can't watch Disney channel - because it is too advanced. So we don't watch Disney channel when she is over. Whatever....

Did you just call your own observation "interesting?"

Yes I did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, here's what I think:

1. We are non-religious. If I learned that my child had been shown Veggie Tales on a playdate, I would be upset. I don't like being proselytized, and I especially don't want my child being proselytized.
2. However, my reaction would be, "Since we are non-religious, do you think that in future you could not show my child Veggie Tales on playdates?", rather than "That's it, you horrible person, no playdates ever again!".

If you apologized sincerely, then I think that the next step is up to her, to accept your apology or not.

+1. Maybe she has dealt with a lot of proselytizing and had a gut reaction. You sound sad about your son losing this friendship--his first in a new town, so if you want, send her an e-mail telling her you didn't think about it because it is non-religious and you yourself are Jewish/Agnostic (I assume you mean culturally Jewish but religiously agnostic?) and you certainly have no desire to convert her son, your own son, or anyone else to Christianity or whatever the heck religion Veggie Tales is.

On another note, before my kids were old enough to watch TV, I once put on an episode of Veggie Tales for my nephew. I'm an Atheist. I had no idea until very recently that that show was religious.

+2 Her reaction was over the top. You will make more friends. Not everyone is that crazy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not religious but I also don't shelter my kids from religious content. I figure they need to learn that some people believe in God or Allah or whatever or nothing. It's all about being educated.

But I find it really interesting that parents that are non-religious will not let their kids hear anything about God or the Bible or anything Chrisitan but they all have books on mythology.

Just an interesting observation.

OP, People around here are crazy. Don't worry about this 1 kid or 1 mom. Your son will find friends with normal parents eventually. They will also have friends with crazy parents. It's all a part of growing up. I have 1 friend who has a 13 yo and still can't watch Disney channel - because it is too advanced. So we don't watch Disney channel when she is over. Whatever....

Did you just call your own observation "interesting?"

Yes I did.

You obviously think more highly of yourself than others think of you. That was a pretty arrogant thing to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not religious but I also don't shelter my kids from religious content. I figure they need to learn that some people believe in God or Allah or whatever or nothing. It's all about being educated.

But I find it really interesting that parents that are non-religious will not let their kids hear anything about God or the Bible or anything Chrisitan but they all have books on mythology.

Just an interesting observation.

OP, People around here are crazy. Don't worry about this 1 kid or 1 mom. Your son will find friends with normal parents eventually. They will also have friends with crazy parents. It's all a part of growing up. I have 1 friend who has a 13 yo and still can't watch Disney channel - because it is too advanced. So we don't watch Disney channel when she is over. Whatever....

Did you just call your own observation "interesting?"

Yes I did.

You obviously think more highly of yourself than others think of you. That was a pretty arrogant thing to say.

It's not arrogant to point out that people who try to shield their kids from monotheistic messages are often the same people who have polytheistic literature in their homes, even though they claim to be atheist. She could have called it hypocritical but instead she called it "interesting."

[Anonymous]

Sounds like she way over-reacted! Don't take it personally. Most people are far nicer than she.