[valley]

NBC: Bible Verses In Veggie Tales Offensive, But Not Madonna's Mockery Of The Crucifixion Of Christ


NBC anti-Christian bigotry continues. This time NBC censored Bible verses and expressions of Christian love from the children's cartoon Veggie Tales being shown Saturday mornings on NBC.

NBC says comments such as "God made you special and He loves you very much" were offensive and censored them from the show.

In response to the outrage over the allegations that NBC was ordering the removal of any references to God and the Bible from the animated series, the network first issued a flat denial. As reported in Broadcasting & Cable, NBC said they had to "clip off the beginning and ending tags, which are Bible verses, but they were also arguably the easiest cut to make."

The creator of Veggie Tales, Phil Vischer, said NBC's excuse for censoring the Bible verses was not true. Vischer said, "Well, that's kinda funny, because as the guy required to do all the editing, I know that statement is false...The show wasn't too long, it was too Christian. The show was already cut down to the proper length, so timing had nothing to do with it."

NBC then backpeddled: "NBC is committed to the positive messages and universal values of Veggie Tales. Our goal is to reach as broad an audience as possible with these positive messages while being careful not to advocate any one religious point of view." Evidently NBC considers not being truthful as one of their "universal values."

Vischer said had he known how much censorship NBC would exercise, he would not have signed on for the network deal.

Censored were comments such as: "Calm down. The Bible says we should love our enemies." And "the Bible says Samson got his strength from God. And God can give us strength, too."

NBC says using Bible verses or referring to God is offensive to some non-Christians. But NBC doesn't hesitate to offend Christians by showing Madonna mocking the crucifixion of Christ. Neither do not mind offending Christians in their new program Studio 60 with a segment called Crazy Christians. (Please read the review.)

The offending perpetrators:


But this is non-offensive:


Come on...how can anyone deny that the liberal media is very biased when it comes to Christianity? Why is Madonna's version ok(Madonna, who said "there's something sexy about a naked man on a cross" ) but not Veggie Tales.

What are people afraid of....that their children will suddenly become Christians if they hear some cute vegetables talking about God on TV?

[valley]

looks like I didnt get a full paste of the word "crucifixion" in the thread title...will a mod be so kind as to fix it?

[angelize56]

Originally Posted by Val

NBC says comments such as "God made you special and He loves you very much" were offensive and censored them from the show.

Isn't that unbelievable! But it's alright to spout foul words and show naked butts..I'd much prefer my child hear the Veggies say:

"God made you special and He loves you very much"

"Calm down. The Bible says we should love our enemies."

"The Bible says Samson got his strength from God. And God can give us strength, too."

[angelize56]

Good morning Val.....we know what this thread is going to denigrate to!

[valley]

morning Mar. I hope it doesnt denigrate into anything. I was just curious to see if there were any reasonable arguments for why NBC was right in their decision.

[Stoner]

Television has been called a wasteland/boobtube for decades.
It seems to only get worse as time goes on.
I haven't readup on the 'Veggie Tales', but on the surface it certainly seems unobjectionable.


I was going to comment on religious programs frequenting the early Sunday morning network line ups.
But, I seldom watch TV let alone in the mornings, and reviewing the morning lineups for tommorrow, I noticed very few Christian shows.

Question:
Have the Christian shows of the past on network TV switched to some of the cable stations for economic/demographic reasons.....or are they discouraged?

[bomb #21]

Hi val.

Totally unnecessary "censorship". The parents should know what the kids are watching and if they don't like it they can change the channel.

BTW, you can have Madge back now -- she's yawnsome.

[canndy]

Another hilirious pieace!

[valley]

Originally Posted by Stoner

I was going to comment on religious programs frequenting the early Sunday morning network line ups.
But, I seldom watch TV let alone in the mornings, and reviewing the morning lineups for tommorrow, I noticed very few Christian shows.

I could be wrong but I dont believe you'll see any religious shows on the networks.

Question:
Have the Christian shows of the past on network TV switched to some of the cable stations for economic/demographic reasons.....or are they discouraged?

I think they are tolerated on certain stations but not actually encouraged. There is a dish channel called RFDTV that airs the old "Gaither Gospel Hour". I listened to it the other night while putting a jigsaw puzzle together with the kids....great old time music...they had western versions of songs like "This Little Light of Mine" and gosple classics like "How Great Thou Art"..it was really soothing and brought an air of quiet peacefulness over the house. LOL...the channel also has tractor pulls and polka music.. definately not geared towards a wide audience so thats probably why its allowed.

The Lawrence Welk show is seen on one other channel that I cant of right now and there isnt much of a fuss over it. Used to be on the networks ages ago, though.

[valley]

Originally Posted by bomb #21

Hi val.

Totally unnecessary "censorship".

I agree...so do you have any theories about why they are doing it, bomb?

[valley]

Originally Posted by canndy

Another hilirious pieace!

True! But NBC is dead serious about it being offensive to some. This is exactly the kind of hysterical overreacting that Christians are accused of doing all of the time. Yet a very popular network goes off the deep end to censor a harmless cartoon and not too many people will give it a second thought.

[angelize56]

Val: Let's not forget NBC and "The Book of Daniel"!

[iltos]

Originally Posted by valley

What are people afraid of....that their children will suddenly become Christians if they hear some cute vegetables talking about God on TV?

welcome back, valley

it seems that people are afraid of so much these days....gotta be a sign that they feel they a lack control over stuff, don'tcha think?

as far as NBC, the easy answer of course is that it's a marketing thing...that the "powers that be" wanna be PC....the better to attract advertisers, my dear....'cause the bottom line is that the number of people who watch any particular show is what brings in the money....tho it doesn't have to be that way necessarily.....in theory, so long as the show were making the network money, they wouldn't care if nobody watched it. (it could, in theory, be wholly funded by a coalition of christain groups, for example)

for better or for worse, tho, the real world doesn't work like that....and that's where your statement about fear begins to have influence...NBC would still want editorial control even if the theoretical solution came to pass, because they would fear repercussions in other programming.

'course....just to play the devil's advocate....many people are also afraid of the influence of the madonna example, as well....which seems equally ludicrous to me....perhaps a part of the problem is that tv has become so much more a "private affair".....few families actually sit and watch it together anymore....it's social function has become a sort of tailgate party that surrounds a few big events....

but that, too, only points to the fact that programming is ultimately about money...and so tv must, failing state control, appeal to whatever it is that we enjoy watching.....

and THAT'S what scares me

[linskyjack]

I think that Madonna should be able to HANG out anywhere she wants----

[valley]

Originally Posted by iltos

welcome back, valley

thanks.

it seems that people are afraid of so much these days....gotta be a sign that they feel they a lack control over stuff, don'tcha think?

I dunno...maybe. Maybe not. Depends on the situation, I guess.

as far as NBC, the easy answer of course is that it's a marketing thing...that the "powers that be" wanna be PC....the better to attract advertisers, my dear.

so the advertizers might be offended by references to God then?

...'cause the bottom line is that the number of people who watch any particular show is what brings in the money....tho it doesn't have to be that way necessarily.....in theory, so long as the show were making the network money, they wouldn't care if nobody watched it. (it could, in theory, be wholly funded by a coalition of christain groups, for example)

But the network is ovbiously catering to anti-christian viewers when its the Christian organization that produces VeggieTales who are the ones that are buttering their bread, so to speak.

for better or for worse, tho, the real world doesn't work like that....and that's where your statement about fear begins to have influence...NBC would still want editorial control even if the theoretical solution came to pass, because they would fear repercussions in other programming.

But the backlash over Madonna's mock crucifixion is not something that in theory could be a problem for NBC? Dont you think NBC is being clearly biased here. They allow things that they know are going to offend their Christian viewers...and maybe stir them up enough to go out and create petitions against it and other programming content. But they censor references to God because they fear the repercussions....from whom exactly...?

So NBC ignores petitions from Christians over program content that offends us...and no one petitions NBC over religious content but NBC censors it anyways. It shows a clear bias for no arguable reason.

'course....just to play the devil's advocate....many people are also afraid of the influence of the madonna example, as well....which seems equally ludicrous to me....

True. So why does NBC take the "imaginary threat" that Veggie Tales poses seriously but ignores the "imaginary threat" that Madonna poses, especially when one (Madonna) is complained about to them and the other (Veggie Tales) isnt? LOL...shouldnt they censor the one that they get actual complaints against?

You playing devil's advocate is good....but it only makes the bias all the more evident.

perhaps a part of the problem is that tv has become so much more a "private affair".....few families actually sit and watch it together anymore....it's social function has become a sort of tailgate party that surrounds a few big events....

True...all the more reason why this once a week cartoon shouldnt be such a huge concern to NBC. The viewing audience should be relatively small so who are they so afraid of offending?

but that, too, only points to the fact that programming is ultimately about money...and so tv must, failing state control, appeal to whatever it is that we enjoy watching.....

and THAT'S what scares me

Me too, iltos. Me too.