The Bible...and Vegetables!

I have watched parts of the History Channel series The Bible, and have been both impressed and unimpressed by what I have seen. I am impressed that such effort has gone into producing a series of shows that tell the basic stories of the Bible.  I am unimpressed at Hebrews with British accents and a musical score that sounds like it was stolen directly from a soap opera.  But mostly I am reminded that so many of the great stories of scripture have already been told in a far superior way- by animated vegetables!

The earliest episodes of the Veggietales were almost all a re-imagining of classic Bible stories.  I used their unique combination of humor and music to teach stories both common and little-known to my youth groups back in the day.  Stories about David & Goliath (Dave and the Giant Pickle), Joshua and the battle of Jericho (Josh & the Big Wall), they 3 guys in the fiery furnace (Rack, Shack and Benny), Queen Esther (Esther...the Girl Who Became Queen), Joseph and his dreamcoat (The Ballad of Little Joe) and so many others were told with great creativity and insight by the folks from Big Ideas.  There was even a feature film about Jonah. It may not makes sense to you that a youth pastor learned more about great biblical tales from Monty Python loving French Peas dumping slurpees on Joshua from the top of the wall of Jericho, or from Ninevites slapping each other with fish- but I did. And so did the students I worked with.  Veggietales were like classic Bugs Bunny or Animaniacs- they worked on different levels for different age groups.  And they still do today.

So while I am thrilled that millions of people are watching The Bible this month as Easter approaches, you will forgive me if I break out my old VHS copies of the Veggies and relive the great stories of scripture in a more unique- and distinctly more "Carl"- fashion.  But here is the key to this entire conversation. If you want to know the Bible, read the BOOK- don't wait for the movie!  Have a blessed week, my friends!  And to start you off right, here's little taste of Jonah...

Because of Jesus,