A collection of Bible stories for children, as told by the creator of the Christian-themed “VeggieTales” cartoon series, addresses a uniquely modern problem: the hunger for meaningful narrative, says its author.
Phil Vischer, 53, said he sees evidence of this longing in the rapid increase of Disney World weddings (where Cinderella’s castle replaces a Christian cross) and the annual San Diego Comic-Con International.
“There is no rational explanation for Comic-Con … for thousands of grown-ups dressing up like fantasy characters and cartoon characters and hanging out with other grown-ups for a week with that level of enthusiasm,” Mr. Vischer said in an interview with The Washington Times.
But just as he did a generation ago with “VeggieTales,” blurring Sunday school lessons with “South Park” antics, Mr. Vischer has assembled an assortment of Bible tales with what he calls a “reverent irreverence.” Released in October, “Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids: The Gospel in 52 Five-Minute Bible Stories” has scored bestseller status.
“I can have Daniel eating pizza with the lions in the lion den. I can have the people of Jericho dropping slushies on the heads of the Israelites,” he said. “Every now and then, I’ll have somebody say, ’Hey, I think that’s sacrilegious.’ And I’ll say, ’Really, is it? Is it really?’ “
Since its debut, the 348-page “Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids” features 52 stories written in Mr. Vischer’s voice. He said he has heard from parents whose children pick up the Bible on their own — no mean feat in an era where churchgoing has plunged.
He said his aim in bringing children to the Bible is rooted in his sympathy for the volunteer Sunday school teacher as well as the third-grader he was in the back of the class, armed with an interrogating question about the sometimes tangled, complicated and even otherworldly lessons of Scripture.
“Please, nobody ask me why in the Book of Job why Satan is in heaven talking to God about messing up somebody’s life,” he jested in a voice reminiscent of one of the quaking characters he played during his decade making “VeggieTales.” “Please nobody ask me about the rules of Leviticus.”
Mr. Vischer stepped away from the popular direct-to-video television program he helped create in 2004.
Secular media has improved its programming for children since about the mid-1990s, following on the heels of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and “Sesame Street,” he said. But children old enough to keep phones in their pockets are vulnerable to the wide-ranging content of the internet, which can be disorienting and lonely, he added.
As a result, Hollywood has exploded with storytelling about superheroes and redemptive characters who seek to right a damaged world, Mr. Vischer said.
“That’s Harry Potter. You see that in ’Star Wars.’ That’s ’Lord of the Rings,’” he said. “Some of them are overt because it was [J.R.R.] Tolkien or [C.S.] Lewis trying to incorporate the Christian narrative into fantasy storytelling. … We want to know that it isn’t supposed to be this way and that someone with power is trying to fix it on our behalf.”
But for the man who helped create the characters of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber — often dressed in Mesopotamian garb hearing about godly men trapped in whales or telling the parable of the Good Samaritan — Mr. Vischer said he has often found meaning as a storyteller in the source material of the Old and New Testaments. For example, he doesn’t anticipate the next Disney animated blockbuster to be about Jesus and the woman at the well.
“I always feel like, ’Is that my job?’” he said. “Am I the only one willing to do that, to portray Christianity as if it’s true?”
To craft “Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids,” featuring stories including Abraham, Moses, the Crucifixion and the Last Supper, Mr. Vischer said he accosted friends and Bible scholars from Wheaton College who attend his local church in Illinois.
“I’ll grab a world-class Old Testament scholar, and I’ll say, ’Will you explain Job to me?’ And they’ll explain it in a way I can kind of keep up with, but that I know would be a disaster for a 6-year-old,” he said.
His duty comes to “simplify” the story, he said.
“I’m not a Bible scholar,” Mr. Vischer said. “But I’m good at simplifying complex things. I’m good at taking the cookies and putting them on a lower shelf.”
Audiences have responded positively. Since its debut, “Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids” has hit the top spot on Amazon’s children’s Bible stories bestsellers and in the top five of bestsellers for the category of “Other Bibles.”
He thinks parents who grew up with “VeggieTales” will be familiar with the zany but earnest approach to entertaining storytelling with a point.
“Some of the Bible, when you read it, you think it’s ridiculous. So say it aloud. ’The thing that happens in this story is ridiculous,’” he said. “’But here’s the point. Because there is a point. To the admonition to never trim your beards and to have four tassels on your cloak and to never eat pork, all these things were it’s so easy to say, ’Well, that’s just dumb. The Bible is dumb.’ Oh no, here’s why that was.”
• Christopher Vondracek can be reached at cvondracek@washingtontimes.com.
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