Proselytizing

It’s the Bible redone as salad. In "Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie," little tomatoes, leeks and peas bop around ancient Israel (they can’t walk because vegetables don’t have legs) telling stories and singing songs about the joys of morality. Prophet Jonah is recast as an asparagus, who in a song warns all the carrots and celery garbed in kaffiyehs — like all vegetables used to wear in ancient Israel — "Do not fight/Do not cheat/Wash your hands before you eat/There is nothing quite as sweet/A message from the Lord."

The movie is the first feature-length presentation from Big Idea Productions, a company started by computer animator Phil Vischer in 1993. By 2001, Big Idea had sold over 20 million videos, and in its two weeks in release, the Jonah movie has made more than $11 million at the box office. Big Ideas’ mission — as stated on its Web site — is to "improve people’s lives [by promoting] biblical values and encourag[ing] spiritual growth." They do this by making videos and plush toys of the "VeggieTales" veggies, which are squeaky voiced, ethical produce marketed to children whose parents want innocent entertainment for their offspring.

But is it wholesome?

Some Jewish groups believe "VeggieTales" — whose products were originally marketed through Christian retail stores before finding shelf space in Kmart and Target — is just slickly packaged Christian theology that is as unkosher for young Jewish children as sex or violence.

While there is nothing overtly Christian about "VeggieTales" — the word Jesus is never mentioned — there is a decidedly Christian feel to the product. God is referred to as "The Lord," a term religious Jews seldom use in English, and in one scene in "Jonah," a chorus of dancing crosses serenade Jonah in the belly of the whale and inspire him to continue on to Nineveh to prophesy.

"VeggieTales" is "instilling religious values, and you want to make sure that they are applicable to your children," said Scott Hillman, the executive director of Jews for Judaism, an anti-missionary Jewish organization, in a phone interview from Baltimore. "When you are viewing materials not made for your religious grouping, you should screen it for theological intent or proselytizing intent. The central focus of each ‘VeggieTales’ episode is something that is generally relative to a [Christian] scriptural verse and a connection with God. The dancing crosses certainly didn’t happen in Jonah. Right there you would say that it is interpreted in the light of Christian scriptures. You know how a child watches videos — they watch them repeatedly, and if you watch something over and over again, it certainly makes an impression on you."

Terry Botwick, the COO of Big Idea, a Jew who now believes in Jesus (but is not affiliated with Jews for Jesus) denies that his company is a Christian one. "Big Idea is not a Christian company per se," he said. "We are not trying to do what I would call a Christian product. What we are trying to do is entertainment that is based in and communicates the Judeo-Christian value system and a biblical world view. Much of what ‘VeggieTales’ has to do with is introducing the concept of the ‘ism’ into entertainment and into the lives of children," he said, referring to the belief in God. "The fundamental of ‘VeggieTales’ is really to say that God exists and he loves you. It doesn’t really go any deeper than that."

Many religious Jews agree.

"’VeggieTales’ are elevating, they have superb values that are entertainingly delivered" radio talk show host Dennis Prager told The Journal. "They are so witty, that adults can enjoy them as much as children, and they are completely nondenominational. I cannot see why any Jewish parent wouldn’t find anything but excellence in this."

Some parents believe that

"VeggieTales" have a message for the Jewish community.

"I was impressed by the fairly sophisticated approach to interpreting Jonah," said Neil Schuster, a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and father of two young children. Schuster, who lives in the Pico-Robertson area and owns some of the videos.

"There is a lot of creative license," Schuster said, "but in general it is faithful to the text of Jonah."

Still, Hillman feels that it would be a mistake to think that these moral messages come unadorned by anti-Jewish theology. "If you are linking things from the Christian scripture into the morality tales, and all you say is ‘based on biblical morality’ or something like that, a lot of people aren’t into the code words," he said. "From a Christian point of view, it is all the same Bible. From a Jewish point of view, it’s not."