VeggieTales: Too Religious for NBC?

Over the past decade, there has been an increasing trend to eradicate many public references to religion. Sadly, religious censorship has really found a foothold here in America. Prayer in school, religious monuments outside of buildings and even the pledge of allegiance have all come under fire. With each of these examples, an offended individual decided to make a stink. Now it appears that television networks aren’t far behind, clearly embracing religious censorship. Recently, NBC decided to edit and remove a number of religious references in a television show scheduled to air on the network in the next couple of weeks.  Though NBC’s decision isn’t all that surprising, what is surprising is the television show in question. VeggieTales, a popular cartoon known for its references to both the Bible and God, was recently picked up by NBC.  Created in 1993, the Christian-themed show has sold millions of DVDs.  In fact, the show has quite a fan-base in both young children and parents. NBC was smart to pick up such a popular show. Unfortunately, by resorting to religious censorship, NBC’s move might prove fatal to VeggieTales’ ratings.




NBC claims that they believe in the message of VeggieTales, and do not want to limit the distribution of its moral message because of Christian references. While that sounds pretty intelligent, when you consider that the show is as popular as it is because of its Christian references, religious censorship seems like the last thing you would want to apply to it. NBC does not seem to understand that the impressive fan base that most likely enticed NBC into purchasing VeggieTales rights in the first place, will likely not take kindly to the religious censorship. Whether the current and enormous fan base is predominantly Christian or not, matters little. What does matter is that they are loyal fans and probably like the show just as it is. That old saying comes to mind, “If it aint broke …..”