Little Eye's Be careful What You See

Now call me a little paranoid but I think Waybuloo is trying to turn my son into some kind of Eastern Mystic.

OK now I'll admit this reflection is a little off the beaten trail of this blog. When I talk about controversies like this I tend to side with the 'oh come on now, I think your blowing this out of proportion' side of the debate. I generally want to put the most intellectual foot forward that I can. So I blogged against the video concerning miracle teeth whitening, and I had some harsh words for dinosaur deniers.

Never the less here I am.

From the on set I see some problems with trying to make this an intellectually sustainable argument. First as Christians we kind of blew all our chips criticizing children's television when we tried to convince the world that one of the Teletubbies was a homosexual. Second this guy is my conceptual ally. I really try to avoid agreeing with people who begin their argument with a 'new world order' warning. Third I am over stating my concern. To say that this show is trying to turn my son into a mystic assumes intent that I suspect is absent. I doubt somewhere deep in the offices of the BBC there is a man or woman sitting in an office cackling an evil laugh levitated off the ground, watching the ratings of this show. Likewise I suspect no one at the BBC has ever said something like, 'soon all the children watching our programs will become mystics under the control of our master Satan, muhahahahahaha'.

So let me revise my original statement. I think this program is saturated with symbols associated with Eastern Mysticism.

The Four Horseman Of The Apocalypse, Or The Delusion Of A Dad Who Is Very Tired
And Is Watching To Much Treehouse. You Decide.

Now I am on safer ground. I feel I can defend this point much better. The show contains a number of elements that are associated with mysticism. They include crystals, focus on the sun (sun dial), yoga, the crossed legged 'ok  finger' ommmmmm position, and levitation. In all likelihood the person who created this show is a devote follower of some eastern religion, or at least they are an avid fan of mediation and yoga. They likely created this show to help put forward their ideals. They wanted to show children what a better world would look like. And that better world is achieved in part at least, through mediation and yoga.  

So what is my point? Do I think this show should be banned? No, for a number of reasons. First any argument I could levy to get this show banned could easily be turned around and used to try to ban Christian, or Christian like programing. Second I find most Christian bans are regarded as a joke in the media if they get covered at all. Which makes our protests ineffective. Instead of getting something banned we draw people to it, and make Christ appear foolish. And lastly the show over all is cute and informative. The other day I learned how to tell if a mango is ripe. Trying to ban it would appear almost heartless, and rather paranoid. 

Instead I think this is a good reminder of the times. We live in an incredibly kaleidoscopic world. Differing worldviews, points of views, and ideologies abound. And it is becoming increasingly common for people to hold a strange conglomerate of these differing ideas without any recognition that at many points they conflict.  

The truth of it is, the world we inhabit is not a neutral place that children and youth stroll through. It is a noisy market place where near countless voices are shouting; demanding attention because they wish to teach, to guide, and to influence. 

We are only one of those voices. The question we have to ask is; what can we offer that they cannot? Style? Hardly. The church is not really known for its cutting edge style. Truth? Yes I suppose but that is hardly a unique claim. Also a person would have to already commit to being a part of us to gain most of that truth. Community? Here is where I think we can shine. We must offer a grace community, one that offers forgiveness, before it is requested, love before it is easy, and membership before it is convenient. 

Is creating this kind of community easy? No without a doubt it is not. However there are countless world views battling for our children right now. So we need to ask ourselves; are we fighting hard enough?