Remember Davey and Goliath?Wikipedia says:
“Davey and Goliath was the title of a 1960s stop-motion animated television series. The programs, produced by the Lutheran Church in America […], were produced by Art Clokey after the success of his Gumby series. / Each 15-minute episode features the adventures of Davey Hansen and his “talking” dog Goliath […] as they learn the love of God through everyday occurrences.”
I just came across a mildly annoying review of the series at Amazon.com, where Prairie Cajun says “Unfortunately, a series such as this would find it hard to be placed on television these days for the simple fact that our society has become so caught up in not offending anyone. How dare you teach Christian morals and values to children! ”
I liked Davey & Goliath a lot, despite not being a Christian. I enjoyed the moral lessons, and was able to skate over the goddy bits.
As to “How dare you teach Christian morals and values to children!” Let me quote Goliath: “I doon’t knooww, Daavey.” That kind of snobbery is yet another thing that turns me off to Christians. As a commenter to Prairie Cajun’s review points out, these morals and values are not the exclusive property of Christians. They’re HUMAN values. Presenting them as somehow being the result of Christianity cheats us all, and acts to divide people who might otherwise be in full agreement.
Because so many people think morals are the result of this religion or that religion, and because we all know sectarian preaching is inappropriate in a mixed society, in the end children end up being cheated out of great moral lessons.
If a great animated series has the asset of teaching moral lessons, but the drawback of also being a blatantly sectarian (Christian) advertisement, broadcasters decide not to continue airing it because parents of other religions, or no religion at all, are never pleased to have their kids seduced, on public airwaves, into someone else’s religion. This is the thing that, time after time, Christians insist on failing to understand. (Imagine if Davey and Goliath were Muslim, and every episode gave thanks to Allah for his moral truths. The show would never have seen the light of day in the U.S.)
Worse, some vocal Christians violently reject delightfully non-sectarian moral fare such as the Harry Potter books and movies – which teach courage, love, friendship, persistence, the value of hard work, allegiance to friends and family, and the desirability of both being and doing good – specifically because those lessons are taught without benefit of the Christian label. These people insist instead that these movies are literally satanic.
They’re like union enforcers in some bad black and white movie, the guys who set fire to the factory that dares to produce shirts without benefit of union labor. Nobody asks whether they’re good shirts or not – if they’re not union shirts, they burn.
The Christian Harry Potter-haters seem to see things in the same way: Harry Potter can’t be allowed to teach courage and love of family, because Harry Potter doesn’t simultaneously advertise God and Jesus as the sole possible source of those virtues.
The truth is, Davey & Goliath could have taught moral lessons to kids just as well without the sectarian message. The series could have been truly timeless and universal, still running and still vital today. Because short-sighted churchy people wanted to get their chops in, it hasn’t aged well, and has been shoved off stage by a great deal of flashier – and less moral – fare.
And we’re all a bit poorer for it.