DangerousTalk

Last week, I was at my parent’s house and my mother bought a Berenstain Bears book for my 2 and a half year old son. She remembered that I used to enjoy those books when I was young. However, upon reading it to my son, my mother noticed that it was full of Jesus talk.

Interestingly enough, a week earlier, my wife discovered the same thing when she had to do some work involving the Berenstain Bears. She also remembered the books when she was young and was certain that they were not religious when we were growing up; so I had to find out when and why this child book series became religious propaganda.

The books series was created by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Stan was Jewish and Jan was Christian, but it seemed that neither were particularly religious and religion was not part of the book series at all. However, as they got older they let their son Michael work on the books. He eventually took over the series completely and on a side note also became a born again Christian during adulthood. So guess what this douchebag did? Yup, he pushed his religion into the book series.

This really pisses me off. This is why we need to have more books out there that support science and critical thinking for young kinds. Aside from Curious George (which my son loves) there really isn’t that much out there. There certainly isn’t anything which encourages kids to question religious and/or superstitious claims. I know Dawkins is coming out with a book, but let’s face facts here. That is not going to be read by the general public; it is only going to be read by vocal atheists.

I guess the point of today’s blog is to let everyone know that the Berenstain Bears is religious propaganda and to say that Michael Berenstain is a giant douchebag for ruining my childhood. Fuck you Michael!

Related articles

• The Berenstain Bears Bible: A New Low for Christian Publishing? (bethanyseeley.wordpress.com)
• Daily Doing of the Peaceful Religion of islam: (doesitallmatter2.wordpress.com)
• Study shows split between kids of Christian, Muslim immigrants (canada.com)
• Ever wonder why your school age children are so ignorant about history? (barenakedislam.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Bears, Current Events, Parenting, Personal