Asian-themed VBS material draws protests of Lifeway

Every year the VBS material is geographically themed. Every year the kids visit a different country for VBS. We've been to England, Egypt, Outer Space(now what did I forget). I see this is no different then any of the other VBS's from the past. Every thing they complained about in the srticle are things in the Japan. They really have rickshaws in Japan????!!!!!! Oh my, never would have thought of it.
Some peoople just want to be able to complain about something, they watch for something they can complain about, always ready to make a fuss over something. All this constant christians putting other christians down is just getting old, and it isn't christian. It's of satan, not God. I just get sick of it. What do you think the world thinks about christianity when they constantly see christians bashing each other? Is this a good witness? I think not.

 

Oh I am so sick of political correctness! Good Grief! I've got the catalog right beside this desk and the material is so cute! I think the kids will LOVE it!

Diane
who is already signed up for VBS 2004.

 

That's too bad! Sounds like a cute theme.
Other than that, if you're American why are you complaining about stereotyping of you when it's about how people live in Asia, not how a person of Asian heritage lives in America?
Gina

 

Blackbird is holdin' out 'till the day the SBC's VBS'ers will theme Louisiana Cajuns---from the swamps of Pierre Part and Lake Varrett---to the Gulf of Mexico and Golden Meadow---Cajun theme---with Bass boats, air boats, tug boats and all the leaky gas tanks that go along for the ride on those vessels!!! Sha---PeTevia!

 

Why don't we ask Soong-Chan Rah (senior pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church in Cambridge, Mass.) to put together a VBS program with a south Alabama trailer park theme, and we will call it even?

Roy

 

I'm a VBS director, and I have to admit that my first reaction to seeing Lifeway's theme ad in a magazine was negative, for the very reason expressed. But that's my reaction from an urban church that has Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese kids in the area. (Not to mention Pakistani, Indian, Iraqi, Hispanic, Jamacian, African, and African-American.)

Maybe that's why I've already decided to use Gospel Light's Olympic theme. International flavor without "cute" stereotypes.

 

I have not seen the new material, so I am not sure what I would think. However, last year's theme dealt with England, with a lot of stereotypes about Sherlock Holmes, Big Ben, and double-decker busses.
Not representative of a lot of England. But fun and no one seemed to complain.

Karen

 

Karen, that's why I don't stick with the same publisher every year. You can't beat GL for Bible content, but last year the fruit orchards with the pigs thing would have been a real dud with my group. So we did the MS Lutheran theme based on the American southwest Navajo sheepherders. Kids enjoyed the Native American/Tex-Mex idea. And Psalm 23 is good to have in your heart in the big bad city.

Like you said about the English theme, ethnic or geographical themes can be done well, or done insultingly. I think the rickshaw thing with the takeout containers is just plain cheesy.

 

Everyone sterotypes different people. It's not always a bad thing.
Cheeseburgers, pizza, sexually immoral women, and laziness are a common stereotype of Americans. If anything I like the Asian stereotype better.
Gina

 

From the article:

I can see this as offensive as what Japanese person wants to be confused with a Chinaman?

Overall, however, I don't get it either. As Karen noted, the British theme last year was VERY stereotypical in what was presented yet there was no protest. I was under the impression that the Japanese were very proud of their history and heritage. Was I misinformed? Rickshaw races, kimonos, and chopsticks are as much a part of Japanese culture as Model A's, T-shirts, and eating with a fork in the right hand are a part of mine. I don't think I would take offense if someone "stereotyped" me using these cultural norms and icons.

Isn't this far less disturbing than the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the WWII Japanese POW camps, and the later economic takeover of the electronics and automotive markets that the children will discover in their social studies in high school? Why is no one protesting the History Channel?

...and don't even get me started on the low quality animation and high marketing strategy of Pokemon!

 

Hey Dr. Bob... that was not nice. stereotyping our polititians like that.

 

Dr. Bob, How dare you insult Calamity Jane like that?!!!

 

I'm about tired of people and their political correctness. People need to grow up and quit being such babies. My SBC church will be using the Rickshaw Rally VBS material this summer.

 

Personal opinion, I think PC isn't very christian. Political correctness is pressure to conform to this world and it's standards.

 

There's being "PC" for the sake of it, which usually is of the liberal political bent, and then there's simply trying not to be insulting.

I'll make a stereotypical comment and say that it's my guess that most of the folks using that VBS material will be white folks of European ancestry without much contact with other types of folks except for blacks. That's why they won't find any fault with it.

I can make a positive statement by saying that if there are no Asian folks around to be offended when the program is run, and white and maybe black kids who go get led to the Lord, then they've done OK.

It just wouldn't be appropriate in our neighborhood.