Children watching the 22nd season premiere of the PBS Kids program Arthur on Monday witnessed something parents who once consumed the long-running cartoon never did: a same-sex wedding.
In the episode titled “Mr. Ratburn and His Special Friend,” Arthur the anthropomorphic aardvark and his friends have a hard time believing their beloved third-grade teacher, who is a rat, is getting married. But they are seemingly unfazed when they learn Mr. Ratburn’s betrothed is a male character, an aardvark and local chocolatier named Patrick. After the wedding, Arthur says, “I still can’t believe it,” and his friend Francine responds, “It’s a brand-new world.”
Indeed it is, and the Arthur episode drew barely a shrug from some parents witnessing the steady normalization of same-sex marriage in children’s content. “It wasn’t even surprising. Nor should it have been,” wrote G. Shane Morris for BreakPoint.
PBS, which is taxpayer-funded, has portrayed same-sex couples in its children’s programming before. In 2005, PBS pulled an episode from an Arthur spin-off, Postcards from Buster, that featured a lesbian couple in Vermont, where same-sex civil unions were legal at the time, after Margaret Spellings, then–U.S. secretary of education, cited “very serious concern.”
This week, a petition to remove the new Arthur episode by One Million Moms, a division of the American Family Association, has already garnered nearly 16,000 signatures.
But Christians should not expect much reaction from PBS, according to Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a WORLD News Group board member. “We are experiencing massive moral change in the United States, and Arthur just becomes the latest cartoon … that makes that clear,” he said on his podcast The Briefing on Thursday.
Maria Vera Whelan, senior director of marketing, communications, and social media for children’s media and education at PBS, said the network’s children’s programs are “designed to reflect the diversity of communities across the nation.” In a statement obtained by The New York Times, she said, “We believe it’s important to represent the wide array of adults in the lives of children who look to PBS Kids every day.”
Now that same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, efforts to normalize it increasingly reach preschool-aged children, whom the culture expects to express the same indifference Arthur and his friends do as they come across LGBT portrayals in books, TV shows, movies, and public school curricula.
“The moral messaging is not only that you should see this and declare it to be normal, but that something is wrong with you and you are badly out of step if you do not celebrate what is here being depicted,” Mohler said.
In 2017, the Disney Channel depicted a same-sex couple kissing in an episode of the animated series Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and Disney series Andi Mack portrayed a 13-year-old character who comes out as gay. The 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast included an “undeniably present” gay moment between LeFou and Gaston, wrote WORLD movie reviewer Megan Basham.
A more subtle example: In March, Leo Espinosa, illustrator for beloved Christian author Sally Lloyd-Jones’ book Goldfish on Vacation, acknowledged a discreet depiction of a same-sex couple in its pages. “Expect much more,” he tweeted. (Jones, author of the bestselling The Jesus Storybook Bible, deleted a supportive tweet that caused its own stir, which she has not yet clarified.)
For parents, Morris said retreating to a “Christian ghetto” is no longer an option, but neither is letting children blithely consume once-trusted public television programs, books displayed at the library, or Disney movies.
The battle for children’s hearts and minds is waged primarily at home, and Morris depicts a “quieter kind of catechesis” happening with his own kids that entails teaching them the truth about sexuality and gender and relying on resources that reinforce those beliefs—his children prefer Adventures in Odyssey over Arthur.
Meanwhile, a growing number of Christian children’s authors are tackling gender and sexuality, offering discussion starting points. God’s Design (P&R Publishing, 2016), by Sally Michael and Gary Steward, gives a Biblical perspective on manhood and womanhood, and in September, Marty Machowski releases God Made Boys and Girls: Helping Children Understand the Gift of Gender (New Growth Press), geared for ages 3 to 8.
Comments
Midwest preacher
Posted: Sat, 05/18/2019 06:34 amPBS is an interesting organization. They get money from taxpayers, run at least as many "commercials" as any other network, constantly ask for more money (those endless fund raisers) , repeat shows several times a day, and are trying for force a change in the morals of this country. By the way, those fund raisers usually feature an almost conservative entertainer or entertainers who push a sort or "family oriented" picture of PBS.
Laura W
Posted: Sat, 05/18/2019 08:27 pmHonestly, I don't think this is a case of them trying to force a change (at least at the organizational level). Otherwise, why have they waited so long? I'm guessing that they've decided that they'll get more pushback from the public over not depicting the occasional same-sex romance than they will from showing it. And there's a good chance that they're right.
RC
Posted: Wed, 05/22/2019 02:15 pmIn answer to Laura W – I don’t think the public gives any push for LGBT causes. More likely, the LGBT radicals have threatened ACLU action or personal injury to the individuals in charge, or their families, at PBS.
JerryM
Posted: Sun, 05/19/2019 01:07 amI encourage all World members to send feedback to PBS and their local US house representative. These kinds of tax-payer funded actions will only continue unless people make a firm stand against them.
Xion
Posted: Tue, 05/21/2019 04:19 pmChristianity is about to get interesting in this post-Christian nation. Biblical family values have been under attack for decades and we are starting to see the fruit. Biblical childrearing is considered child abuse, but not teaching gender confusion or implementing sexual transformation. Even killing your own children is considered a sacred right. What strange times we live in.
RC
Posted: Wed, 05/22/2019 02:16 pmI agree with your assessment of what is happening, but don’t think it is strange in light of the dark agenda of he who rules the earth, for now.
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19)
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4)
“… in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Eph 2:2)
“Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” (John 12:31)
VolunteerBB
Posted: Sun, 05/26/2019 10:35 pmAgreed. The fundraisers are always something wholesome that would appeal to lots of people. Oldies music, something by Ken Burns, etc. But during the year they are running some shows which are decidedly not Christian or conservative, and mostly about the homosexual agenda.