The Top 5 Weirdest Christian Media I saw Growing Up
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but aside from being a film buff I am also a Christian.
My family while believers were also never HUGE into it. Still I was exposed some Christian media growing up that is like a weird repressed memory at this point. Since I enjoy introducing people to obscure stuff others rarely talk about here goes nothing.
I’m not going over “Bibleman,” I was aware of the show as my younger cousin had some tapes and toys, but I was a bit too old for that and haven’t seen anything of aside from the covers.
5.) VeggieTales (TV/Film Series)
I’m starting off with this not because it’s the least weird entry, but because it probably is the most mainstream thing here. I don’t think I need to explain this to most people. I know plenty of people who grew up watching this. As I remember it they did a good enough job making the Bible stories understandable to kids. They’re humor was cute, nothing that would probably make me slap my knee or anything, but also not insultingly bad. It has its own charm is what I’m getting at.
For all of that though, isn’t it just weird that people decided they were going to make a children’s Christian cartoon and have it star… vegetables? AKA: the food most kids dislike eating? If I had to guess I think it was because it was early CGI. I imagine they didn’t have a lot of money or experience so make them vegetables which can be rendered from very basic shapes. But you know what the other real weird part is? There’s a Netflix revival of this and it has real veteran voice actors like Tress MacNeille, Rob Paulsen, and Maurice LaMarche part of the cast now. It’s a part of Dreamworks Animation. What happened? You turn your back for a second and this becomes a total mainstream success.
4.) Kenneth Copeland Westerns (Film Series)
These films actually kinda hold the dearest part of my heart. They’re what introduced me to the western genre. I am a fan of western (specifically it’s my favorite film genre) because of these direct-to-video films. Maybe because I was born in New Mexico, but I’ve always been fascinated with the Southwest. As a kid I thought Wichita Slim was the coolest person with his gun-slinging abilities. “The Gunslinger” felt like a long version of an episode of a TV show. I’ll get back that point. “Covenant Rider” felt much darker and more like a real movie. The last film, “Treasure of Eagle Mountain” I remember just being boring. Still there are two things that distinguish this series from the other entries. One being that as far as I can tell there are no revivals or modern-day equivalents to this. The other is that aside from these harden cowboys stopping to talk about how great God is and quote Bible verses these still feel mostly like real movies. I mean despite killing SUPPOSED to being a big no-no for Christians, they don’t dance around the subject or invent other ways of getting around it. The bad guys die in gun fights just like any other western.
Now that all may sound strange enough to make this list, but I got something more. Remember how I said “The Gunslinger” felt more like an episode from a TV show? Well as a kid I distinctly remember once catching a show that clearly wasn’t this movie, but it had a bunch the actors playing the same roles. So was it a spin-off? After all these years, researching this article gave me a reason to find out. The answer is yes, “The Gospel Bill Show.” It took place in the same town and had most of the same actors playing the same characters (except no Wichita Slim) but was more of a comedy/kids show. Apparently even though it took place in the west in the 1800s the characters use things like TV’s and telephones. Actually that does finally explain to me why one of the characters in “The Gunslinger” wears what looks more like a t-shirt in contrast to everyone else’s more authentic looking costumes. Still think about how weird that is. That would be like if we had a show like “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” and the movies spin-off of it was “Quiz Show.” Not only that, but as the movies continued they got more and more serious and farther away from what they were spun off from. Fascinating.
