Now they’re going after Bluey for being woke

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on October 8, 2024.

“We can’t know whether Bluey will one day go the woke way of Peppa,” The Gospel Coalition’s Brett McCracken wrote two years ago in response to the cartoon Peppa Pig introducing “a character with ‘two mummies.’”

According to McCracken, “Pressure is immense and relentless for even the most innocent children’s entertainment to advance progressive narratives.”

Bluey is a cartoon on Disney+ that shows a family of dogs living together in Queensland.

Brett McCracken

According to McCracken, one of the evidences Bluey is good is that it contrasts “masculine, axe-wielding dads” with “precocious, hard-bargaining daughters” who paint fingernails and toenails due to “the show’s insistence on gender differences.”

But he warned: “Time will tell as to whether Bluey will cower to such demands and incorporate queer canines into its storylines. But for now, we can commend the show for its beautiful depictions of traditional family structures and joyful celebration of childhood, motherhood, fatherhood and the ways in which each distinct role interacts in a beautiful dance, according to an ingenious design.”

According to some conservatives, McCracken’s worst fears have come true and Bluey has gone the woke way of Peppa.

“We’re playing checkers with those who are playing chess, and we’ve been checkmated over and over again,” author Jeremy Pryor wrote in a 2023 piece that was republished this week by The Blaze. “We need to get into the details of the beautiful biblical balancing of the life-giving presence of motherhood and the training, territory expanding and leadership of fatherhood.”

Bert and Ernie on “Sesame Street”

Evangelical conservatives fearing leftist indoctrination in children’s programming is nothing new. Similar fears have been raised in the past about everything from Sesame Street to Teletubbies to a wide range of Disney characters.

So what exactly is Bluey’s blasphemy?

Pryor contends Bandit, Bluey’s father, “embodies almost all of the elements of the traditional mother, purged of the essence of elements from the historic father. … The dad, Bandit, is seen as a constantly nurturing, always-present playmate to his two daughters, Bluey and Bingo. He’s so present, in fact, that fans of the show often joke about when Bandit finds time to work, and in the show, it’s clear that the mother has less time to play than the dad.”

Even worse, according to Pryor, Bandit’s presence with his kids “provides freedom for the mother to get out in the world and explore her individual passions.”

Women being free to explore their passions? Oh, the indoctrination!

Thankfully, the piece has been getting pushback, not from the chess playing “woke mob,” but from other Christians.

“Why does conservative Christian media have to be so effing horrible? Nothing broadly wholesome they won’t crap on as too woke or subversive of biblical standards. These people,” sociologist Samuel Perry lamented. “I mean what the heck is wrong with these miserable people? I hear conservative Christians ‘just want to build beautiful things and mind their own business’ and it’s just a patent lie. It’s full-time culture-warring. If you’re not complaining it’s cuz you’re part of ‘the regime.’”

“Nothing broadly wholesome they won’t crap on as too woke or subversive of biblical standards.”

Zach Lambert, pastor of Restore Austin, added, “What an indictment of toxic Christian masculinity that the presence of a kind and nurturing father is decried as too feminine.”

“Bluey!?” Pastor Kevin Young exclaimed. “They’ve gone too far. I’ll fight them on this.”

And Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana joked, “Teletubbies!!” while noting, “The writer of that piece says that maybe 1% of readers may agree with him.”

Men must rule over women, children and Jesus

Unfortunately, in today’s culture of authoritarian Christianity, Pryor’s belief that “maybe less than 1%” agree with him is a bit naive.

Pryor’s views of the family are exactly in line with what many conservative Christians believe, including the GOP’s vice presidential candidate JD Vance. In an earlier piece for The Blaze, Pryor supported Vance’s demonization of “childless cat ladies” and politicians who don’t have kids. He argued, “If you want to rule over us, we have a right to know why you chose not make the sacrifices required to raise a family.”

He claims those who object to JD Vance’s claims about childless politicians care more about a “perception of fairness” than “fitness for leadership” and argues that those who have never ruled over a household should not be allowed to rule over millions of households.

To men like Vance and Pryor, society is a created order of hierarchical relationships where someone at the top of government and the home rules over those below. Because these hierarchies promote women making food in the kitchen and babies on the bed, this means men ruling over women and children and being free to explore their passions, while women are kept quiet and busy.

But ironically, it also means these Christian nationalist men would rule over Jesus too. When building his case against childless people being elected to public office, Pryor bases his arguments on the qualifications of an elder in 1 Timothy 3:12.

Continue reading at Baptist News Global.