Comments on: The Berenstain Bears are Christian

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:12:00 +0000

I remember seeing this at a bookstore and thought “they’re getting them while they’re young,” That’s some messed up Orwellian stuff right there. O.0

By: Serena Jones

Serena Jones — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:26:00 +0000

This is, indeed, a surprise.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Sat, 28 May 2011 01:51:06 +0000

Susan B. Says:
November 26th, 2008 at 10:43 am
How is the Golden Rule Christian? Or even religious?

The Golden Rule is Christian, because the bible says “Do unto others as you would have them done to you. It’s the way Christ’s love should be shown. That’s where it comes from

Also, i agree with Tiana, So what if the author connects his books with what he believes in? Children don’t think about that. They love his books, that’s what matters. It’s a bonus that they’re learning good morals coming from the bible.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:46:14 +0000

The problem is that they are indoctrinating children. Or at least helping parents to do so.

Targeting religious books at adults is one thing. Filling the minds of impressionable kids with this crap is a whole different matter. They’ll just eat it up without reflecting on it properly.

You can teach your kids good behavior and morals without resorting to religion

By: Tiana

Tiana — Fri, 06 May 2011 03:45:30 +0000

Everyone seems to be hating that the authors paralleled their own beliefs in their books. Wouldn’t you? The authors are distributing books with a positive message. Why all the negative response?

Not all Christians are the hateful lynch-mob that you all enjoy stereotyping to bolster your own bias. How would you like tasteless stereotypes depicting amoral atheists?

Also, there is nothing wrong with homeschooling. The brief time I spent in public school was a depressing nightmare of mediocre education and half-hearted teaching. I know my kid will go either to a charter school or be home schooled.

It’s sad that so many people seem to think that folks of faith (which is a personal choice, as is one to be an atheist or Buddhist or Sufi or Sikh) are all picketers and warmongers and judgmental pricks. My family is made up of atheists, nondenominational Christians, Buddhists, and agnostics. We all love each other, as should all humans love one another.

Maybe my parents just taught me to be more open-minded.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 18:09:14 +0000

How about a few atheist versions of the books to balance things out? Like “The Berenstain Bears Kill Millions Through Marxist Social Engineering” or “The Berenstain Bears and the Agrarian Revolution: Death to the Intellectual Class.”

By: Lomgi

Lomgi — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:26:32 +0000

“I thought atheists were supposed to be more intellectual. And yet here they are crying because some children’s books show a different point of view than theirs. I thought it was religious people who can’t tolerate other views. After you’re done lamenting your sad childhoods and how it was all wrecked, maybe you should have an old fashioned book burning to make yourselves feel better.

I see stupidity, intolerance, and most of all hypocrisy is not exclusive to the religious. Must just be a human condition.”

Sorry, but atheists don’t publish books for children titled “God doesn’t exist”.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:24:08 +0000

“If you get offended by a book don’t buy it” writes FB.

That’s good advice. I went to the bookstore with my two sons to treat them to some more B. Bear books and found a whole shelf of new titles. As we have almost all of the older ones, we were very excited to find new ones to enjoy. We bought three new ones. At home, when I read”Faithful Friends”, I was flabbergasted by the specific references to the Bible. I’m disappointed that I purchased the books, but I won’t make that mistake again. Everyone has the right to believe what they wish about the existence of a God but I will not financially support the dissemination of evangelical ideas through children’s books. If I want to read the bible, I will. I am not interested in the “Berenstain Bears Go Bible Thumping”.

By: Eve

Eve — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:22:49 +0000

I notce, that as soon as the father, Stan died, the Living Lights books started to appear. I guess it depends on how preachy you like your bears. The Living Lights books have a different tone. They are long winded, wordy ,and the illustrations are just illustrations, not spread out and broken up, as before. This new series is not as playful.

By: CJ

CJ — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:14:07 +0000

Wow! This was a huge surprise. I found these newer books by accident. I read most of the Berenstain Bears books when I was a kid, and have a handful for my son as well. I was just browsing around to see if there might be an anthology or something, and “Berenstain Bears: God Loves You???” So bizarre, as there was never any obvious religious connotations in the older books. I wonder if now they’ll republish “Berenstain Bears and The Truth.”

These books always had such good lessons to teach, great artwork and neat stories. I wonder why they decided to cut out non-Christians from their readers, did we do something to piss them off? You don’t need to reference religion to write a story about dealing with moral or ethical dilemmas.