What a bizarre world we’re living in, with all this silly canceling. Goodness! Dr. Suess, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh? And the list keeps growing. Cartoons are meant to be innocent, nonsensical humor, not analyzed for their depth and symbolism. Personally, I’ve never liked watching cartoons. Never even cracked a smile. But my brothers loved them, they couldn’t wait to watch Saturday morning cartoons. I found them aggravating. Would it really be so bad if Wile E. Coyote caught the Road Runner just once? But what does that say about me? That I want evil to triumph over good once in a while? Of course not, because they’re not real. That’s the whole point. Do you think children would be laughing if a real coyote was being blown up every whipstitch? Of course not.
Cartoons may have not been not my thing, but Dr. Suess books were, and still are. All of them. Mostly because I love reading things that rhyme. I’m either too uncultured or too stupid to appreciate the beauty and symbolism of classic poetry. “Ode to a Grecian Urn?" Does it rhyme? No. Canceled.
Remember the Sunday School lyrics, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world?"
You may have thought your child was learning that every child is precious to Jesus. But no, just the opposite, in today's world this song would have to be canceled, lest it be construed as racist.
I despise racism. I hate the thought of any race being judged by the color of their skin. I’m not naive enough to think we will ever eradicate racism completely, but I did think our country had grown leaps and bounds in achieving Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of being judged “not by the color or our skin, but rather by the content of our character.” Rather than embracing this Biblical principle, our society appears to be going in the opposite direction. In fact, the color of our skin is beginning to trump the content of our character.
We are all made in God’s image. Period. God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34). He is the only One equipped to judge one’s hearts and motives.
I pray all this absurdity ends soon, that instead of kowtowing and making apologies (that are never accepted anyway) people will start pointing it out for the nonsense it is.
People are hurting in these unprecedented times. They’ve lost jobs, homes and loved ones. They’re living in isolation and fear. We are still a compassionate nation. I’ve read many inspiring stories about people reaching out, meeting needs and raising money to help small businesses stay afloat. Yet these aren’t our headlines, no, apparently it's more important to report why libraries need to be purged of Dr. Suess.
There is real evil all around us. All this digging into old cartoons and childrens' books are just a sleight of hand to make us look away from what's really happening. The Bible warns us about calling good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). Jesus didn't leave us without telling us what the last days would look like. He said there will be an increase in natural disasters, earthquakes and famines. Even if everyone on the planet drove an electric car and nary an airplane could be found in the sky, the climate would still change because "God has the whole world in His hands...the wind and the rain...the little bitty baby....you and me sister..."
God has blessed this country beyond measure, but we are moving further and further from Him. Can you imagine how much it would hurt us to see our own children engaged in such divisiveness and rage? How much more it must hurt our Heavenly Father to see His children acting like this. I pray in the coming days we will take to heart Paul’s admonishment to, “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:3). Our country needs unity and love like never before.
God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from above.
