Adam Page, one of the pastors of the SBC-affiliated Amelia Baptist Church in Fernandina Beach, FL, made waves on Twitter this week after sharply criticizing VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer. Having deleted the original tweet, Page now says that he has been in conversation with Vischer.
“I’m going to say this once more. Veggietales NEVER taught the Gospel. It gave us the Cheeseburger song, which was stellar. Other than that, it’s as Christian as Mormonism,” Page said on December 30 in his now deleted tweet. “Why are we still platforming its creator like he’s a leading evangelical voice? God, grant us discernment.”
Though Vischer’s Big Idea Productions filed for bankruptcy in 2003, which led to Vischer losing control of the company and the VeggieTales characters, he has gone on to other successes including the “What’s in the Bible?” instructional DVD series for families and the popular Holy Post Podcast, which he co-hosts with Skye Jethani.
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Nevertheless, Vischer has come under fire on a number of occasions in recent years for, among other things, his vocal advocacy of racial justice and warnings against evangelicals being too closely aligned with the Republican party.
In addition to the weekly Holy Post podcast, Vischer has also periodically released explainer videos exploring topics of race in America, social welfare programs, and the relationship between race and voting patterns, often raising the ire of some evangelical conservatives who see him as too “woke.”
Earlier in the day on December 30, Page had retweeted a statement Vischer made about how nationalism often leads to harm of one’s neighbor. In that retweet, Page suggested that Vischer has “been talking to tomatoes for too long.”
Though VeggieTales is widely beloved among a certain generation of American evangelicals, Page’s deleted tweet argued that the program was not distinctly Christian enough, and, by extension, seemed to imply that neither was Vischer.
After deleting his original tweet, Page explained why he chose to do so.
“I deleted the VeggieTales take. Couldn’t care less it was popular. I’m sick of critical comments getting mega traction on this Jerry Springer social network which immediately kills conversation,” Page said. “@philvischer & I have been talking for an hour & man do we disagree but we’re talking.”
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