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What’s Scarier: Boo at the Zoo, the Christian Sponsors, or the People Who Just Don’t Get It?
By Marc | October 27, 2008
Every Halloween season since 1977, the Lincoln Children’s Zoo has hosted Boo at the Zoo, a big fundraising event to allow kids to trick-or-treat within its gates. In it, the trick-or-treaters walk through the zoo in a pre-set path while local businesses, with displays set up, hand out candy, coupons, and whatnot. One local dentist hands out toothbrushes with his name and contact info printed on them, one grocery store gives out fresh fruit, small bags of chips, and cans of soda, and you can always expect at least five coupons for free food at local restaurants.
Kids and parents from all over look forward to this event as it gives them a chance to trick-or-treat in a safe environment and most children walk away with quite a haul, depending on the usual variables: cuteness of costume, personality of child, generosity of volunteer/employee, and sponsor.
One booth, which has been a part of Boo at the Zoo for fifteen years, Noah’s Ark, sponsored by First Evangelical Covenant Church, daVinci’s restaurants and Champions Fun Center, has pulled out of the festivities this year. Reasons for this are based on the zoo’s request that the sponsors stop printing the story of Noah on their handouts. Noah’s Ark has always had the story printed on the fliers, so it’s something you expect.
Seeing the cards, as a Christian, I often think, “That Rocks!” In today’s world of political correctness and “diversity”, it’s cool to see someone, especially businesses, say, “This is who we are. We’re promoting God and we’ll continue to do it openly.” It’s the same feeling I get when I think of Hobby Lobby or Chik-fil-A.
But I can still remember a little of my days before Christ, as a bitter “new atheist”, who saw it as proselytizing and infringing on my rights. Then I probably would have gone on about keeping “that God stuff” in the churches where it belongs.
I would have seen the pullout by the three organizations as a child’s tantrum because he didn’t get his way. Then, I would have looked forward to a new homogenized society free from outdated superstitions like religion.
And that brings me to a little cartoon by Neal Obermeyer that appeared in yesterday’s paper, which seems to only further the tired misconception that all Christians are exclusionists who want special rights. He doesn’t seem to get it at all. It’s not about being “persecuted” or being the only religion represented. It’s about taking your message and removing the relevancy. It’s about sterilizing your mission to the point it’s no longer understood.
The primary reason for the zoo’s (and the city of Lincoln’s) policy on the Noah story stem from its new diversity guidelines. From the Lincoln Journal Star:
Zoo Executive Director John Chapo said the zoo’s policy reflects its commitment to the cultural diversity of Lincoln.
“We recognize and value the ethnic, religious and racial richness of our community, and we encourage mutual respect and understanding among all people,” Chapo said.
…
“We are trying to accomplish a couple of things: Raise needed funds for the zoo, and provide a safe trick-or-treating opportunity, and welcome all of our community,” Chapo said.
Toward the goal of welcoming all, he said, the zoo told the daVinci’s group to remove the Bible story of Noah’s Ark from the back of the coupons to be distributed during Boo at the Zoo.
The church was still allowed, and encouraged, to print their contact information, website address, and times of worship on the fliers. But the story of Noah was the whole thing that made it special. A quote by Sherri Erikson, from the church, sums it up best (Video link here):
“Without the message of the story, it’s just a boat with a bunch of animals in it and we just can’t compromise the message of what we see as faith.”
Another sore spot is the timing. In the Journal Star article:
[Kelly] Knudson’s group [daVinci's] also was upset about the timing of notice from the zoo. He said the church did not learn of the policy until Oct. 10, and Knudson himself did not learn of it until Oct. 17, when coupons were already being printed and candy purchased.
“We have been there 15 years and we have never pushed our religion on anybody,” Knudson said.
Asked how he would he feel if all religions – including non-Christian ones – were allowed to hand out materials quoting verses and stories, Knudson wasn’t sure.
“It would depend on what they were doing,” he said.
Perhaps this last quote sparked the cartoon, but maybe not. What I can see in Knudson’s doubts is the possibility of subversive material meant to undermine another group’s mission, such as when atheist websites use misinterpretations of the Bible as attempts to attack it.
In the end, though, there doesn’t seem to be any hard feelings in the sides involved. The church and the businesses support the zoo and the event, and vice versa. The church plans to hold its own trick-or-treating event of their own to make use of the coupons, so that’s taken care of.
So, if the zoo, daVinci’s, Champions, and First Evangelical Covenant Church are okay, why do people who aren’t even involved continue to cause a big stink?
Perhaps Mr. Obermeyer’s cartoon should fuel my stereotype of media and artistic types being overly liberal.
Here are some relevant articles:
Ben Stein: Jewish, but OK with Christmas Trees
Australian Commercial has Christians in a Tizzy
Public Schools Against Christians, For Muslims
And last year’s Boo at the Zoo:
Happy Halloween
Topics: Faith, Holidays, In the News | No Comments »
