Want to Know God Better? Read Your Bible. Or Watch G.I. Joe.

This past weekend, the Pastor in my church was doing a sermon on anger. At one point, he mentioned how his son, Ronny, used to deal with a lot of anger as a child. He would do and say things that puzzled his parents. And then the pastor said that he went into the living room where his son was watching cartoons, and he heard some of those same destructive phrases coming from the TV set.

The show that his son was watching?

G.I. Joe.

His point was that sometimes we mimic the way we express anger from those around us. I have no problem with that. But let me tell you, I was deeply troubled in my spirit when, from the pulpit, our head Pastor seemed to imply that there are potential negative spiritual ramifications to watching G.I. Joe. This not only flies in the face of common experience of thousands of Christians, but I also believe is unBiblical. The Bible is silent on thousands of contemporary issues: G.I. Joe is not one of them.

First off, just look at all the people in the Bible who were named "Joe." One of the major characters in the book of Genesis is Joseph, known to his friends as Joe. Famous king of Israel? Jehosophat. Notice it's spelled "phat." Joe's so phat. The man whose tomb Christ was buried in. Joseph of Arimathea. The earthly father of Christ? Also Joe. And all of these men are *good* example in the Bible. They are not deeply flawed. It's as though the Bible itself is saying, "Yo! Joe!"

Secondly, I find it no mistake that the name of the arch enemy of GI Joe is Cobra Commander. Cobra? Serpent? Hello, Genesis 3. Later in the series, the arch enemy was "Serpentor." You can't get more obvious, people. Also, in the Gospels, Jesus says that there is an enemy that has come to "Steal, Kill and Destroy."

The enemy = Destroy. Take off the "Y." Destro. This isn't some secret Bible Code. I mean, it's all right there.

And lastly, let's examine the leaders of the fearless G.I. Joe squadron. First, there's Snake Eyes. In Revelation, it says that the serpent will strike at the hell of the Son of Man, but that he will crush it's head. Where are the eyes of a snake? In its head. What will the Son of Man crush? That's right. Snake Eyes.

Also, there's Duke, which is a title similar to prince. Jesus was frequently called the "Prince of Peace."

And most obviously, there's the American Indian leader who came *after* Snake Eyes in the series. Jesus said, "When I go, I will leave you a helper." What is that helper? The Holy Spirit. The name of that American Indian leader? Spirit. Coincidence. I think not.

And lastly, the most obvious example. There's the name of God. What is the name that the Lord gave to Moses? The actual name of God Himself? Jehovah. Je-hov-vah In the Hebrew, spelled, GI-Hoe-Vah.

GI-JOE-VAH

Think about it.

I know this might seem a bit overboard, but I think it's high time that this church examined more fully what the Bible has to say about Saturday morning cartoons. I for one, am considering going to seminary and doing my doctoral work on "The Christology of Optimus Prime" or perhaps "Eschatology, the End times, and the ThunderCats. Ho!"