Those bears made their creators, Stan and Jan Berestain multi-bazillionaires. Not too shabby for a couple who met on their first day of drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art in 1941. Let the good times roll!
THE BERENSTAIN BEAR FORMULA
The stories of the endearing Bear family follow a formula according to Paul Farhi: "The action usually starts when the kids face a problem. They turn to Papa, who offers a 'solution' that only makes the problem—or the kids' fears about it—even worse. Enter Mama, who eventually sets everyone straight."
Charles Krauthammer, although not a fan of the Bears, said that his four-year old son can't get enough of the Berenstain clan. "The books are filled with appealing color pictures and funny characters," one mother says, and another gushes about the Bears, "We really enjoyed this book. My 8 year old read it to me. It is a good introductory science book. I found that it introduced a lot of natural science vocabulary. My son loves The Bears and this was a good book. I would recommend it for grades 1st and below"
Could there be a better way to introduce a child ("1st grade and below) to the joy of reading than the Berenstain Bears? Even the name has an appealing alliterative ring to it.
But not so fast, Francis. There's a Bear book called,"A Nature Walk through Bear Country," and in that story, the Berestain Bears come to the reader bearing (pun intended) a cup of hemlock ripe for the drinking. A naive parent, wanting to encourage the child to read, innocently purchases "A Nature Walk through Bear Country," thinking that this little story will introduce her budding genius to the world of science and build the little darling's vocabulary prowess But what she doesn't know is that she's moving a Trojan Horse into her home and the words of one catchy sentence in the book are poised in the belly of the book to invade the mind of her child.
As she reads the story to her little boy, she comes to the sentence tucked away in the Trojan Horse, and once she reads it, the Trojan equine is in: "Nature is all there is, was, or ever will be." There it is, poison from the pen of Stan and Jan. Whether the young mother knows it or not, she and the Bears have her son that matter is eternal; it is all there is, was or will be. Most likely, she reads on, giving what she's just read little or no thought.
What she may not know is that the sentence is close to the one which astronomer Carl Sagan (1934-1996) made iconic in his 1980 PBS series, The Cosmos, the series considered the ground-breaking series of scientific documentaries. The Cosmos was the vehicle that Carl Sagan used to burn his famous sentence into our brains. He thought it was such an important statement that he began every episode with: "The universe is all there is, was, and ever will be."
Sagan believed that the universe is eternal; for him to have admited otherwise would have rocked his socks because such an admission would mean that Someone outside of space and time created it. Yet Sagan saw what we all see; he saw the universe, that it's running down, he saw that the world and he himself are passing away, decaying, which means it all had a beginning at some point. But yet, he still said, "The universe is all there is, was, and ever will be." It is his untestable assumption, his presupposition taken by faith from which he begins to think about the universe. But enough of Sagan.
BIGGER FISH: THE DEFAULT SETTING
We have bigger fish to fry. The problem is that the Sagan Slogan is the default setting of the world system; it permeates the culture and is passed on by the educational systems from kindergarten to grad school. For our culture, Sagan's slogan is an assumed, unquestionable, and undiscussable given. Send your kid to a state or private university, and all the knowledge the professors transmit to him will be from that foundation.
But there are other Trojan Horses transmitting the sentence: books, magazines, journals, music, movies, and TV programs march into our minds from that one-sentence starting point: "The Universe is all there is, was, or ever will be." Many are the teachers who are dedicating their lives to its propagation and to the ridicule and scorn of those who believe otherwise. Speakers who disagree with Sagan's Slogan won't be invited to speak at commencement exercises or come to the campus to give lectures.
THE ELECTION OF NOVEMBER 4 AND ALL ELECTIONS TO COME
I hope my candidates win on Tuesday November 4th and in all other elections to come, but I know, I absolutely know. they won't; what I hope and what I know are two different things. But I do know this: no matter who wins, even if my hallowed candidates somehow win, Harvard and Yale, the Ivy League, the schools of the Pac 10, and the Big XII will continue playing football and turning out their product of an educated man or woman who may not have come to their groves of academe` believing the Sagan Sloan, but they will by the time they're through with them. The world system will have done its inexorable work.
If my candidates do emerge victorious on November 4, there will be no change in the content of movies or television programs, except maybe to get worse and more blatant in their espousal of the Sagan slogan. It doesn't matter which candidates win--the world system will go on giving its awards and accolades to the story tellers who produce the dramas, the comedies, and the books that adhere to the motto of The Cosmos.
On November 5th, the day after the election, nothing will change and we who defy the slogan will continue to be marginalized, ridiculed, scorned, denied promotions, and forced into sensitivity sessions, world without end, amen. Even if I win on that one day of the electoral process, I'll lose the other 364 days of the year. What a pessimist I am, but I've read II Tim. 3:13, so I can't help it; I must be a realist. But yet, what an optimist I am and I'm an optimist because I hear something.
I HEAR LAUGHTER AND SCORN AND THERE'S SOMEONE THERE
But do you hear it? It's there. It's divine laughter: "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger . . ." (Ps. 2:2). Do you hear the psalmist's scorn: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God."" (Ps. 14:1) Let's paraphrase that verse: "The fool says in his heart, 'The universe is all that is, was or ever will be.' " Do you hear Paul?--"Professing himself to be be wise, Sagan became a fool." (Paraphrase of Romans 1:22)
I hear the laughter when the Bible says that Jesus Christ is returning and bringing with Him His rod of iron (Ps. 2). This world needs taking over, and He's God's anointed Person to do it, in spite of what all political parties say about their hallowed candidates.
I am the pessamist/realist/optimist. And in the meantime, I want to keep on evangelizing and making disciples, which I enjoy, because I hear the laughter.
___________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak, available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."
If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.
Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.
Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:
notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org
Also:
Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582
There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99"There is
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99"There is
There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99
There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99
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