The vegetables on VeggieTales are not Christian
Some people are confused about what this means
Every so often, someone goes viral for observing that in the VeggieTales canon, none of the vegetables are Christian, the latest being Isaac King:
To be clear, VeggieTales is still Christian media. While nearly all of the bible stories depicted on the show are taken from the Old Testament, each episode typically ends with a visit to QWERTY the computer, who pulls up a bible verse that’s relevant to the day’s lesson, often from the Christian New Testament:
But when Phil Vischer co-created VeggieTales, he had three rules on the recommendation of his mother, who taught at the Wheaton Grad School for 25 years in children’s ministry:
My mother had three rules for VeggieTales. …
“Rule number one, you will not portray Jesus as a vegetable.” You know, I thought, ‘well, there goes the New Testament.’
“Rule number two, you will not imply that vegetables can have redemptive relationships with Christ.” Like, ‘oh, okay. Well this is getting tricky.’ And that’s why Bob and Larry never pray on the kitchen countertop when they’re being Bob and Larry. They will pray when they’re being a Bible character in a Bible story. …
And third rule she said was, “as often as you can, remind kids how special they are, and how much God loves them.” And so that’s why every show ends with “Remember kids, God made you special and He loves you very much. Goodbye.”
Note the phrasing of the Bob and Larry sign-off: “God made you (not us) special, and He loves you very much.”
The facts of this story are not controversial; series co-creator Phil Vischer has been sharing this “VeggieTales origin story” for decades, and continues telling it well into 2025. This writing policy was most recently confirmed earlier this week on Twitter by VeggieTales writer Ethan Nicolle that these remained his marching orders:
And again, it should be said that while the vegetables are not saved, they’re not secular. They believe that Jesus died for humanity’s sins, but “humanity” is a category that excludes vegetables. Nothing about the Vischer mandate is “anti-Christian.”
But some people on Twitter are upset about the fact that their favorite characters aren’t saved, and have come up with what they think are “counterexamples” that prove that the vegetables can in fact have a redemptive relationship with God:
Chris here seems to be disputing the claim that “the vegetables on VeggieTales aren’t Christian” by showing screenshots from An Easter Carol. Let’s take a closer look at that episode, and what these screenshots actually show.
An Easter Carol: what it is (and what it isn’t)
This story is loosely based on A Christmas Carol, featuring Reverend Gilbert, a preacher who is trying to save his church from a Scrooge-like Ebenezer Nezzer who is trying to tear it down to build an “Easterland” theme park, full of plastic eggs and chocolate bunnies.
At first blush, the existence of this episode seems to disprove the claim point that “the vegetables aren’t Christian.” Here we have vegetables going to church on Sunday, and we even have a minister named Rev. Gilbert.
And in one stirring moment, Rev. Gilbert tells his son Edmund, “no matter what happens, God is taking care of us.”
Wait. Taking care of us? What happened to the carefully-worded second-person address telling us that “God made you (the viewer) special and loves you very much?” It seems like these vegetables have a redemptive relationship with God!
But here’s a question: do Reverend Gilbert and his son Edmund actually exist, or are they fictional characters?
I don’t mean from our perspective. Of course they’re fictional characters to us. But from the perspective of the vegetables in VeggieTales, are Reverend Gilbert and his son Edmund real people?
No, they are not! Anyone who has watched VeggieTales will instantly recognize, “Hey, that’s Junior Asparagus, and his dad, Mike Asparagus!” Within the VeggieTales canon, Mike and Junior Asparagus are real, but Rev. Gilbert and Edmund are fictional, just as Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim are fictional to us.
Mike Asparagus is not a Christian; he is an actor who occasionally portrays Christian characters. You might compare Mike Asparagus to Mark Williams, who is not a practicing Christian, but still portrays the fictional character of Father Brown on TV:
Much like we must separate real-life actors from the roles they play on screen, we must separate the “real” vegetables in VeggieTales from the fictional characters they portray in their in-world productions.
The play within a play
Phil Vischer was very conscious about this separation in the interview I quoted earlier:
“Rule number two, you will not imply that vegetables can have redemptive relationships with Christ.” Like, ‘oh, okay. Well this is getting tricky.’ And that’s why Bob and Larry never pray on the kitchen countertop when they’re being Bob and Larry. They will pray when they’re being a Bible character in a Bible story.
(Phil only specifies “Bible story,” but as we’ll see, the point generalizes to all stories that are depicted as a “play within a play,” productions that happen within the fiction of the VeggieTales universe.)
There are multiple layers to what is happening in the vegetables’ world. On one level, you have Bob and Larry, a tomato and cucumber who live on a kitchen counter:
But while many episodes begin and end on a kitchen counter, the bulk of the show consists of the vegetables dressing up in costumes to portray different characters. One week, Larry the cucumber might be Daniel in the lion’s den, the next he might be Joshua toppling the walls of Jericho.
And sometimes the stories take place in contemporary settings, like in The Toy That Saved Christmas, where Bob, Larry, and Junior Asparagus learn about the true meaning of Christmas from a talking toy:
This can get a bit confusing, because sometimes in the “play within a play,” the vegetables play fictionalized versions of themselves. For example, in The Toy That Saved Christmas, Larry plays a character called “Larry.” But the show is still very explicit about the fact that this is a “play within a play” by giving the episode a Princess Bride style-framing device, where we open on Annie Onion asking grandpa George to tell her a bedtime story:
This “vegetables playing fictionalized versions of themselves in contemporary settings” is what seems to trip up Isaac King, who discovered a musical number in which Junior Asparagus lies in bed and sings:
And so, it’s really good to know how much You love me
It’s true, the Bible says You do, You really love me
Your love was with me all throughout my day
In my bed so quietly, I rest in knowing God loves me!
It sounds like he has a redemptive relationship with God. But if we actually watch the full clip, right before Junior Asparagus sings his song, we can clearly see that this is not actually a child in his bedroom: he is an actor, on a set:
People playing fictionalized versions of themselves (who go by the same name) is not without real-world precedent, as anyone who has watched The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is well aware that the actions and biography of Will Smith (fictional character) should not be mistaken for those of Will Smith (actor). See also the numerous comedians who star in TV shows where they play fictionalized versions of themselves, like Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Pete Holmes, and so on.
The vegetable most prone to this sort of “same name confusion” is probably Mr. Nezzer, whose intimidating stature often has him portraying antagonist characters named Nezzer, like Nebby K. Nezzer (a phonetic stand-in for “Nebekenezer” in Rack, Shack & Benny), and Ebenezer Nezzer in An Easter Carol.
But the “real life” out-of-character Mr. Nezzer is actually a friendly swell guy who gets together with all of the other veggies to sing carols at Christmas, as is made clear in the 1996 Christmas album A Very Veggie Christmas. This album provides us with yet further clarification that the events of the morality plays on the show are fictional from the perspective of the vegetables:
Bob Tomato: I think now would be a good time to watch the songs from our new video, The Toy that Saved Christmas!
(“It’s Christmas” plays)
Bob Tomato: Fast-forward to the next song! I’ll be right back!
(VHS tape whirring sounds)
Mr. Nezzer: Wait a minute! Don’t you want to watch the factory scene? It’s one of my finest performances! Oh look, there I am!
Mr. Lunt: Heh. You look really funny in fast-forward, boss! Hey, have you lost weight?
But while A Very Veggie Christmas does make it very explicit that there is a layer of separation between the vegetables’ “reality” and their morality plays, it does provide us with a bit of a challenge: isn’t celebrating Christmas by getting together and singing songs a rather Christian thing to do? On this album, Junior Asparagus and Archibald Asparagus can very clearly be heard singing:
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today
That sounds like a very explicit profession of Christian faith! Are the vegetables contradicting Phil Vischer’s marching order to “not portray the vegetables having a redemptive relationship with God” when they sing O Little Town of Bethlehem?
I would contend that they are not. VeggieTales can have the Asparagus family sing O Little Town of Bethlehem without violating “no implied redemptive relationship,” for the same reason that plenty of secular singers can belt Hark! The Herald Angels Sing without actually accepting the Nicene Creed in the second verse.
Decades of Disney movies have taught us that musical numbers are the place where people authentically and explicitly announce the intentions of their hearts. But here in the real world, it’s often the opposite: a teenager singing “I go on too many dates, but I can’t make ‘em stay” is not actually telling us anything about her life, except that she is a fan of Taylor Swift. Christianity is the topic of the song, not the state of the singer.
But while the vegetables may not be saved, they’re more theistic than secular carolers. The vegetables still believe in God. (As James 2:19 reminds us, it’s possible to believe in God’s existence without having a redemptive relationship with Him.)
VeggieTales is Christian media. The vegetables believe and endorse the core Christian claim: God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die and rise again so that human beings, the actual image-bearers that He made in His image, can be reconciled to Him.
This offer of redemption is not available to talking produce, or pets, or robots. But you are a human being, made in God’s image: God made you special, and He loves you very much.
2025-12-26 update: I have written a follow-up post based on reader questions responding to this post:
I accept the facts at presented, but it doesn't sit well with me.
"Jesus didn't die for vegetables," sure. I accept that Jesus didn't die for the peppers I'm neglecting in my fridge. But the cast of veggie tales are, within the universe of the show, sentient, sapient. We call them vegetables because of their similar appearance (and taste?) to what we call vegetables, but can they really be considered the same thing? If you were to take my consciousness and put it in, just to pick at random, a pickle, have I forfeited salvation?
Then again, as vegetables, do they need salvation? Being non-human, are they burdened by original sin? Do they despair, preaching a message they know does not apply to them? Do they hope that if they're faithful enough that they'll reach salvation?
This article is way smarter than it has any right to be, judging from its title and apparent subject matter alone. My expectations were pleasantly subverted, bravo.