The Brew: Calling Evil Good and Good a Theft
Happy Wednesday!
Let’s end May with a jolt of strong Brew.
Calling Evil Good: Yay to Transgender-Pushing Book for Kindergarteners, Nay to Peter Rabbit
Often it’s wonderful to see the Bible come alive in living color. Take The Chosen … or personal scenes of loving thy neighbor. But sometimes, it’s not so wonderful.
Take “calling evil good and good evil.”
Grooming Kindergarten Kids
Right now, a transgenderist book called Call Me Max is offered to kindergarteners … and Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit is in the crosshairs.
Parents advocacy group Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) revealed that the Osseo Area School district in Minnesota is offering up Call Me Max to its youngest tots. The book teaches kids what it means to be “transgender.” It sure teaches them to question their sex based on sexual stereotypes:
I told my friend … that I might be a boy
“I can’t be a girl,” I said. “I hate wearing dresses.”
He looked down at his dress and he glared at me.
“This is my favorite dress. And I like being a boy.”
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “And it’s a pretty dress. But I still know I’m a boy.”
Notice how Max went from “might” be a boy to “know” I’m a boy in just one exchange?
Mother LaDawn Severin took the school board to task at a board meeting. “First graders are busy enough trying to master phonics and trying to learn how to read. Why would we allow authority figures to plant seeds of doubt that their existence simply as a boy or a girl might be a mistake? And we wonder why there’s a mental health crisis.”
A spokesperson for Osseo Area Schools acknowledges to CITC that the book is “included in kindergarten classrooms as an option during independent reading time.” But he added the book is not used for instructional purposes.
Oh. That’s okay then. We leave a loaded gun in the classroom, but we don’t use it for target practice or shooting lessons. So it’s safe.
Boiling Peter Rabbit
Meanwhile, the classic Peter Rabbit series from Beatrix Potter is the latest beloved work in the cultural crosshairs. Dr. Emily Zobel Marshall of Leeds Becket University calls the beloved books “problematic.”
As Fox News reports, she claims in a paper published May 19 the treasured tales are more likely than not taken from the “Brer Rabbit” stories that originally date back to pre-colonial Africa.
Argues Marshall: “Her tales owe a debt to the Brer Rabbit stories told by enslaved Africans working on American plantations that needs to be fully acknowledged.”
But how much of a debt, if any? True, Potter did know well the Brer Rabbit stories of Joel Chandler Harris, as she was an avid reader of fairy tales and fantasy. But she’d also spent years creating illustrated fantasies featuring her large menagerie of pets: including her pet rabbits.
Peter Rabbit, specifically, originated as a letter to the five-year-old son of her former governess. And, of course, her illustrations are a huge part of Potter’s appeal.
Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.
Fox News doesn’t seem to be buying what Marshall is selling:
Brer Rabbit, Marshall explained, was a “cunning trickster was known for outwitting his often more powerful animal adversaries using brains rather than brawn.” Peter Rabbit, on the other hand, is famous for wearing a blue jacket and coming up with mischievous plots.
Doesn’t Brer Rabbit sound more like Bugs Bunny than Peter Rabbit? Look out, Warner Brothers!
Why such a concerted effort to tear down anything that is widely beloved by Western culture? Marshall herself may not be concerned much beyond the academic study of Peter Rabbit’s literary pedigree. Unfortunately, we’ve seen how this story goes. “Beatrix Potter? Oh, she just ripped off slave stories.”
#BoycottTarget = Terrorism?
A University of Minnesota economics professor Justin Wolfers went on MSNBC to discuss the calls for a boycott of Target, calling them “literal terrorism.” Yeah, his full quote is more nuanced than that.
“This is economic terrorism, literally terrorism, creating fear among the workers and forcing the corporations to sell the things you want, not sell the things you don’t.”
That’s not what a boycott is. It’s saying “We’re not going to spend our hard-earned money in a place hostile to our values.” Remember when the left wanted to boycott Chick-fil-A? Did anyone call it “terrorism”?
But that’s not even what makes Wolfer’s statement so irritating. We get his politics. He suggests Target was “cowardly” for listening to their customers and shifting some of the Pride merchandise. What’s odd is he’s talking about terrorism and Target and “fear among the workers” at the same time Target stores are struggling with looters. You don’t think that people storming in and grabbing stuff is frightening?
According to Target’s 1st quarter statement, they expect a $1.3 billion loss due to “theft and organized crime.” Last month, a San Francisco Target was forced to lock up its cosmetic and toiletry products.
Retail stores coast-to-coast are being ransacked by mobs.
Yet, people saying, “We’re not going to shop at Target when they shove trans-friendly tuck swimwear in my kids’ face” is terrorism?
Let’s talk terror. The terror of running afoul of the mob. And the bravery to stand up.
A Tale of Two Pitchers
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass apologized Tuesday for reposting on social media a video calling for boycotts of Target and Bud Light.
Statement from Anthony Bass: pic.twitter.com/UXLrx1HVO5
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) May 30, 2023
“I recognize yesterday that I made a post that was hurtful to the Pride community, which includes friends of mine and close family members of mine, and I am truly sorry for that. … I am using the Blue Jays’ resources to better educate myself to make better decisions moving forward.”
Before re-educating Bass and wringing an apology out of him in a manner that’d make Mao proud, the Toronto Blue Jays released a statement:
The Blue Jays are proud to celebrate LGBTQ2S+ Pride Month, including a special fourth annual Pride Weekend at the ballpark June 9 and 10, and demonstrations of allyship all month long around the ballpark.
Nationals Pitcher Trevor Williams Calls Out Dodgers for Rewarding Anti-Catholic Bigots
Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams has called out the Los Angeles Dodgers for celebrating the Catholic-mocking drag club Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. In a remarkably brave statement, Williams said, “To invite and honor a group that makes a blatant and deeply offensive mockery of my religion and the religion of over 4 million people in the Los Angeles county alone, undermines the values of respect and inclusivity that should be upheld by any organization.”
He also noted that the invitation is a “clear violation” of the teams own discrimination policy, “which explicitly states that any conduct or attire at the ballpark that is deemed to be indecent or prejudice against any particular group (or religion) is not tolerated. ” The pitcher encouraged his fellow Catholics “to reconsider their support of an organization that allows this type of mockery of its fans to occur.”
— Trevor Williams (@MeLlamoTrevor) May 30, 2023
Along The Stream
The new “Conversations with Christians Engaged” podcast is up! Part four of Bunni’s series on “LIFE in a Post-Roe World.”
This week, Matt Lockett of Bound4LIFE joins Christians Engaged Founder Bunni Pounds to discuss raising up the next generation of intercessors for the unborn and how their prayers at Bound4LIFE have changed over the last few months, after years of standing on the Supreme Court steps with the iconic red tape with “LIFE” over their mouths.
Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.
