A few days ago, Uncle Sam came close to banning Tony the Tiger.

Tony, you may recall, is the official spokes feline for Frosted Flakes.  He has been doing it since I was a little kid, which means he has been doing it for a long time.

But for the intervention of some cereal-loving members of Congress, officials of several Federal agencies would have banned the use of kid-friendly characters like Tony from promoting food products.  It appears Uncle Sam is afraid that Tony will lure young folks into food that lacks the proper nutrition.

At this point you probably wonder why I bring this up on a blog that normally deals with issues of faith.

Well, I’m thinking that if the government doesn’t want a company to appeal to kids through a pretend tiger, the same government might not want a church to appeal to innocent minds through cartoons, children’s books or games at vacation Bible school.  From the government perspective, if it is bad for a cereal maker to foist sugar-coated corn flakes on kids, how much worse are churches in luring unsuspecting youngsters with stories of Moses, Noah, David and Jesus?

I have this uneasy feeling that a government that starts telling you how to sell breakfast food will soon be telling you what to believe – and not believe.  That would not be grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat.