Most of my readers are aware that I have two websites on this domain: one devoted to the Christian faith, and one focused on G. I. Joe. This pairing has proved convenient for quite a few Christian Joe fans out there, many of whom have expressed appreciation for showing that one can be a Christian and still have fun. The Christian life isn't all about serious doctrinal debate. But over the years this site has been on-line, I have received nine critical e-mails that suggest that G. I. Joe is somehow "evil" and incompatible with the Christian focus of Realms of Faith. I recognize that there is much in fiction and fantasy that Christians should avoid, especially for the sake of children in believing families. However, how does G. I. Joe rate from a Christian perspective?
For those who aren't familiar with G. I. Joe, it is essentially a line of toy soldiers that are articulated to allow the maximum flexibility for posing and playing. The toy line's history goes back to 1964, but the smaller figures in stores today were released beginning in 1982. The G. I. Joe cartoon that ran from 1983 through 1987 is most likely the cause for some Christians' concern. The show ran one hundred episodes and can still be seen on at least one cable station. The mission statement for the cartoon reads: "G. I. Joe is the code name for America's daring, highly trained special mission force. Its purpose: to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world." Toys released since fall 2001 have had references to terrorism removed and now refer to Cobra as a "criminal organization."
Since the Joe cartoon was a phenomenon of the 1980s, it is no larger the target of much criticism from Christians, if it ever was. During its run, the primary concerns about the show were from secular groups who believed that all children's entertainment should be educational, that the show glorified war and contained a great deal of violence, and that such shows were nothing more than 22-minute commercials for the toys. From what I can gather, Christians who dislike the show point to the plots of a few episodes and the treatment of one of the characters as evidence that it may be harmful for children. Here I'll explore G. I. Joe according to basic principles, addressing these specific concerns along the way.
One of the first things to look at when judging entertainment, especially as a parent, is whether the sights and sounds themselves are objectionable. Foul language, crude humor, substance abuse, sexual content, explicit or implied nudity, disgusting images, and graphic violence are the kinds of content Christians may want to avoid. Certainly a good deal of entertainment today exists solely for the sake of such content. Even children's cartoons today tend to push the envelope in some of these areas.
Censors in the 1980s were much stricter than today, and so nearly all cartoons of that time were squeaky clean. G. I. Joe is no exception. Aside from four instances of the exclamation, "Good Lord," there is no foul language. Nor is there any of the "bathroom humor" that so fills most of today's children's shows. None of the Joes ever drinks, and the only substance abuse is in a two-part anti-drug episode that aired in a later, poor-quality 1990s Joe series (which is not being considered in this analysis due to its obscurity). The series is totally absent of sexually inappropriate or suggestive comments or other sexual material. A few of the monsters that appear on the show are a bit slimy, but there is no blood and gore.
I'd like to take a look at the criticism of cartoon violence for a moment. Since this is a program about a "war on terror," we would expect violence to be a significant portion of its content. Forbidden by censors to use bullets, the animators have their cartoon characters use lasers for hand weapons, but missiles, bombs, and hand-to-hand combat are fairly common. Swords appear occasionally, but never make contact with flesh. In fact, characters are rarely hit by weapons at all, and if hit by a laser, they only fall unconscious. The Joes' first sergeant, Duke, goes into a coma in two episodes - once from a fall off a booby-trapped oil rig, and once when struck in the heart in a fight with Cobra leader Serpentor. (This occurred in the Movie.) The death count on the show is, for all practical purposes, zero, since soldiers are nearly always seen running or parachuting from vehicles just before they explode. The result is a lot of destroyed property but very little human-on-human violence beyond punching and kicking.
One of the most common criticisms of cartoon violence is that it teaches children that "violence is a valid solution to problems." G. I. Joe actually addresses that question in a few second-season episodes. The fact is, there are times when violence is the only solution to problems. Terrorism is one such problem. For children in everyday situations, violence is not acceptable; but nations must sometimes go to war in certain just causes. Children should learn this lesson, or else they will have difficulty understanding history when they study America's past conflicts in school. (For a study on what makes war just or unjust, see Darrell Cole's book When God Says War Is Right.) In my judgment, the violence on G. I. Joe is not something to avoid, but provides an opportunity for parents to discuss the ethics of war with their children.
I must admit that for a few years, my own parents forbid me to collect G. I. Joe toys out of concern for war violence. They preferred that I spend my time with Star Wars, since it was less realistic. (Star Wars has received its own share of criticism from Christians, but that's an issue for another time.) But I did watch the Joe cartoon after school, and my parents discovered that it wasn't nearly as bad as they had expected. I think they may have feared it was a Saving Private Ryan sort of thing. The innocence of the show led them to encourage my interests in G. I. Joe, and that is when I began collecting. Unless something is obviously inappropriate, I would urge parents today to watch cartoons with their children to determine whether the shows are good or bad without making prejudgments. As for adults who wish to enjoy the shows...I think they can handle it.
Television programs and movies do not exist merely to tell stories. They generally have morals and messages attached. This is especially true for children's entertainment, which is constantly under pressure to be "educational." What kinds of lessons do viewers receive when watching G. I. Joe?
Each program ended with a minute-long public service announcement in which a Joe Team member would give advice to children about health and safety. The children would respond, "Now we know," to which the Joe would add, "and knowing is half the battle." This is the most obvious "moral element" of the show, but it is not the most important.
The main threat in the cartoon is an organization that seeks to control the world through large-scale terrorism. Cobra is in many ways similar to Al-Qaeda, though without the religious element. To combat this threat, the US government assigned an elite team of soldiers to a strike force assigned to thwart Cobra's plans. With the slogan, "A Real American Hero," G. I. Joe promotes patriotism, courage, and persistence in the face of terrorism. The effectiveness of this message was very apparent in 2001 when the US began its real-life war on terror. As I canvassed opinions on the Internet, I found that Joe fans were among the most enthusiastic supporters of our military's efforts. From the show they had learned that there are evil men out there, that they are by nature ridiculous, overconfident, and doomed to defeat. Yet such men are also dangerous and must be despised and resisted. Nor did the mission ever become one of revenge or personal vendetta. Although the Joes tried to capture the elusive Cobra leaders at every opportunity, at the end of the episode what was important was that they had kept America and the world safe for the time being. "They'll be back, but we'll be ready."
One sometimes-overlooked G. I. Joe message is diversity. Each year saw at least one African American added to the team. Stalker, Doc, Roadblock, Alpine, and Iceberg were all highly visible members of the Joe Team, but the fact that they were black never became an issue. Black scientists, doctors, and government officials also appear on the show, as well as female scientists. This was before cartoons pushed for diversity on a wide scale; most animated shows of this time still made all their characters the same color. As for Cobra, we almost never see a black terrorist, and when Cobra once created its own television programming in one episode, it was they who sent the message that world peace is only possible when "everyone looks alike, and talks alike, and never, ever gets angry." The message for the viewer is that the reverse is true. The presence of women on the Joe team prompts discussion of the question of women in the military, but the show never makes an issue of it.
Several episodes also deal with the Joes' cooperation with other countries. One of the first episodes has to do with an international anti-terrorism research center. The Joes find help from people all over the globe, from Japan to Madagascar to the Amazon. They even team up with the Soviet Union's anti-terrorism force in two episodes. While Cold War resentment exists between the two teams, even such "enemies" can find friendship and work together for a noble cause. Aside from a couple jabs at the French, the writers do not indulge in stereotypes. This openness is part of what makes G. I. Joe still popular in so many other countries, especially Canada.
One message-related concern is the reverse of the content-based objection. Because G. I. Joe has so little human-on-human violence, does it send the wrong message about war? Like other shows of the time, such as The A-Team, hardly anyone ever gets hurt. But real wars have devastating consequences. This objection is similar to those directed at Bugs Bunny/Road Runner cartoons. If Daffy Duck is shot in the face or the Coyote falls off a cliff, we laugh and move on to their next scene. On the Joe series, soldiers take out a tank with one shot from a hand pistol, buildings blow up and walls cave in, and on one occasion an island is obliterated in a nuclear blast. But everyone comes out just fine. One distinction here is that the characters are unharmed only because they escape or are rescued. The writers keep us aware that our heroes were in mortal peril and would have been hurt. For young children in the show's target audience, introduction to all the horrors of war and the ruthlessness of terrorists and dictators would be inappropriate. The show's creators thus strove to give the kids an enjoyable but sanitized action-adventure series built around the universal boy's attraction to toy soldiers and war-play. Parents who wish to expose their children to the consequences of warfare may find more realistic shows, but those shows will contain graphic violence their children may not be ready for. Parents cannot have it both ways in this case.
Let us not forget the countless acts of courage, self-sacrifice, discipline, mercy, and teamwork on the show. Many of the Joes are fine role models for kids. Those who aren't–the lazy, the impulsive, the bickering–are rebuked and often find themselves in undesirable situations because of their behavior. We also see Cobra leaders used as negative examples, particularly Cobra Commander. Any viewer can easily see how pride, selfishness, overconfidence, and unwillingness to listen or be corrected are despicable and self-destructive character traits simply by watching the Commander fail time and again.
Too often in today's television and movies, Christians are written off as spineless, weird, old-fashioned, or bigoted. Church and religion are negative, not positive, influences on society, and the favorite symbol of Christian arrogance is the televangelist. Cartoons are not exempt from the charge of making Christianity an object of ridicule. There may be some who see G. I. Joe as an early example of contempt for Christianity.
Church-inspired dialogue creeps in from time to time on the show, as when Flint says "Amen to that," or when Lady Jaye shouts, "Hallelujah!" when she learns her friend is safe. But the only known Christian on the show is Lifeline. Introduced in the short second season, Lifeline is the new team medic, and he is a pacifist. His aversion to weapons or violence makes him the butt of jokes from "tough-guy" Joes such as Beach Head, Leatherneck, and Sci-Fi. However, most of the Joes respect Lifeline's dedication to principles. On the other hand, Lifeline's father, a preacher, resents him for joining the military at all. He sees it as an unacceptable compromise.
A few have claimed that by introducing Lifeline as a pacifist on a war show, the creators are presenting a caricature of Christians. Evangelical Christians, particularly Baptists and Presbyterians, have historically been supporters of America's wars. When we think of pacifism, we usually think of Mennonites, Amish, and other Anabaptist groups. However, pacifism has a growing following in liberal Protestant churches, and Roman Catholicism is swiftly moving that direction as well. If Lifeline comes from a United Methodist, Episcopalian, or other mainline denomination, pacifism may very well be the norm for him. And so this is not an unrealistic presentation of Christianity. (And aside from the one episode featuring his family, the show does not generally indicate that Lifeline is a Christian; he's just a pacifist.)
Rather than condemning G. I. Joe for letting a few characters tease the team's Christian for his pacifism, perhaps we should be thankful they approached the topic of religion at all. This was a very bold step for a cartoon. Lifeline is admirable for his conscience and his compassion, and he rarely gets "preachy" about his convictions. It is for this reason that he remains one of my mom's favorite characters.
From centuries-old fairy tales to the latest fiction, children's stories often contain references to witches, wizards, ghosts, and other imaginative elements that we Christians would identify with the occult. Christian concern over these story elements goes back at least as far as The Wizard of Oz and has been given new life with the popularity of the Harry Potter books and films. (A great resource for a Christian perspective on fantasy is Richard Abanes' book, Fantasy and Your Family.) While G. I. Joe stories often have a science fiction element to them, there are three shows which contain this sort of material.
The first relevant story is "Operation: Mind Menace," in which Cobra kidnaps psychics, including one G. I. Joe's brother, to harness their powers as weapons. They capture an out-of-body traveler, a telekinetic, and a man who can start fires with his mind. The Joes manage to overcome Cobra's mind control devices and rescue the people. The Joes then advise at least one of the psychics to turn down any other offers for ESP experimentation. In the second story, "The Phantom Brigade," Cobra Commander hires a gypsy to summon three ghosts–a centurion, a female Mongolian warrior, and an American biplane pilot–to harrass the Joes. He seeks to control them with objects that were important to them when they were alive. Upon meeting the Joes, the ghosts turn on Cobra Commander, give him the scare of his life, and return where they came from. Finally, in "The Gods Below," Joes and Cobras are trapped in an Egyptian pyramid and have a strange encounter with beings from Egyptian mythology. Cobra tries to manipulate these "gods" into defeating the Joes, but they are unmoved. The incident is left unexplained at the end of the episode.
First of all, we can all probably agree that these incidents are definitely occultic in nature. Attempts to contact the dead, control the powers of nature with the mind, and communicate with gods other than Yahweh are all explicitly forbidden in the Bible as elements of idolatry and/or witchcraft (Deut. 18:10-14). However, in the event of such material, I ask three questions:
The Bible consistently presents occultic activity as real, evil and dangerous, and ultimately defeated by good. Stories that do the same serve to teach us a biblical view of the occult. Some stories, such as The Lord of the Rings books, are careful to distinguish occultic magick from fantasy-world abilities that can be used for good, and thus do not fall under Deuteronomy's condemnation. Others, such as the Harry Potter books, are harmful in that they present realistic occultic magick as good, fun, and harmless. Some horror movies fail in that evil wins out in the end, and the viewer is encouraged to root for the demonic killer.
G. I. Joe's few dealings with the occult are fantastical, and exist on a par with its sci-fi themes such as giant vegetables, emotion-controlling pipe organs, humans mutated into whales, and cloned dinosaurs. The events of these three cartoons are not even remotely believable, or intended to be. The writers are merely drawing on existing ideas in literature to tell an interesting story. Secondly, even if we take the shows as a realistic portrayal, involvement with other-worldly powers is always self-destructive. As the Baroness warned, "You tamper with forces you do not understand." Cobra suffers each time it seeks this sort of help, and the clear message is that such things should be left alone. Finally, as with all things Joe, good always wins out in the end.
Excellence is one of the most forgotten Christian virtues, especially when it comes to entertainment. Too many family and Christian films are clean as a whistle but suffer from horrible production values. What is excellence? It is doing one's best work to produce something good and useful. By the biblical definition, excellence involves "whatever is true, whatever honorable, whatever righteous, whatever pure, whatever friendly, whatever reputable" (Phil. 4:8). When we look at G. I. Joe, we see that the show is all of these things. Excellence is not only moral, but also has to do with quality and effort. In that respect, G. I. Joe stands head-and-shoulders above not only today's animation, but most of what was available in its own day. The animation in most episodes is spectacular, the stories are compelling and character-driven, the heroes are likeable and the villains alternately laughable or chilling. The dialogue is generally creative and entertaining, and some of the episodes have a strong emotional resonance. Whether dealing with comedy, love stories, suspense, mystery, or just "being cool," the writers succeed in making a top-quality show. There are a few episodes that slip below the mark, but the many masterpieces in the series more than make up for the clunkers. Exposure to things that are done well encourages children to seek quality and to develop a skill for distinguishing between excellence and mediocrity.
When these criteria are applied to G. I. Joe, the cartoon passes the test with flying colors. It is well worth a Christian's viewing. I can understand some parents' hesitation upon seeing guns, punches, and explosions, or ghosts swirling around the room. But a closer look reveals that the cartoon sends the right messages about violence as well as good and evil. The show's sense of humor, presentation of the American way of life, and cooperation are well in line with evangelical Christian sensibilities. I heartily recommend G. I. Joe for anyone wishing to improve their kids' childhood, or to relive their own.
