Religious Edutainment is that genre which seeks to teach children and sometimes adults the tenets and values of their religion. (Or at the very least, their care-givers' religion.)
Subtrope of Edutainment Show (a portmanteau of Education and Entertainment), and shares many of the same tropes.
Compare and contrast The Moral Substitute, which draws inspiration from an existing secular property and whose lessons don't always include specifically religious content. See also Religious Programmes and Christian Fiction.
Religious media is sometimes stereotyped as low quality, especially by viewers who may not share the religious beliefs in question. However, Sturgeon's Law applies in the same degree as any other genre, and you're just as likely to find a well-made show with good production values. Be that as it may, Don't Shoot the Message.
Tropes often found in Religious Edutainment:
- Abridged for Children: Most religious edutainment is meant for children and families, so expect some of the more violent and gruesome parts of a story (or an entire story) to be toned down or Adapted Out altogether.note
- Adventures in the Bible
- Aesop Enforcer: At least one character will serve as a Lighter and Softer version of this trope.
- An Aesop
- As the Good Book Says...
- Author Tract
- Bible Times
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Often done on purpose to deliver the Aesop, a character will turn to and address the audience.
- Christian Rock
- Christmas Special: At least the ones that tell the religious take on the True Meaning of Christmas.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Most religious edutainment stories have easy-to-solve problems that could have been avoided if one character hadn't made a mistake. And the show itself and/or the characters themselves will address it.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Also known in some religions as "repentance."
- Heel Realization / Jerkass Realization: A character who was causing the problem will be shown their mistake and they will (usually) realize the error of their ways and try to do better next time.
- Deus ex Machina: Literally. Generally justified.
- Divine Intervention
- Divine Punishment
- Easy Evangelism
- God Is Good: All the time.
- Good Shepherd
- Hanukkah Episode
- Inspiring Sermon
- Jesus Was Way Cool
- Only Sane Man: One character serves as the voice of reason and tries to set everyone on the right path when things get out of hand.
- Pals with Jesus
- Philosophical Parable: A religious ideology or philosophy is illustrated via a fictional work.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: For the same reason as "Only Sane Man/Woman/Child" listed above.
- Religious Redub: When shows that don't do well in syndication are remade to preach religious virtues, so they can air on religious networks for years to come.
- Suspiciously Specific Sermon
- Turn to Religion
- Writer on Board
Examples
Christian- 3-2-1 Penguins!
- 100 Days to Heaven, a 2011 ABS-CBN television series aired from May 9 to November 18, 2011.
- 3 Palavrinhas ("3 Little Words"), a Brazilian series of Christian children's music videos.
- The 700 Club
- Adventures from the Book of Virtues (Not a Christian show per se, but several of its moral fables are stories from The Bible)
- Adventures in Odyssey
- The Adventures of Carlos Caterpillar
- Agua Bendita, a 2010 ABS-CBN television series aired from February 8 to September 3, 2010.
- The Amazing Bible Series
- Angel Wars
- The Apocalypse series
- The Babylon Rising series
- While Barney & Friends is a secular series, much of the production staff members were of the Christian faith (series creator Sheryl Leach and her father-in-law, Richard Leach were devout Christians, and they were successfully convinced to allow a Israeli Hebrew-language adaptation because the version's producer Itzik Kol gave her the idea of Barney speaking in "the language of the Bible") and the show shares many tropes with the "mascot teacher" Christian edutainment shows, plus the show used the explicitly religious Christmas hymns "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night" in the Christmas special "Barney's Night Before Christmas" (albeit instrumental to allow a sign language interpretation by Hannah). Plus, several staff members went on to create a Spiritual Successor, BOZ the Bear, which is more explicit Christian edutainment.
- Becky's Barn
- Become Jehovah's Friend
- The Bedbug Bible Gang
- The Berenstain Bears (Several titles authored by the son of the original creators, as well as a children's Bible featuring the characters.)
- Bible Adventures, one of the first religious video games, developed by an independent producer for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
- Bibleman (both the original TV series and the animated adaptation)
- Bible Illustrated, a web sieries documenting a Serbian Orthodox Christian's illustrations of the whole Bible.
- Boys of Valor
- Captain Bible in Dome of Darkness, a surreal video game designed to help kids memorize Bible verses.
- The Charlie Churchmouse Show
- Cherub Wings
- Circle Square (based around the "Circle Square Ranch" summer camps in Canada)
- Colby's Clubhouse
- Chick Tracts
- The Children of the Last Days series
- El Chavo del ocho isn't an example for the most part, however, one of its occasional musical segments is a song called "Oyelo, escuchalo" ("Hear Him, Listen to Him"), which has appeared at least twice.note The "Him" in question is Jesus; it reminds the viewers/listeners to look for Jesus.
- The Christ Clone Trilogy
- Davey and Goliath (one of the earliest religious edutainment TV series; it was made in the 1960s)
- Distroller
- Dr. Wonder's Workshop
- The Donut Man
- The Massterpiece Donut Shop
- Dooley and Pals (has two versions; the secular version aired on PBS)
- The Dragon Keeper Chronicles
- EWTN, or Eternal Word Television Network (a Roman Catholic network) has blocks of programming aimed at children
(e.g, The Friar) and teenagers (e.g., Life on the Rock).
- Faithville has yielded two spinoffs to date:
- Miss Charity's Diner
- Gospel Time Square
- Filling Station
- Fire By Nite (a youth/teen-oriented series produced by the Gospel Bill Show crew)
- Flying House
- The Friar
- Gerbert (a secular version was produced as the show's second season)
- Gina D's Kids Club (despite the show actually being secular)
- Sing Along with Gina D
- God Rocks!
- The Gospel Bill Show
- Bill Gunter, U.S. Marshall also known as The Cimarron Trail; direct-to-video successor series
- The Gospel According to St. Bernard (12-episode miniseries involving a talking St. Bernard dog)
- The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible (direct-to-video series created by Hanna-Barbera)
- Hand of the Morningstar
- Hermie and Friends
- Hoop Dogz
- Osamu Tezuka's In the Beginning: The Bible Stories
- Injil Hidup Berkemenangan
- Insight
- iShine Knect
- Jonathan Park
- Joshua and the Promised Land
- JOT
- Jay Jay the Jet Plane (although not originally a Christian series, it was redubbed on Tommy Nelson videos to make references to Christianity)
- Joy Junction note
- The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Program
- Just Kids
- Kids Like You
- Kids Praise (the one with Psalty the Singing Songbook)
- Kids Ten Commandments (aired on TLC in 2003)
- Kingdom Adventure
- The Kingdom Chums
- The Knock Knock Show
- The Left Behind book series
- Lenny And Sid
- Little Dogs on the Prairie, a 2000 Direct to Video animated series produced by Tommy Nelson and Fancy Monkey Studios consisting of three videos of two to three shorts each that taught Christian morals to kids. It limited any mentions of God to the narration, theme song, and music videos.
- Live Bait Productions's direct-to-video films:
- Lutheran Satire
- Maralee Dawn and Friends
- May Bukas Pa, a 2009–2010 ABS-CBN television series inspired by Marcelino pan y vino (Miracle of Marcelino). It lasted for 263 episodes and aired from February 2, 2009 to February 5, 2010.
- McGee and Me!
- My Catholic Family
- My Little Angels
- My Time with Jesus
- Nathaniel, a 2015 ABS-CBN television series aired from April 20 to September 25, 2015.
- The Omega Code
- Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
- Once I Was a Beehive
- Pahappahooey Island
- Patch the Pirate (the reason the main character is a pirate is due to series creator Ron Hamilton losing his left eye due to cancer)
- Paws and Tales: The Animated Series
- Prayer Bear
- Quigley's Village (sometimes called "Mr. Quigley's Village")
- Secret Adventures
- Star Family
- Six: The Mark Unleashed
- The Story Keepers
- Sunshine Factory
- Superbook (an evangelistic anime series created as a joint venture between Tatsunoko Production and Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and broadcast in both Japan and the US)
- Superbook (2011), the western-produced, In Name Only, All-CGI Cartoon remake of the above series.
- While The Swamp Critters of Lost Lagoon is technically a secular series, the show's official website does offer various merchandise that have religious themes.
- TektonTV
- Treasure Attic
- Tune Time
- The Underground Zealot series.
- VeggieTales
- We Are Catholic
- What's in the Bible?
- The World Of Jonathan Singh
...and many, many, many others.
Hindu
Jewish
- Shari Lewis and her puppets Lamb Chop, Charley Horse and Hush Puppy
- Lamb Chop's Special Chanukah (in 1995)
- Shari's Passover Surprise (in 1996)
- The Magic Door
- Rechov Sumsum, the Israeli co-production of Sesame Street, and its American spin-off Shalom Sesame (especially the latter)
- Rugrats had a couple of episodes centered on Hannukah and Passover.
- Lights the Miracle of Channukah
Muslim
- Adam's World
- Iftah Ya Simsim, the Arabic co-production of Sesame Street, covered Islamic principles as part of its curriculum because of the importance of religion in Arab culture.
- I'm the Best Muslim
- The 99
- Para Pencari Tuhan
- Tomorrow's Pioneers, for all its extremism, still counts due to its Quran segments.
Other
- Angels of Jarm: It's more of a general edutainment show that teaches social values, but it has plenty of religious references from other faiths and averts Jesus Taboo. The credits even mention a "Religious Advisor."
- The Debbie and Carrie Show: A series made to promote teachings of Unitarian Universalism.
- God's Gang is a multi-faith animated series that attempts to mash the religions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism into a group of four superheros.
- Oracle of Tao. It's teaching a strange syncretic religion (a mixture of at least three religions). But mostly Taoism, as the name implies.
