Horton on Home Schooling

We downloaded "Horton Hears a Who" for our granddaughter Elizabeth this year. I had never actually sat down and watched it with her until recently. I try not to be too hard on cartoons, but I expected more from this one. The movie released in 2008 was highly praised by anti-abortion activists who claimed that the motto of the movie, "a person's a person, no matter how small" was somehow helpful to the cause. I highly doubt it. The statement is definitely true, and it would nice if everyone watching it would have miraculously come away realizing that the killing of millions of babies annually is an incomprehensible sin, but I'm not so sure it was that enlightening. While the 1954 book by Dr. Seuss was sweet right down to it's core, whoever made the movie definitely had their own agenda.
Jane, the proud, annoying kangaroo, was the antagonist in the story. In the movie, they brought out the fact that she "pouch schooled" little Rudy. Poor little guy, he had no socialization. Toward the end of the movie, Rudy, ignoring his mother's orders to return to the pouch, grabs the clover and gives it back to Horton saving the proverbial day. So the problem I have is this. The film shows home-schooling, which is good, as evil. It also portrays Rudy's disobedience to his mother, which is evil, as good. All of the good that I could have found in the movie, was voided by these two things. The fact that Horton was willing to lay down his life for his friends was a very Biblical concept. I could have probably stood the little jab at home-schooling, but the Bible states clearly that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft". I heard in a sermon recently that "obedience" to God and His word does not mean that we follow His instructions only if we agree. Obedience means that we follow instructions even when we don't understand. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, Abraham didn't try to reason with God or persuade Him to his way of thinking. He obeyed. I realize that obedience and Biblical authority are not the order of our day, but do we really want our children seeing Rudy rebel and coming to the conclusion that the ends justify the means? I know most people say, "That's ridiculous. It's just a cartoon." Everyone has to draw their own lines, right? Actually, my lines have been drawn for me. If God calls something good, it's good. If God calls something evil, it's evil. In the words of Martin Luther, "Here I stand, I can do no other." So, my take on Horton? Skip it.