Bible Stories: In the Belly of the Whale

Newsboys: In the Belly of the Whale

[purchase]

Newsboys are a Christian pop-rock band, originally from Australia. They have been around for eight albums, and there have been so many line-up changes that their Wikipedia entry has a chart to help you keep track of them. In spite of this, they have managed to maintain their popularity on the Christian rock charts. I listened to the thirty second snippets from their Greatest Hits album to prepare for this post, and they struck me as being very serious about their faith, and somewhat heavy handed in their approach. But twice they have been called upon to provide a song for a Veggie Tales movie, and both times something magical happened. The band got silly, they relaxed, and the result was crazily infectious pop with a wonderfully quirky sense of humor. The first time this happened was for the movie Jonah, which retold the Bible story of Jonah and the whale. The song was In the Belly of the Whale. I’m pretty sure the line, “We’re highly nutritious here, in the belly of the whale” is not scripture, but it’s a fair example of what to expect. Veggie Tales is all about teaching Bible stories and ideas to children by making them fun, and In the Belly of the Whale fits this perfectly.