The Problem With Franklin

So, I just finished another round of watching Auto B Good with my son, Harry. As always, I'm left a bit irritated.

Harry gets 30 minutes of television per day, usually in the form of his choice of kids video. His choice is often a few episodes of Auto B Good.

Auto B Good is a sort of Christianized version of the (far superior) movie Cars. There is a regular cast of 5 or 6 cars, which include EJ and Izzy (the precocious kid cars), Johnny (the fast driving Lightning McQueen ripoff), the Professor and Franklin.

Franklin is the "older and wiser" car who sounds like he's being voiced by Kelsey Grammar. Franklin is the voice of reason. Franklin is always right. Franklin is irritating.

I don't like Franklin. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to, since every car has its own episode in which it struggles with some sin (greed, lying, anger, etc.), and Franklin is consistently the one who comes along with good advice that the other characters ignore (to their detriment). 

What I want to see is the episode where Franklin struggles with the sin of pride. The one where the rest of the cars call Franklin on his unspoken "I told you so"s. The one where the entire gang gives Franklin a severe thrashing (OK, that might be a bit much).

What bothers me most is that it seems like Franklin is supposed to be the Christ figure, perpetually right and calm and proper and perfect. But he just comes off smug and self-satisfied.

I don't think there's anything wrong with being right. I think Jesus was the only person to ever walk the earth who was always, in every circumstance, right. I think His every action was good and perfect.

And yet I never have the sense of His being smug or self-satisfied. I never hear the "I told you so". In fact, part of what made Jesus so perfect was His lack of a need to rub your nose in His perfection or in your own mistakes. Somehow He managed to expose wrong and address sin and strengthen the weak without ever lording it over them (something that only He had the right to do).

I want us to do a better job of being a light, a better job of portraying what right looks like. I want it to look more like Jesus. My fear is that, when we try to be right, we end up looking more like Franklin.