LOVELAND, Colo. (ABP) — An interdenominational Christian publisher has decided to change the title of its 2011 Vacation Bible School curriculum from "PandaMonium" after customer complaints that the word it plays upon literally refers to hell.
Group Publishing officials announced on Facebook that the animal-themed program would be renamed PandaMania in response to feedback from concerned customers.
In everyday usage, "pandemonium" refers to a noisy place, full of disarray and confusion. Its origin, however, dates to English poet John Milton, who invented the word for the capital of hell in his epic Paradise Lost first published in 1667.
Group Publishing said new artwork for its renamed "PandaMania" VBS theme will be ready soon.
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Milton used the Greek prefix "pan" or "all" (as in pantheism) with the Latin daemonium, or demon. Literally it's the abode of all the demons, or hell.
One 12-year customer commenting on the Facebook page said she was surprised the publisher didn't do more research on word before releasing the title. "I just looked it up and was shocked," she said. "Somebody made a big goof up! I don't think a VBS referring to a place of wild disarray or hell would be a good thing."
Group officials said they tested "PandaMonium" extensively, and the Latin origin didn't come up a single time. "Everyone we spoke with thought that PandaMonium — being … crazy, fun, high-energy — was an accurate description of VBS — plus they really liked the play on words," the administrators of the Group VBS Facebook page wrote.
After they began promoting the title, however, they reported: "Some VBS directors raised some concern about the Latin origin of the word pandemonium. Even though it was a play on words and we changed the spelling — we felt that revising the title didn't take away from the sense of fun and [was] an easy fix at this point."
Group, a Colorado-based company started in 1974 by youth worker Thom Shultz, isn't the first publisher to have attempts to come up with a clever VBS theme backfire.
In 2004, LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention used an Asian theme titled "Rickshaw Rally" that prompted complaints about stereotypes demeaning to Asian Americans. More than 1,500 people signed an online petition demanding that LifeWay withdraw the curriculum.
LifeWay refused to change the theme. Most Baptist state conventions promoted the material, but one — the Baptist Convention of New England — refused, citing complaints describing the rickshaw symbol that ranged from "insensitive" to "a poor representation of Asian culture" to "highly offensive."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.