A veteran animator known for creating the runaway hit “The Fairly OddParents” is now on a mission to inspire young Christians. Butch Hartman and his wife, Julieann, have now created “The Garden,” a faith-based cartoon series. The duo, who are outspoken Christians, embarked on the project after Hartman’s monumental success working as an artist, storyteller, and show creator for two decades at Nickelodeon.
“I was there from 1997 to 2018, and … I had this idea around 2005,” he said, noting he had become a Christian a few years earlier in 2000. “Since the year 2000, I’ve always had Jesus on my heart, wanted to know more about Jesus, more about the Lord.” Hartman said he was 35 years old when he became a Christian.
“I grew up in a very godless home — not that my parents were bad people,” he said. “They were great people, but we didn’t talk about God, because they didn’t know about God.” Hartman continued, “I knew about God, but I didn’t know how it all linked together. I didn’t know how Jesus died for my sins. What does that mean?”
But one day while visiting a church, Hartman said something clicked. The message resonated and his “heart was open.” As time progressed, the couple went to church weekly, with their faith growing in the process. “I ended up getting saved there. [Julianne] got saved there. My mother got saved there at 62 years old,” he said. “Our kids were raised there. … I went from not wanting to go to church to being an usher standing in the building at 5:30 in the morning in a three-piece suit.”
As Hartman’s faith grew, his passion began to infuse his work and the roots of “The Garden” were set. Here is his story.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
Just tell them about the real, historical Jesus and not try to propagandize them as young kids are led to believe in the myth of Santa as being a supernatural personage.