For years, conservatives have spent billions of words criticizing Hollywood.
The complaints are justified. Parents have watched beloved franchises become lectures. Timeless virtues are pushed aside while confusion is celebrated. Faith is sidelined. Traditional families are treated as optional. Even heroism has been rewritten.
But criticism only gets you so far. Eventually someone has to build something better. That's what makes the upcoming release of Armor On worth paying attention to.
The song is the opening chapter of a much bigger project. It asks a simple question: Why should Christian families accept a false choice between either quality entertainment or biblical values?
Armor On is the lead single from Known and Loved, an 11-song collaboration between acclaimed worship artist Kim Walker-Smith and TruPlay Games. Rather than treating music as an afterthought, the album expands the stories of TruPlay's growing cast of characters, each facing struggles children recognize and each pointing them toward biblical truth.
The first story belongs to Benjamin, an 11-year-old wolverine who loves hockey and dreams of saving the day. Like many children, he believes determination and courage are enough. His journey teaches something our culture rarely does: some battles cannot be won by strength alone. They require putting on the full armor of God. Drawing directly from Ephesians, Armor On reminds children that life's greatest battles are ultimately spiritual, not physical.
That may sound like a simple lesson. In today's culture, it's surprisingly countercultural.
Modern children's entertainment teaches kids to trust themselves above all else. Define yourself. Celebrate yourself. Follow your truth. Humility has quietly disappeared from the script.
TruPlay’s CEO and Founder, Brent Dusing, explained that Benjamin's story is ultimately about overcoming pride. That message carries extra weight today, when children hear the word "pride" celebrated almost everywhere they turn. Scripture teaches something very different. Strength comes through dependence on God. Confidence grows through faith, not ego. Pride isn't a virtue. It's a warning.
The rest of the album continues that approach. Oliver, an adopted fox raised by a Christian bear family, struggles with questions of identity until he discovers that his identity is found in Christ. Other songs explore courage, grief, divorce, trusting God's plan, and the work of the Holy Spirit. These are subjects many children quietly wrestle with, yet they are almost entirely absent from mainstream entertainment.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the project is that nobody is trying to produce a sermon disguised as entertainment. The goal is to tell compelling stories. The music stands on its own, the animation is polished, and the characters are relatable. Parents aren't simply tolerating it because it's wholesome. They're enjoying it alongside their children.
For decades, Christians have been better at criticizing culture than creating it. That imbalance has consequences. Children don't learn only from classrooms. They learn from songs, stories, heroes, and the characters they invite into their imaginations.
Disney understood that decades ago. Pixar understood it. Hollywood has always understood it.
The question has never been whether stories shape children. The question is who gets to tell those stories.
Projects like TruPlay suggest more Christians are finally choosing to compete instead of complain. Rather than simply objecting to the direction of children's entertainment, they're investing in an alternative that is creative, technically impressive, and unapologetically rooted in biblical truth.
Elections matter. Laws matter. But culture usually gets there first.
Long before children cast a ballot, they've already formed their ideas about courage, family, sacrifice, forgiveness, and truth. Those lessons rarely come from campaign speeches. More often, they come from the stories they watch and the songs they sing.
Armor On is only the first release in what promises to be a much larger musical project. If Known and Loved delivers on the promise of its opening single, it won't simply give Christian families another album to stream. It will help restore something that's been missing from children's entertainment for far too long: stories that point young hearts toward Christ instead of themselves.
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A.J. Rice is the host of the Dangerous Laughter podcast, serves as president & CEO of Publius PR, editor-in-chief of The Publius National Post, and author of The Curse of the Bearded Lady: How the Trans Mafia Whacked American Sanity.