One misconception that bothers me is the idea that the Muppets (and all puppets) are somehow religiously-based or that the Muppet Show branded characters were geared for younger viewers. The Muppets, and all of Henson's work, have always been inclusive. It's weird reading YouTube comments from people concerned about Carl eating bunnies. Jim would not only have loved that bit, he also performed many just like it. And sure the Muppets have had many Christmas specials like most other branded entertainment, but the writers and performers have always come from all walks of life and the Muppets have never been proselytizing church puppets. I'm certain the new film will portray classic muppety goodness for all types of people and will set the brand apart from both Sesame Street and the edgy Henson Alternative humor. The Muppet Show gang is that something special between.
True- this does make it hard for the adult Muppets fan to maintain things like dignity and respect- lol. But you have to admit that generally people are gonna lump The Muppet Show in with Sesame Street and regard it on that level. It's the same argument as saying the Looney Tunes cartoons were really made for adults, but yet kids are probably the largest audience group for the cartoons. This same argument carries over to comic books for that matter. For mediums that have been associated with children over the years, it's hard for some to accept when those mediums (cartoons and comics) are used to tell stories geared at older audiences.
And a lot of Christian churches use puppets in presenting Christ's Gospel, certainly. I imagine that's probably true with various religions as well. Perhaps people associate all puppetry with that, but shows like Crank Yankers and Avenue Q certainly disprove that theory.
But puppets can be used for spiritual purposes and they can be used for plain entertainment purposes- sometimes they even do both.

And sometimes people don't always seem to make that distinction. But The Muppets seem to have generally stayed pretty wholesome for the whole family, but in the case of The Muppet Show gang- they've always had a bit of pervasive humor in there too, much like Looney Tunes.
The only time I got the religious vibe was on one of those VH1 "I Love..." series and they were talking about Alice Cooper and him being "the Anti-Christ"... but then he did an episode of TMS, and they were like "Oh wait, he's on The Muppet Show, so he CAN'T be the Anti-Christ."
Well, in this case, I think the reasoning was not so much because Alice Cooper was on The Muppet Show, though they probably were just making a joke that since the show is generally aimed at children (or at least marketed that way)- that Alice Cooper must be okay if he's going to be on the show. However, I think the comment was probably brought up more so because in the '70s, he kinda was viewed as the Anti-Christ or something along those lines because of his subversive music and so forth- but in recent years, Vincent Furnier (Alice Cooper's real name) has become a Christian and so now he's definitely not the Anti-Christ or in league with him, etc. Yet the Alice Cooper persona persists as his alter ego. I've read that Alice Cooper even teaches a Sunday School class at his church now- wow, that sounds like it'd be an interesting class.
