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The Gospel According to the Simpsons ::
Whenever I think of religion in the Simpsons, three episodes come to mind immediately. First there was the one in which Homer, who has to skip town to evade a ,000 pledge he made to PBS (to get them to shut up), is unknowingly signed up by Reverend Lovejoy to work as a missionary in the South Pacific. Then there is the episode in which the Catholic church gets air time during the Superbowl, and they use voluptuous, suggestive women to advertise that they have "made some changes." Finally, do you remember the one in which Bart passes out the sheet music for Inna Godda Davida, and the church stupidly sings the entire seventeen minute song, organ solo and all? There are, of course, many, many more. So, with all of this irreverence, why would you expect to get anything but harsh criticism from someone who is seriously writing about religion in the Simpsons?
Well, get this: the Simpsons have an active religious life, they always struggle with spiritual and moralistic issues, they are always turning to their conception of God for help. Though organized religion many times bears the brunt of the show‘s satire, the characters are often guided by their religious beliefs, and their moral and spiritual sensibilities are often the only thing that guide them through a world of materialism, incomprehensibly bad decision-making, and outright insanity. (A world which, because it satirizes our own, is all too familiar.) So in this way, the Simpsons are much more intelligent about, and sensitive toward religion, moreso than any other show on television.
And no matter what role you think religion takes in the Simpsons, it‘s presence has regularly been one of the smartest, funniest aspects of the series. And it is one of the show‘s unique characteristics that, should the series ever end, I will miss the most.
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