Is There Too Much Religion on the Simpsons?

Gary: This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, answers to your questions in Contending for the Faith, and in Understanding the Scriptures, Dave and Tom will resume their conversation on God’s salvation.

I’d like to remind you that in addition to this radio program, we publish a monthly newsletter which we make available free of charge. We also produce and distribute a variety of teaching materials including books, video- and audiotapes, and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word. For a complete list of materials or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, contact us at PO Box 7019, Bend, OR 97708. Call us at 800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org. Ask for program number 1140, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program.

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the Portland, Oregon Oregonian, November 2000, with the headline, “Simpsons often Draws on Religion.”

“The religious humor on The Simpsons may veer across a wide path between the sacred and the profane. But as the show entered its twelfth season last Sunday, it remained unique among situation comedies in the central role faith plays in the life of its characters. The writers of The Simpsons actually deal with religion more substantively than did shows like Father Knows Best, or My Three Sons, where it was assumed characters went to a nondescript church but religion was treated with such reverence, it was off-limits, scholars say.

“‘We see it more on The Simpsons than we did in the 1950s, that religious decade,’ said California State University professor John Heron, who reported on a study of religion in The Simpsons last month at the annual meeting of the Society of the Scientific Study of Religion in Houston. ‘They think religion is important in people’s lives,’ he said, ‘and that is why they put it in the center of the work they do.’”

Tom: Dave, I’m going to guess here, but I would be willing to be that you are relatively clueless about The Simpsons. I don’t think you’ve ever seen that program, and I don’t think I’m too far off here!

However, why then are we discussing this? Well, there are some things here that this writer of the article is making some statements that I think are worth addressing, and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in Houston. Now there’s some scholars that are talking about religion here!

Dave: That really floors me. How are you going to make a scientific study of religion? Einstein, for example, when he came up with his theory of relativity, they said, “Oh, I guess that means everything is relative, and that would cover religion as well!”

He said, “This is science. It has nothing to do with religion.” The worst thing you can to do to religion is try to make it scientific.

Or let’s take Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel Prize winning physicist, one of those who gave us the new physics of this century. He said, “Science knows nothing about good or bad, beautiful or ugly, right and wrong, where we came from, where are we going, God, eternity. Science knows nothing about that.” So then how are we going to make a scientific study of religion? You have just degraded religion. Well, the Bible doesn’t say much about religion. Most people think religion has something to do with God.

Tom: Yeah.

Dave: You’re not going to make a scientific study of God or of faith. But you’re right, I wouldn’t have any idea what The Simpsons are saying about religion.

Tom: Well, I…

Dave: I wouldn’t know why it would be important?

Tom: Well, let me back up a little to this. I’ll give you some quotes from The Simpsons, but this is even farther removed from science than I think our listeners can imagine. This is a so-called social science, and what they’re saying is, so-called scientists watch so many programs of The Simpsons, and every time that they addressed religion or talked about religion, that went in the box of, “Well, this is a program that does address this.” And then they’re comparing that to the programs of the ‘50s like Father Knows Best…

Dave: Which I never saw.

Tom: But those programs, as the article points out, those programs had a—they considered religion to be something sacred, something to…you wanted to be reverent about, and maybe they didn’t discuss the particulars, but there was a sense of awe and reverence about…

Dave: So what is the point now? The point, I guess, is that this is a reflection of what audiences want to see, or the way audiences want to treat religion?

Tom: Well, simply, this is a religious program from their perspective.

Dave: The Simpsons is a religious program…

Tom: Well, let me give you some…

Dave: Tell me what The Simpsons say about religion.

Tom: Okay, well, here’s Homer Simpson on swearing: “Maybe I curse a little, but that’s the way God made me, and I’m too old to stop now.”

Dave: Well, that sounds like Christian psychologists to me!

Tom: Well, Homer…now, Dave, Homer on God: “He’s always happy! No, wait…He’s always mad.” Homer’s ideal religion: “No hell, no kneeling.” In one episode, Homer tells the daughter that watching football helps get rid of the unpleasant aftertaste of church.

Now, my point here is, and the absurdity of the article—the title is “Simpsons often Draws on Religion.” What religion? And it’s a sense of irreverence. Anybody who’s ever seen the program knows that’s kind of the modus operandi. He’s irreverent about everything, showing us our flaws and so on, but he’s also communicating an attitude with regard to something that we ought to take with reverence: the truth. But there’s no truth in this.

Dave: Yeah, you know, Tom, it’s such an irony: our program is called Search the Scriptures Daily. This is God’s Word. But these people are not searching the Scriptures, they’re getting their religion, as I understand it, from The Simpsons, who are irreverent, who don’t know anything about God anyway…why is this…?

Tom: Even when they try to be reverent, and there are some episodes that that takes place.

Dave: Why is it important what The Simpsons had to say? And that scientists, social scientists, are going to make a study of this? Tom, you’ve left me in the dust here somewhere! But that is this world in which we live. It’s like the Jesus Seminar. They sit around and vote whether they think Jesus did or didn’t say this, or what God… Look, if God hasn’t spoken—I mean, we’ve been over this before: if God hasn’t spoken, we’ve got nothing. Who cares what The Simpsons say? I don’t care anymore what some religious scholar says any more than what The Simpsons say! What does God have to say? And that’s what we need to get down to, and of course that’s what we’re trying to encourage people to do with this program.

Tom: And, Dave, without being too hard, as we mentioned in our last program, there’s an insanity out there, and to think that people are being influenced, and they are, by this is just grievous.

Dave: It’s a tragedy.