The Simpsons’ Perception on Christianity
There is a considerable amount of misunderstanding amongst the overall population; as well as, the spiritual community as a whole, regarding what it really means to be a “Christian”. Some people strongly believe that being a faithful Christian means that you cannot have any fun at all. Don’t consider attending the latest movie, night clubs, or bars. Furthermore many people believe a Christian should only drink wine during the Sunday communion, despite the fact the Bible does not say in detail that God prohibits a Christian from drinking cocktails, wine, or any other drink containing alcohol. Undeniably there is a lot of confusion about what makes a perfect Christian. A leading animated television series
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However, Ned Flanders was clearly fashioned to symbolize present-day Christianity. In fact, in the world of pop-culture, there exists an actual word “Flanderization,” which is used when a certain feature of a character is boosted out of proportions and effectively takes over the person’s whole identity, named after Ned Flanders himself. Conversely, for many adults and children, Ned Flanders is the only “Christian” that they are familiar with. Saintliness is the most important piece of every single aspect of Ned’s Flanders’s character. He is very apologetic, eager-to-please, well-mannered, overly spiritual, and a predictable and dull neighbor to the dysfunctional Simpsons. On the other hand, some Christians are annoyed by his “nerdy behavior,” but not his well-developed physic. Ned himself even acknowledges that most of the time he is “about as exciting as a baked potato.” Yet, Ned is so intensely submerged in the good works of the Lord that he forbids his children, Todd and Rod, from eating Red Hots candy because the package bares the image of the devil. Unquestionably Ned is very much a religious man, but Ned Flanders is also to a certain extent an easy pushover. In the episode “The Monkey Suit” Homer notices Ned Flanders and his children standing at the front of the line, so he decided to get in line in front of them. Eventually …show more content…
Some people see Ned Flanders as just another character that lives in the animated world of Springfield; yet, there is this feature of unconditional love in his life that accurately depicts Christianity. Even though many of the other characters have little to no admiration for him, in fact Ned Flanders is Homer’s rival; yet, Ned’s basic role in the sitcom is to be the good neighbor. “Homer does everything short of chaos and havoc to abuse Ned Flanders. It is through (Matthew 19:19), Jesus’ advising to “love your neighbor as yourself,” that Ned is able to endure unconditional love for continued abuse. On countless occasions Homer persistently tells Ned to “shut up”, calls him a liar and a square, even came close to hitting him with a car; yet, Ned Flanders always turn the other cheek. Homer once stated, “If everyone here was like Ned Flanders, there’d be no need for heaven. We’d already be there.” Ned Flanders is the Simpsons’ spiritual next “diddly-door” neighbor. He is frequently the focus of comedic ridicule and ill-mannered sarcasm because of his good-natured “churchy” ways. However, like all the other characters in the Simpsons, Ned Flanders is merely an exaggerated stereotype of the perfect Christian. Perhaps that is why the producers placed him right next door to his polar opposite,
For example, a protestant minister who was angry with the character Candide’s religious indifference refused to give him food after preaching charity right before. The protestant minister is hypocritical because he tells Candide everyone is welcome to his food, but when Candide does not reject the pope and confirm the protestant teachings he is no longer offered bread. “‘My friend,’ said the orator to him, ‘do you believe the Pope to be Anti-Christ?’ ‘I have not heard it,’ responded Candide; ‘but whether he be, or whether he be not, I want bread.’ ‘Thou dost not deserve to eat,’ said the other.” Candide repeatedly highlights the hypocrisy of the church in this manner. The way the protestant minister would refuse charity to someone who disagrees with him flies in the face of the Church's supposedly charitable mission. The book claims churches that preach love and charity, instead kill over slight differences in
Stuff and money is becoming more important in people’s lives. They forget how much more important the Holy Spirit is in their lives. Forgetting how powerful the Lord is, they begin relying on material items. In eternity, material items will not be of any value! Like the Li family in Safely Home, the Lord wants His followers to rely on Him to provide, instead a sundry of Christ followers begin to depend considerably on money, jobs, and people for providence. In Safely Home, the story illustrates how Christians are to live with God as their provider because when a Christian lives a life in dependence on God, they rightfully focus on the Lord as their provider. God can direct a person’s path in a way no one else is able to. Just like Li Quan, Ming, Shen and all the other Christians in the story accepted, God’s thoughts will become one’s own thoughts and His words will become one’s own words. However, without fully realizing, Ben Fielding was living to serve himself. He was dedicated to his job, being successful, and well-off, but he was still empty inside. This particular successful businessman was always searching for something to fill the hole in his heart until he truly experienced the Lord and His presence. In short, Christians can be challenged by this story to rely on God more and live a lifestyle that pleases
Racism is displayed through Homer even though in truth the things he believes Muslims do are, nothing like most Muslims and their values. Throughout the episode, Homer makes many comical and idiotic attempts to prove that the Bashir’s family is up to something. At one point in the episode, Homer goes to Bashir’s home and talks to his mum. In this scene, Homer says “I heard somewhere your people are hospitable.” Mina (Bashir’s mum) replies “That is true. You may come in.” Homer then exclaims “Praised be Oliver!” Then Mina corrects “That’s Allah.” Finally, Homer says “Well, look it up in the Corona.” This exchange shows that Homer in truth actually knows nothing about Muslims. That scene is an example of malapropism. This causes the viewer laugh at the jokes and think how they might be like Homer and consider how much they actually understand about other religions and their beliefs. The director of this episode is extremely successful in portraying Homer as the antagonist to Bart’s cause and a stereotypical racist
The church has a problem. The eternally relevant message with which she has been entrusted no longer readily finds a willing ear. According to Henderson, the solution lies in first understanding how our world thinks and then, beginning where people are at, bring them to see "the functional relevance for their lives of the actual relevance of our message". In high school speech classes, we were taught to "know your audience." As a careless high schooler, I didn't really care what she meant, but it eventually made sense (once I actually decided to think about it). You wouldn't use sock puppets to explain math to accountants; you wouldn't use in-depth power-point presentations to explain math to first graders. With this in mind, why do many Americans still try to talk about Jesus using the methods used thirty years ago? Why do we use Christian "jargon" to explain Christianity to those outside the faith? Henderson contends that modern American Christians must change their approach to sharing the faith in order to fit modern America. The pattern of Henderson's book is straightforward: he examines a particular aspect/mindset/value of modern Americans; he then gives ideas about how a Christian might share Words of Eternal Life with such an American. Henderson's writing is both straightforward and enjoyable. He gets right to the heart of the American mindset, then illustrates it with descriptions from scenes from popular movies, personal anecdotes, jokes, etc. In all, Henderson does the modern Christian a great service in writing "Culture Shift." Jesus told Christians to tell others about him ("Go, therefore, and baptize all nations...") and Henderson can help us along the way through this book
Christianity is supposed to be practiced. Too often as Christians we separate our faith from our everyday life; this is not Biblical. Christ calls us to take Him into enter every aspect of our lives, and for Him to shape each and every way we view these areas of our lives. A good way to get into the practice of seeing and relating the things we do with God is to make connections between what we see and what we know about God. When looking at the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, I was able to look at how Biblical principles and themes were displayed throughout the film. Some of these themes displayed may have been intentional, or they may not have been. Regardless of intention, it is important to be able to relate everyday activities to God
The Simpsons: Appealing to the Middle-Class For this assignment I watched the show The Simpsons, which comes on the Fox network on Sunday nights at eight. The show is about an animated nuclear family and their everyday lives. The Simpsons targets the middle class families that live in the suburbs of America. The show mainly appeals to families that composed of parents who work at blue-collar jobs and have children, between the ages of 10-18. You can tell this from the commercials, how The Simpsons life style is portrayed and the jokes contained in the show.
Christianity’s role in America has rapidly changed over the last decades. Although it is still the most popular religion in the country its power over the people has decreased significantly. However, there are still many misconceptions towards American Christianity and in order to understand the unique nature of this religiously diverse country; one must understand its history and its citizens own views on the matter.
Watching an episode of The Simpsons relates back to the humor used in Rabelais. Gragantua and the character Bart share somewhat the same similarities when it comes to humor they are brave, entertaining, curious and humorous characters. Both authors bring a sense to of humor to their audience by including degradation, exaggeration and a sense of humor. This contemporary cultural of The Simpsons is more upto date and humorous due to the generation we live in and a lot of the humor brought within the show is based off of degradation from other entertainment such as movies, TV shows, books and celebrities, whereas Rabelais is based off more modern day humor and degradation that when readers read the story of “How Gargantua’s wonderful understanding
First of all, in The Simpsons, the scene where we get into the actual plot of the story opens with Marge and Lisa walking into a department store that sells dolls. The gender stereotype that girls are only interested in playing with dolls is reinforced here as a huge selection of Malibu Stacy dolls is on display with a throng of screeching, bloodthirsty girls tearing the store apart. Lisa says, “I’m warning you mom, I might get a little crazy.” and immediately knocks down a girl and snatches another in a choke-hold to be the first in line for the new Malibu Stacy doll. In the very next scene we have the whole family in the car with Homer driving. He is baking a cupcake with an easy-bake-oven that he bought from the mall. Marge advises him that he should not be doing that. The stereotype here is that men are more impulsive as demonstrated by Homer and his baking while driving without any concern of his or his family’s safety; and that women like to play it safe and think before acting as demonstrated by Marge. Another noteworthy observation is the fact that Homer completes his gender stereotype as the bread-winner of the family. He works at the Nuclear power plant while Marge plays the role of the proud homemaker who is rarely seen outside the home and who has little friends. Homer on the other hand, is not confined to his domestic role and his frequently shown at Moe’s Tavern with his friends, at work, or doing something that is stupid and dangerous. This enforces the stereotype that women have few friends and stay close to domestic life whereas men have lots of friends, are more independent, and bring home the bacon. Moreover, Bart and Lisa are in accordance with their gender stereotypes as well. For instance, in the backseat, Ba...
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3). The most confusing part of Christianity is the Trinity. Understanding God in three persons is difficult. He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Humanity is to trust in the Father’s providential care; trust in the Son 's forgiving, justifying work; and trust in the Spirit 's comfort and witness to the truth of the Word (Johnson, 2014). Christianity will therefore change the way a person thinks and behaves. To live for Christ and have the Holy Spirit means that one dies to themselves. Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians
God has become angry with his people. He complains in the fifteenth century English play Everyman about humans and their obsession with material items, riches, and wealth. Men and women, he feels, have taken for granted their blessings. God wants to reprimand Everyman for his sinful life and sends Death to summon him. At the beginning of the allegorical work where figures and actions symbolize general truths, a messenger shares God’s concerns. The messenger tells the audience to watch and listen closely to the morality play so they can learn a lesson about life. Everyman fears Death, and he desires to know what one must do to earn salvation and enter heaven. The writer then implies that the way to achieve salvation is by doing good works. Through positive deeds, a man has the capability of enjoying communion with Christ (McRae 306-307). Everyman’s author wrote the play before the Protestant Reformation, so the piece of literature shares the view of Roman Catholicism during that period. Roman Catholics often rely on a spiritual leader’s interpretation of the Scriptures and some additional texts, while Protestants believe the Bible alone should studied by each individual believer. Biblical Christianity teaches something different from what Everyman does. The Bible stresses that salvation occurs through faith and belief in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for humankind’s sins on Calvary’s cross. St. Paul in the book of Ephesians writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (2.8-10). When Christians...
In The Simpsons, the son of the protagonist, Homer Simpson, is a ten year old boy named Bart. He is the type of male that works hard to try to make women like Bordo spill coffee all over a table and go “weak in the knees” at first sight (191). Like a model in a Calvin Klein poster, Bart is constantly offering himself up to the gaze of those around him. Instead of monitoring hi...
Christianity has its challenges. It places demands on us that set us apart from the rest of our world. The bible calls us a peculiar people, who navigate the challenge of living IN the world, without being OF the world. When we say ‘no’ to temptations that are enjoyed by the masses, we are labeled as self-righteous snobs, religious weirdoes, or worse. But we persevere, and we press toward that invisible line the Apostle Paul drew in the sands of time…for the high calling in Christ Jesus.
Homer Jay Simpson, the patriarch of the Simpson household on the Fox series “The Simpsons” is a childish, lazy man, whose hobbies include eating donuts, drinking Duff Beer, watching television, and sleeping. A victim of the “Simpsons gene” which allows for only Simpson women to possess the trait of intelligence, Homer is unfortunately as “dumb as a chimp” according to his father, Abe Simpson. However, it is mainly through the analysis of his simplistic thoughts and nature, that one can gain a real perspective on Homer’s complex personality.
I’ve met many people who say they’re Christians but don’t really exhibit the Christian attitude. They don’t try to have a loving or patient attitude or try to spread God’s word to others. There are some who also don’t go to church. Personally, I think some of these trends have reasons. Some of the “non-dedicated” Christians may still be learning how to properly communicate God’s word. Also, attending church is not required. Faith in God is what truly makes one a Christian. There may be some people who don’t have true faith in God, but, as I said before, we should force feed God onto them. If they truly desire God, then God will go to them.