Vicar Uses the Simpsons To Teach Christian Message(Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa become college class)

North County Times ^ | April 4, 2004 4:50 PM PDT | AP

[fight_truth_decay]

LONDON (AP) -- Thou shalt not have a cow. So says the gospel according to The Simpsons.

America's famous dysfunctional cartoon family will be the subject of a series of evening classes by the Rev. Robin Spittle on the Christian message in the popular show.

"They are a churchgoing family and they make moral decisions, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't, but either way they are a great way to open up a discussion," said Spittle.

Churchgoers at All Saints Church in Kesgrave, northeast of London, have been invited to attend four classes from the end of April on each of the four main family members -- Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa.

Spittle says that each episode had Christian themes, even though Homer once described his religion as "you know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. Uh, Christianity."

The reverend, 46, cited the temptation for Marge and Homer to have extramarital affairs as a recurring story line.

"Both Marge and Homer have found themselves being offered the opportunity to play away from home and they both turn them down," said Spittle. "Temptation, choices and doing what's right - you can't get much more of a Christian message than that."

The references to Christianity in the hit show have been widely discussed and were the subject of a 2001 book by Mark Pinsky called "The Gospel According to the Simpsons."

"They have a clever way of covering a lot of ground in a short space of time. Each 20-minute show gets a whole message across," said Spittle, who has previously held services in the local pub and used Hollywood films such as "Harry Potter" to teach the meaning of Easter.

The family values -- or the apparent lack of them -- in the Emmy-winning series were criticized when it first aired in the early 1990s. In 1992, former President George Bush said that American families should be "a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons."

The show has long since silenced its harshest critics and gone on to become the longest running prime-time cartoon series.

The actors that give the voice to Homer's "D'oh!" and to Bart's "don't have a cow man" have been gaining attention again recently because of their demands for higher pay. According to the trade paper Daily Variety, each cast member is seeking about $360,000 per episode.

[fight_truth_decay]

Christian animator, Lance Wilder, of The Simpsons made by Film ROMAN in Hollywood says, " Behind the scenes, there is a Bible study that goes on and I would say about 20 churchgoing Bible-believing Christian artists now working on The Simpsons."

A Scottish church said it would run a course on "The Gospel According to The Simpsons" to try to boost congregations. The Rev George Cowie, spokesman for the Presbytery in Aberdeen, said: "Despite its anarchic humour, The Simpsons is one of the few television programmes which portrays a modern family who attend church regularly. The course at Holburn West will endeavour to close the gap with popular culture, and it is open to anyone who wishes to learn more about the Christian faith."

In 'The Simpsons' and academia (April 6, 2004 by Newsday.com), Tufts University officials said the book, The Simpsons and Society by Steven Keslowitz, a Brooklyn College sophomore, already has turned up on the reading list for its class on "The Simpsons." Keslowitz says his favorite episode is No. 163, "The Springfield Files," in which special agents Mulder and Scully pursue a ghostly figure that turns out to be an iridescent Mr. Burns. "I found the jokes in the show unbelievable," Keslowitz said. "The episode also included several examples of the Homeric view of life":

"So I said blue M&M, red M&M ... they all wind up the same color in the end."

"Well, it's 1 a.m. Better go home and spend some quality time with the kids."

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[Bigg Red]

Rev. Robin Spittle

**
At least he has an appropriate name for this approach.

I once tried watching the show, but I am very much offended by the portrayal of the father, the head of the household, as a bumbling loser. I am sick of having the image of the family insulted.

[holymoly]

Let us all join hands as we sing "In the Garden of Eden" by "I. Ron Butterfly".

[Xenalyte]

"Hey Marge . . . remember when we used to make out to this hymn?"

[Oztrich Boy]

I once tried watching the show, but I am very much offended by the portrayal of the father, the head of the household, as a bumbling loser. I am sick of having the image of the family insulted.

Inquiring minds want to know. Are you similarly offended by 7th Heaven?

[Tuco Ramirez]

The mother's hardly better.

At least there's a family on TV with 2 married parents and more than 2 children.

[Bigg Red]

Are you similarly offended by 7th Heaven?

**
I watch almost no tv as I noted in my comments. I have not checked out the show you mentioned because Mary Steenburgen (sp?) is on it.

[Oztrich Boy]

I watch almost no tv as I noted in my comments.

So why do you think criticizing the show on the basis of what you imagine the content is fair?