Friday, July 6, 2007

Bend it Like the Simpsons


The new Simpsons film will utilize one of its stand-by targets: the Bible. Series creator Matt Groening showed clips to a London audience yesterday including one where Homer appears late to Church; when asked to explain he flips through the Bible and moans, "This book doesn't have any answers."

The religion of the Simpsons has been a primary concern of the show in its eighteen year run. From the good natured, zealous faith of the dweeby Flanders, to the random, droning sermons of Rev. Lovejoy, the show has had a hate/love relationship with the Bible.

Here are some Bible moments over the years:
  • Homer complains that the Bible is "preachy"
  • The family tunes into a local AM radio station to find that every one is talking about signs of evil
  • Marge tells Bart he needs to go to church to learn how to love his fellow man and then they listen to a sermon where the Aromites "pierced the eyes of their fellow man"
  • The First Church of Springfield marquee once reads "Evil Women in History from Jezebel to Janet Reno"
  • Homer tells Lisa "if the Bible has taught us nothing else--and it hasn't--it's that girls should stick to girls sports such as hot oil wrestling, foxy boxing and such and such."
  • The Myth of Creation Museum and "So You're calling God a Liar? An Unbiased Comparison of Evolution and Creationism"
  • A new Catholic Church commercial
  • A pregnant girl asks Bart to marry her because she is "religious like that" and Bart responds "how can you be religious if your pregnant?"
  • Ned Flanders cannot tell his sons how--if Cain and Abel were the only children of Adam and Eve--they were able to populate the earth.
  • Catholic Heaven v. Protestant Heaven
  • Ned reads a stoned Homer the Bible
  • Homer explains why he doesn't go to church
  • Homer correctly predicts the Rapture and goes up to Heaven where God tells him that he sent his son down and he hasn't been the same since (Jesus is twirling around a swing set looking depressed)
  • And my favorite: The Simpsons watch the film "Left Below"

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