Is it just me or does the Simpson's seem to be getting more sacrilegious every year? I'm not a religious zealot, but it seems that the Simpson's are pushing the boundaries a little bit too far, for my taste anyway.
Lampooning Flanders and Lovejoy is funny. God visiting Homer and asking if the Cardinals still played football in St. Louis was great. But having God start a war for his own amusement and then contradicting himself (the Lisa as Joan of Arc part of the Children's fairy tale episode) not only was a joke that fell flat, but went out of the lines for good taste.
Uh, yeah, that was based on the story of Joan of Arc. They didn't go and make that stuff up. God contradicting itself is something that's happened since human beings formulated the concept of God.
Read the bible sometime you'll see such things as:
One of the ten commandments: "I am a jealous God, thou shalt worship only me..."
One of the seven deadly sins: "envy"
God's funny like that. No reason to get all "uncomfortable" just because the Simpsons point that out.
more or less. The english invasion wasn't god-commanded, it was a secular grab for land. The french were the only ones with any religious backing.
The seven deadly sins were never pronounced as sin by God, but rather shown as the source of sin by one of the popes (Gregory the Great, i think). Since it wasn't an infallible papal proclamation, there was no contradiction even by catholic standards (ie, guideline not rule).
Shalom, Sum' Bitches!
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Fred
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"Now is the time for all good cows to come to the aid of the pasture!"
Done. Operation Speedy Resolution was started over England's claim to the French crown, brought about by a question of dynastic succession law. The English, already absorbing France as a sphere of influence, Claimed that Edward the III, son of English king Edward 2 was the lawful successor to the french throne through his mother, Isabelle, daughter of the last french king of that dynasty. The french, being an intellegent people, knew that lowly women couldn't pass on dynastic rights, and put the last king's nephew on the throne.
Well done! Just remember that all this was done because kings really believed in their divine rights.
We all have a tendency of judging the past by today's values and standards.
Now, going back to the original question of this thread.....yes, the "Simpsons" are getting more sacrilegious. Religion means little in our lives. Even the self-professed religious pick and choose from their own religions and mix them with others in order to create something they can live with. With no hard rules, religion has less meaning and influence. Thus, religion is just grist for the humor mill.
Maybe if u want to go the deep-ass roots, sure. (: Of course, even without christianity, western europe would still have been monarchy-dominated, considering it was mostly primitive alpha-male ruled tribes adopting roman political theory.
More so in the last few years especially. The pious Simpsons of the early seasons were typical of society at the time, but society changed. Unfortunately, when the simpsons changed to match up, it was at the cost of established viewing expectations.
Coranon Siliria Ozoo Mahok,
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Fred
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"Now is the time for all good cows to come to the aid of the pasture!"
There were religions before Christianity! I seem to remember that the Romans had gods, and that they were important in all forms of politics and commerce.
Early kings were followed because it was generally believed that they were the chosen of the gods. As religion became less important, kingship became less respected. Newer forms and reasons for choosing leaders had to be developed.
General views haven't changed that much in the last thirteen years!!!
More likely, your perceptions have changed. Especially, if you are young.
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Why do you have such "established viewing expectations"? Can you only watch (or participate in) things with which you have 100% agreement from the outset?
Not necessarily. The earliest Roman government was a monarchy, though given the early year it was more likely just a city-tribe. They immediately created a Republic, and yet were still devoted in worship of their native roman and adopted greek gods. Later the caesors and emperors took power by sheer military might (defeat of pompey, etc). Religion was definitely an integral part of roman life, but it was only background noise in relation to roman politics (maybe greek city states too, though i know a few were kingdoms).
8 years of clintonian rule ending 12 years of republican rule (which would've been a twenty year streak if gerald ford had been electable), polarization and regional consolidation of the two parties - the type of thing that would create changes in general views. Obviously this happenned right in the beginning of the simp's run, but they've usually been a bit behind in reflecting social trends (example: "It seems like cartoons are everywhere these days... or they were, last years") Frankly it seems to me that the *early* 90s were general a more conservative time socially than the mid & late 90s, even without the trade off in party rule. "c'mon, It's the 90s" was the rally call to liberalization on all fronts, and it eventually it worked quite well.
I wasn't reffering to agreement, i was reffering to what you (or rather I) expect to get out of an episode. The older simpsons were lightly irreverant towards religion, and fans of the old simpsons enjoyed. Newer episodes are more openly and purposefully sacrilegious (wow, the thread's back on topic), which alienates viewers who came to expect Lovejoy counting money and telling Flanders to join another religion. The change was accross the board, not just religion based. By the end of scully's run, there was a clear intent on pissing off hardcore fans with irregularity. The new guy (don't know his name, don't care about it either) has no agenda to keep the common man down, but isn't necessarily concerned with consistency. It can still be funny, but at times lead to half-assedness (That damn pop-eye ending).
Seriously though... I read an article about Simpsons and religon and from what I gathered the article basically pointed out that the religous establishment isn't exactly anti-simpson. The article mainly concerned the baptist view points. Al F 729th ACS HAFB, Utah I used to be with it, but then they changed what "it" was. Now, what I'm with isn't it, and what's "it" seems weird and scary to me.-Abe