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Divine Imagery: âPerfect Teeth. Nice Smell. A Class Act All the Way.â
God answers all prayers. The problem, ministers say, is that sometimes the answer is ânoâânot a thundering denial but often a silence that implies that a request will not be fulfilled, for reasons best known to the Almighty. For Homer Simpson, this conundrum represents an opportunity rather than a reason to question the validity of prayer. In a flashback episode we see him at home, ostensibly thanking God for his lifeâhis marriage, his two children, his jobâa constellation in balance that is âabsolutely perfect the way it is.â Homer asks that everything be frozen in place. This is impossible, of course, sort of the equivalent of praying for a protective âhedge around him and his household and everything he has,â as the book of Job (1:10) puts it. It is at this point that Homer, at best an imperfect believer, attempts to toy with God. He prays that if the Almighty agrees to keep everything exactly as it is, Homer wonât ask for anything more. Confirmation of the deal, he prays, will come in the form of âabsolutely no sign.â There is no sign. In gratitude, Homer presents an offering to God of cookies and milk. Should God want Homer to eat the cookies himself, he asks again for âno sign.â After a pause, Homer utters the benediction, âThy will be done.â
Homerâs theological sophistry caught the attention of more than one Christian thinker. The incident appears in the opening lines of William A. Dembskiâs Intelligent Design: The Bridge between Science and Theology, a book designated one of the ten best of 1999 by Christianity Today magazine in the category of âChristianity and Culture.â In a chapter titled âRecognizing the Divine Finger,â Dembski argues that something very serious is going on in the dialogue. âWhatâs the matter with Homerâs prayer? Assuming God is the sovereign ruler of the universe, what is to prevent God from answering Homerâs prayer by providing no sign? Granted, usually when we want God to confirm something, we look for something extraordinary, some sign that leaves no doubt of Godâs will. But presumably God could have made it thunder when Homer asked God to freeze everything and God could have made the earth to quake when Homer asked to eat those cookies and milk. Presumably, it is just as easy for God to confirm Homerâs prayer with no sign as to disconfirm it with a sign.â1
Dembskiâs answer is that the flaw in Homerâs reasoning is that the prayer is self-serving. There is asymmetry in âtying a course of action to a sign and tying it to no signâ and of âseeking confirmation through the absence of a sign.â Actually, the series writers may be providing a simpler answer, in the form of an underlying cosmic joke. Homer begins his prayer by brushing off his wife, Marge, who we later learn has been trying to tell him that she is pregnant with their third child, an event guaranteed to turn his life upside down. Even before Homer asks, God has already given him both a sign and an answer (no), if he will only listen.
âRight-wingers complain thereâs no God on TV,â The Simpsonsâ creator Matt Groening said in a 1999 interview in Mother Jones magazine. âNot only do the Simpsons go to church every Sunday and pray; they actually speak to God from time to time. We show Him, and God has five fingersâunlike the Simpsons, who have only four.â2 The Simpsons is consistently irreverent toward organized religionâs failings and excesses, as it is with most other institutions of modern life. However, God is not mocked. When The Simpsons characters are faced with crises, they turn to God. He answers their prayers, often instantaneously, and he intervenes in their lives. Mike Scully, the seriesâ former executive producer, insists that God is not off-limits as a target, although there are considerable challenges. âItâs more difficult to satirize something than to mock it,â he says, and âitâs hard to satirize something you donât see.â
Characters in the series are admittedly a little hazy on the essence of the Almighty and His plan for humanity. When a character declares Homer a god, Homer corrects him, saying, âGod has a white beard and invented The Da Vinci Code.â In another episode Homer mistakes a waffle stuck to his ceiling for God, and then compounds the error by eating the waffle and mocking Communion by describing the taste as âsacrelicious.â âI donât know who or what God is exactly,â says Lisa to her brother Bart. âAll I know is, heâs a force more powerful than Mom and Dad put together.â Bart thinks the tooth fairy is Godâs daughter. In an attempt to con the neighbor boys, evangelical Christians Rod and Todd Flanders, Bart impersonates the voice of God. Mother Marge, the most faithful member of the family, believes that when she sings âYou Light Up My Life,â she is singing about God. And the sign outside Springfield Community Church offers multiple views, from âGod, the Original Love Connectionâ to âGod Welcomes His Victims.â Another asks, âIs God Patriotic Enough?â Outside a downtown Springfield homeless shelter, yet another reads, âWe Add God to Your Misery.â
Predestination makes an appearance from time to time, where Godâs plan is used sometimes as an excuse, sometimes as an explanation. âUntil this moment,â says Bart, poised to buy a rare issue of Radioactive Man, âI never knew why God put me on this earth. But now I know . . . to buy that comic book.â Informed that his house is teetering on its foundation, Homer says the situation is simply âall part of Godâs plan,â and when he causes a traffic accident, he shouts, âAct of God, not my fault!â After a giant sturgeon falls to Earth from a Russian spacecraft and crashes onto his car hood, Homer complains, âGod conned me out of sixty-five hundred dollars in car repairs.â Criticized for using bad language, he says, âMaybe I curse a little, but thatâs the way God made me and Iâm too old to stop now.â Homer does a dance on top of a baseball dugout during a game, to the delight of the crowd. âWe all have a calling, a reason the Almighty put us on earth, and yours might be to dance on dugouts,â says Marge. Lisa equates her familyâs weekly menu with predestination: âFriday night. Pork chops. From cradle to grave, etched in stone in Godâs library somewhere in heaven.â
It is Homer, however, who has the most personal relationship with God. Denounced by some as a simple-minded pagan, he is much more than that. According to the book God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture,
Homer fulfills the role of the American spiritual wanderer. Though linked culturally (if unsteadily and unenthusiastically) to biblical tradition, he regularly engages a mosaic of other traditions, mythologies, and moral codes. In the face of these ever-shifting layers of meaning, he stumbles along, making the most of his limited understanding of their complexities. His comic antics remind us that the making of meaning (religious or otherwise) is ever an unfinished business, and that humor and irony go a long way toward sweetening and sustaining the endeavor.3
In their spiritual searching, neither Bart nor Homer is shy about going directly to the source and asking God for help in his daily life. When Bart sees a copy machine in the library with 199 free copies on it, he asks God for a sign. His pants fall down, so he makes 199 copies of his butt, which he later inserts in the church bulletin. Uncertain how to help his gifted daughter Lisa, Homer asks for a sign from God. Suddenly he sees a storekeeper putting a sign in his window, âMusical Instruments: The Way to Encourage a Gifted Child,â that answers his question exactly, beginning her saxophone career. Over the years that the series has run, Homer has gone back and forth about Godâs fundamental nature: âHeâs always happy. No wait, Heâs always mad.â Homer is not alone in this confusion. The Jewish philosopher and theo-lo gian Abraham J. Heschel, in his study of the prophet Amos, noted this stark duality of God. On one hand, he is âthe Deity of stern, mechanical justice.â On the other, he is the God who overlooks and forgives a faithless Israel.4 So maybe The Simpsonsâ writers are after more than a cheap laugh.
Without question, this is also a jealous God that does not like to be challenged. Montgomery Burns, the richest man in Springfield and Homerâs boss at the nuclear power plant, fancies himself divine when a cult sweeps the town. Likening himself to âThe New God,â he tells workers at the nuclear plant, âYou may now praise me as the almightyââwhereupon his robe catches on fire and he is left standing naked before the people. Homer falls into a similar trap when he finds a six-foot Tiki statue in the trash, sets it up in his backyard, and runs a gas line to the idol so it can spew flames. âCan your god do that?â he asks Ned Flanders, the evangelical next door. Actually, his neighbor replies, âwe worship the same God.â Not so, says Homer, yelling âI am your god now!â as the Tiki drops from his hands and sets the yard afire. In another episode, Homer and a friend engage in a vicious competition for snowplow customers, one so intense that Homer uses an opportunity to read the Bible from the pulpit during Sunday service to plug his plowing service. After reconciling with his competitor, Homer proclaims, âWhen two best friends work together, not even God can stop them.â The words âOh, no?â then appear large in the sky, and the rays of sunshine instantly melt the accumulated snow. Sometimes fire and sometimes ice, but the result is the same.
Homer is never entirely certain of Godâs love, which he tests repeatedly. Driving the family car during a Halloween fantasy sequence, he flees a zombieâthe undead Ned Flanders. âDear God,â he cries, âitâs Homer. If you really love me, youâll save me now,â after which, he runs out of gas. In a Christmas episode, Homer is horrified to discover the familyâs gifts and tree missing on Christmas morning, and he reaches an inescapable conclusion: âKids, God hates us!â
In another episode, he struggles to express Godâs universality: âYouâre everywhere. Youâre omnivorous.â Heâs also somewhat confused about Godâs sense of self and what he does when not conversing with Homer. âI feel this incredible surge of power,â Homer says in one episode, âlike God must feel when heâs holding a gun.â In another, after shaking up Springfield with revelations on his personal Web site, he believes he has changed the world: âNow I know how God feels.â At the other end of the spectrum, in an annual Halloween fantasy episode, God is sucked into a black hole.
On a Pacific island, where he finds himself an accidental missionary, Homer is asked why an all-powerful Lord cares how or even whether he is worshiped. The question, profound and serious, is answered on this occasion with a disappointingly superficial quip. âItâs because God is powerful, but insecure,â Homer replies, âlike Barbra Streisand before James Brolin.â Homer is on even shakier ground when he tries to explain God and heaven to the islanders. After overseeing construction of a primitive church, he explains why church bells have to be rung. âGodâs palace is way up on the moon. So if you want him to hear us, you have to crank up the volume.â
Embroiled in an escalating feud with George H. W. Bush when the former president moves into the neighborhood, Homer asks himself, âWhat would God do in this situation?â The next scene shows Bart carrying a box of locusts. In another episode, after watching a biblical epic about Noah on television, Bart gets carried away, telling Homer that God is cool because he is so âin-your-face!â Homer agrees, sort of, saying that God is his favorite âfictional character.â After being accidentally hit in the face with an ice cream cone while on a hunger strike in another episode, he snaps, âNice try, God, but Homer Simpson doesnât give in to temptation that easily.â For his part, the Almighty is not without a sense of humor, at least where Homer is concerned. He leaves Homer a note reading, âIOU one brain, God.â
Like many biblical figures and religious mystics through the ages, Homer has his most intense encounters with the Divine while dreaming. A vivid and extended example of this takes place in the 1992 episode âHomer the Heretic,â written by George Meyer, long a guiding force in the series. The episode is used in college and seminary classes on religion and popular culture around the country. On a cold Sunday morning, Homer splits his pants as he dresses for church, so he decides not to go. Again, he offers what he takes as a clever, if familiar, theological justification: Whatâs the big deal about going to some building on Sunday, he asks his wife. âIsnât God everywhere?â What he is asking is, How does God want to be worshiped? It is a question people of most cultures have been asking for thousands of years. Homer believes that if God wanted people to worship him for an hour a week, he should have made the week an hour longer.
At Springfield Community Church, where the furnace has broken, the other members of the Simpson family shiver, warmed only by Reverend Lovejoyâs sermon promising hellâs fire and brimstone. Meanwhile, Homer luxuriates in a hot shower and a warm house, with loud music and fattening food. Thus, the dichotomy is established: The faithful suffer for their belief, while the prodigal father enjoys the sybaritic life. As if the point is not made well enough, the contrast deepens. Together with the rest of the congregation, Marge and the children are stuck in church after the service, since the doors have frozen shut, and are forced to listen to the minister fill time by reading from the bulletin. At home, Homer wins a radio trivia contest, then watches an exciting football game on television and even finds a penny on the floor. After the congregation is finally able to leave the building, Margeâs car wonât start, leaving the family cold and stranded. When his family finally trudges in with their tales of woe, Homer proclaims that he has been having a wonderful day, perhaps the best of his life. Based on his analysis of divine favor, he decides never to go to church again. Marge canât believe that her husband intends to give up his faith. At first, he denies that is his intention, but then he admits it.
Homerâs decision to abandon church provokes a full-blown theological debate in the Simpson household, with Bart supporting his fatherâs choice with call-and-response evangelical fervor. In his defense, Homer offers a corollary to the âone true faithâ argument for abandoning worship: âWhat if we picked the wrong religion?â he asks. âEvery week weâre just making God madder and madder.â That question, undermining as it is to more than one denomination, cannot remain unanswered. Before going to sleep that night, Marge kneels by her bed and prays for Homer to see the error of his ways, as he drifts off to sleep.
As so often in The Simpsons, God hears and answers. God comes to Homer in his dream, and provides as dramatic and direct an answer as can be imagined. Sitting on his couch, watching television, Homer feels the house begin to shake. A beam of light shines through the clouds and a large handâwith five realistic fingersâ removes the roof. God is standing in the Simpsonsâ living room. In deference to several faiths, Godâs countenance is not shown. He is seen from the flowing beard down, wearing a robe and, it appears, Birkenstock sandals. At first, God is in no mood for pleas-antries: âThou hast forsaken my church!â he thunders.
Homer is frightened, but is nothing if not quick on his feet: âIâm not a bad guy! I work hard and I love my kids. So why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how Iâm going to hell? . . . I figure I should try to live right and worship you in my own way.â God seems won over, acknowledging that Homer has a point as God pets the family cat. God agrees with Homerâs complaints about Reverend Lovejoyâs sermons. Because the minister displeases him, the Almighty will give him a canker sore. Here, truly, is God alive in the world. God agrees to let Homer worship him in his own way and departs, explaining that he has to appear in a tortilla in Mexico. Is this a dig at believers who report seeing religious visions in unlikely places? Clearly not, because God says he will actually be present in the tortilla.
After waking, Homer dives wholeheartedly into his new religion, donning a monkâs robe and a mien of inner peace. In the manner of Saint Francis of Assisi, he attracts backyard birds and squirrels. Naturally, he decides his new religion needs holidaysâ what would a religion be without holidays? From the neighborhood bar, Moeâs Tavern, Homer calls the nuclear power plant where he works to inform his employer that he will be out for a religious holiday. Asked the name of the holiday, he spies a sign on the wall of the bar and replies, âthe Feast of Maximum Occupancy.â Homer invites Moe to join his new religion, pointing out that it has the advantages of no hell and no kneeling. The bartender, a self-professed lifelong âsnake handler,â declines.
Lisa cautions against her fatherâs apparent blasphemy, but Homer explains that he is covered. In his own variation of Pascalâs wager, he says that if he is wrong he can always recant on his deathbed. Lisa does not remind him that this strategy may contain a fatal flaw, in light of the biblical warning that âno man knows when his hour will comeâ (Eccl. 9:12). Marge takes a more assertive approach to saving her husband from perdition by inviting Reverend Lovejoy to dinner. At the table, Homer de scribes to Bart how God appeared to him in the dream: âPerfect teeth. Nice smell. A class act, all the way.â Under divine instructions, Homer tells the minister, he is seeking a new religious path. Lovejoy quotes Matthew 7:26 about the foolish man who built his house on sand. Homer replies with a bogus verse from Matthew, plucked out of the air, which is completely irrelevant.
How silly is Margeâs concern with her husbandâs apparent loss of faith? Not silly at all, to judge from the numerous books, television, and radio shows that discuss the dilemma of spouses with different religions or different levels of religious commitmentâ what Christians call âunequally yoked.â Homerâs decision to abandon the church, and his persistence in this course, continue to have serious repercussions within his family. His wife makes an argument familiar to many households with divided beliefs: She has an obligation to raise the children with moral values, and church is a part of that obligation. Exasperated, Marge tells the children that Homer is wicked, and warns her husband not to force her to choose between him and God, because he will lose. At church the next Sunday, the sign out front reads âWhen Homer Met Satan.â Inside, Reverend Lovejoyâwho...