Throughout the day Homer is able to do things he wouldn't normally be able to do on Sundays, he makes his favorite waffles, dances in his underwear, wins a radio contest, and to top it all off a boring television program is replaced with a high-scoring football game. Meanwhile, Marge makes it her mission to make it to church - fighting the cold weather and dealing with her reluctant children. When she finally gets there she is greeted by a broken heater and the long version of a sermon.
After being freed from the Church (the doors had frozen shut) by groundskeeper Willie, and then dealing with a car that wouldn't start, Marge and the kids finally make it home. Homer had turned up the heat to full blast and approaches Marge stating that he "had the best day of his life, and was never going to church again". You could tell Marge was horrified, and as soon as Homer said this Bart began to mention that if his father wasn't going, why should he?
Later that night, Homer is visited by God in a dream in which God is angry with Homer for "forsaking his Church" but Homer is able to convince God that Homer should be allowed to worship him in his own way. I mean, Homer is a good man with a good family, why should he spend half of his day in Church listening about how he's going to hell?
I'd really like to discuss the relationship between Homer's justification to God and why so many Christians do not go to church on a weekly basis. The Simpsons really seems to have encapsulated the everyday American view of church in this episode. First it's a hassle to wake up in the morning, drag yourself out of bed on your day off from work and then brave the elements to make it down to your local parish . Then once you're there you sit down to listen to the Word of God but it seems to always be the same negative messages. If you're dragged to Church either by your parents, your wife, or just to avoid the stigma of your local community chances are that you are not going to be pay attention to what is being preached. You're going to sit there, try and day dream and the few messages you will pick up on are the negative ones. It doesn't help that Reverend Lovejoy is probably the most dull and unexciting person in all of Springfield.
I feel as though our culture has established that what the Simpsons have portrayed is what we now believe Church is. To us it has become hearing how the world is going to end, or how you are a bad person. No one wants to hear about that stuff. Like Homer, many Americans believe that if you are a good person, and do good things there is really no need to go to Church. Why would anyone want to spend an hour a week listening about how they are not a good person, or how they could better themselves when they content with who they are?
Well I believe the answer to this question is also evident in this episode. The answer is the sense of community that Church and religion brings. It's so evident throughout the entire episode. When Krusty comes by to ask Homer for a donation, when Apu says that he has a shrine to Ganeesha, when the Flanders family tries desperately to bring Homer back to the Church. Religion and Church brings the community together. It doesn't matter whether you are of the same religion, Religion in general teaches us the core principles to get along with one another - so much that the Fire Brigade (made up mostly of characters who were not Christian) attempted to go save Homer from the fire. I don't think it's a coincidence that Homer was saved by the one character who tried so hard to bring him back to his local church - Flanders. I believe Matt Groening and the other writers of the episode were really able to incorporate both the views of the non-church goers and the views of the religious community without upsetting either group pretty well.
And that's my rant about this week's video, looking forward to hear what the rest of you have to think.
