Comments on: The Simpsons vs. Bill Donohue

By: Daylight Atheism > Secular Sabotage!

Daylight Atheism > Secular Sabotage! — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:29:09 +0000

[...] bully whose sole purpose in life is seeking out things to be offended by. Whether it’s The Simpsons, the “secular Jews” who run Hollywood and hate Christianity, store greeters who say [...]

By: pdferguson

pdferguson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:31:18 +0000

Poor widdle Billy Donohue… He’s just so adorable when he’s mad. He gets to pretend he’s important and release press releases and stuff–just like a grownup!

By: everettattebury

everettattebury — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:40:41 +0000

Wikipedia has some info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_The_Simpsons

By: Hypatia's Daughter

Hypatia's Daughter — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:42:12 +0000

Many Protestant denominations have communion with bread & wine. However, for most (if not all), the bread & wine symbolically represent the body & blood of Christ. Catholics believe, as a tenet of faith, that the bread & wine are transmuted into the actual flesh & blood of Christ.
So, for a Protestant, mocking communion is like mocking any symbol (like spitting on a flag); for a Catholic, it is literally like spitting on Jesus.

By: Moonshadow

Moonshadow — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:18:44 +0000

My 9-year-old son watched this episode tonight and got the joke.

Oh, yeah, we are Catholic.

Spot-on mocking necessitates a keen grasp of the target … and the effort in that is alone sufficient to reap the admiration of just about any Catholic.

By: Nes

Nes — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:24:19 +0000

Add in Lutheran for another denomination that does the whole communion thing (even if it wasn’t every Sunday), or at least the Lutheran churches that I used to go to.

Also, I had heard quite a few years ago that The Simpsons had gone downhill from what it used to be. I wasn’t able to compare, because I rarely watched TV, but after seeing this I agree completely. This line, and one other I don’t remember right now, were the only times I laughed throughout the whole show. Sad.

By: GJKBEAR

GJKBEAR — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:51:20 +0000

I am Unitarian Universalist also – however, I found the line funny. Considering the fact that the creator Matt Groening is also UU I liked the line about the empty cup. There was a time when UUs were considered the religion who were free to believe anything – but even though we don’t have dogma, we do believe in 7 Principles. The empty cup is a blank slate and just means that we have no preconceived notions but are free to search for our meanings within the framework of those Principles. I see no reason to take offense at anything from the Simpsons. By the way, there is a curriculum based on the series & it is pretty decent at talking about some really Christian values from a UU standpoint.

By: savagemickey

savagemickey — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:46:25 +0000

With a salary of $350,000 per year how much does Bill make per whine? Does his contract include bonuses for extended periods of moral outrage? Do you think he’ll make it to the superbowl of indignation this year?

By: Polly

Polly — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:47:26 +0000

i dont understand that line in the show. Reverend Timothy Lovejoy is NOT catholic and doesnt do the bread and wine thing.

Communion is NOT limited to Catholics.
Apostolics do it every Sunday, too. Other denominations do it less frequently, but they still believe in it enough to actually warn their congregants not to take communion in bad faith lest they receive some kind of judgement. I’ve heard that warning from 2 different Protestant denominations.

By: dNorrisM

dNorrisM — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:08:01 +0000

On one episode, Lovejoy says something like:

“The Western Reformed branch of United Presbiluthitarianism”.