Humor can have salutary moral and religious effects. The function of satire, according to classical critics, is to ridicule vice. Though it often portrayed bad behavior, it did so in order to mock it, thus discouraging the audience from imitating that behavior since no one wants to be mocked.
Then there is the Renaissance tradition of serio ludere (serious play), the use of laughter to teach serious truths, as practiced by writers such as More, Rabelais, Erasmus, and, I would say, Luther.
Two contemporary Christian practitioners of these arts from the confessional Lutheran persuasion are Anthony Sacramone, of Luther at the Movies and Strange Herring fame, and Hans Fiene, of Lutheran Satire.
Sacramone is also the editor of the Acton Institute’s publications, the hardcopy journal Religion & Liberty, (which does have some of its articles posted online) and the separate Religion & Liberty Online. Both are outstanding. Fiene is also the pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Crestwood, Missouri, one of the 91 municipalities that constitute St. Louis.
In the latest issue of Religion & Liberty, Sacramone interviews Rev. Fiene in a feature available online entitled Conversation Starters with Rev. Hans Fiene. As the editor, Sacramone pretty much plays the straight man here. I’d now like for Fiene to interview Sacramone. But here are a few highlights. The two discuss straightforward topics, such as “de-churching,” the appropriateness of Christian satire, and the prospects for Christianity in Hollywood productions–all of which are well worth reading–but I want to concentrate here on examples of serio ludere that shed light on today’s issues.
Sacramone asks Rev. Fiene about the problem of pastoral burnout: “Pastors don’t get burned out from being a pastor, really. Rather, pastors get burned out from having to be something other than pastors. So the way I avoid burnout is by pushing things off my table that aren’t really “pastor things” when I feel that sense of despair looming. I’ve never wanted to leave the ministry after doing devotions with the preschoolers or spending an hour visiting a 95-year-old shut-in.”
Sacramone asks Rev. Fiene about Christian nationalism: “I think the Christian Nationalism debate is equal parts intriguing and idiotic. On the one hand, I agree with Martin Luther that God hasn’t charged secular rulers with binding and forgiving sins, but He has charged them with defending and preserving the preaching of the Gospel. Luther wouldn’t recognize anything biblical in the view that the Ten Commandments and statues of Baphomet must be equally welcome in the courthouse. So if God gave me a world where I could have a faithful Lutheran government, I would gladly take it.
On the other hand, any Christian student of history should be able to see that Caesar is a pretty terrible judge of what is orthodox and what isn’t, so the best way Caesar can serve the church is by staying out of the heresy business. And this is where I find the hyper-online clamoring for Christian Nationalism to be so silly. We don’t have faithful princes. We don’t have faithful voters. We don’t currently have the ingredients necessary to establish Christian Nationalism. We won’t have them any time soon, and we won’t have them very long if we get them. So arguing with people about the superiority of Christian Nationalism is like arguing about whether we should use a DeLorean or a phone booth when we invent time travel.”
Serious film buff Sacramone asks Rev. Fiene, who must also be at least a semi-serious film buff, what are his favorite black and white movies: He says The Apartment with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, with close runners up being “The Seven Samurai (for the battle scenes), Casablanca (for the ending), and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (I’ve been told that this is not a black-and-white film and that I need to see an ophthalmologist).”
Illustration: Rev. Hans Fiene, by, I think, Matthew Carver, via Lutheran Satire.
Photo: Anthony Sacramone via The Stream
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