Imagine my surprise, when reading an article by Charles Chaput, the conservative Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia, to read a plug for Lutheran Satire.
The article, Luther would be horrified by the world he forgedin CatholicHerald.co.uk, describes the site like this: “The brainchild of a US Lutheran pastor, it focuses on Church humour from a Lutheran angle. The goal is catechesis through comedy, and no issue or religious leader is too sacred to poke.”
The mastermind of the site, Rev. Hans Fiene, describes it this way:
Lutheran Satire is a project intended to teach the Lutheran faith through comedic videos, music, writings, industrial welding supplies, and other forms of media. Created in 2011, Lutheran Satire is currently the United States’ most popular satirical Lutheran multimedia project and is the United Arab Emirates’ third most popular satirical Lutheran multimedia project.
The website really is a treasure house of catechesis, Christian apologetics, and theological applications. It also carries on the time-honored Lutheran art form of the polemic. But instead of being angry and, well, polemical, the theological battle is carried on by means of laugh-out-loud humor. (Luther actually did that too, though he is best remembered for his personal attacks.)
To give you a sample of Rev. Fiene’s work, I offer you the video that Archbishop Chaput was so taken with: “Reformation Piggybackers.” It expresses what Luther was trying to accomplish with his Reformation and how the Reformation was co-opted by Zwingli, Calvin, and Henry VIII. Those of you from their traditions might feel a sting, but I hope the humor makes it more palatable.
But I think Archbishop Chaput stopped viewing with the credits. He might not have appreciated the video quite so much If he had watched the post-credit scene, featuring a dialogue between Luther’s Pope Leo X and Frank the Hippie Pope!
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