October 19, 2010

"Few people know it, and he does everything to hide it. But it's true: Homer J. Simpson is Catholic."

Proclaims Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, which isn't infallible.

25 comments:

Original Mike said...

D'oh!

Triangle Man said...

Nonsense. The Simpsons attend the First Church of Springfield.

The Dude said...

They go to church, but it's not a Catholic church.

Oh, right, the whole freakin' mess is fictional. Never mind...

Mitch H. said...

Rev. Lovejoy's wife would be quite surprised to hear this.

ndspinelli said...

Bart was probably fondled by a priest...would explain a lot.

ricpic said...

Wasn't the clearly Irish Catholic Archie, played by Carroll O'Connor in All In The Family, supposedly a Protestant? I remember him making cracks about Catholics more than once, the point being to show us what an all inclusive bigot he was.

Fred4Pres said...

There was an episode in Season Five: the Father, Son and Special Guest Star, where Liam Neilson, playing a priest, converts Bart and Homer to RC, causing Ned and Pastor Lovejoy to do back flips.

Ipso Fatso said...

A guy who lives next door to me is good friends with Dan Castellaneta who does the voice of Homer. I will have to ask him to get Dan's take.

Sprezzatura said...

Speaking of religion. O'Donnell got into trouble, because she only learned the top-line talking points, instead of also understanding the constitution parsing required to get there.

At least she and her TPer pals aren't very focused on the Constitution. Nothing to see here. Move along. Move along.

Unknown said...

I can only hope this is a humor piece.

Alex said...

Well apparently the GOP never learns. Rush Limbaugh just said that the GOP shouldn't compromise one iota. Welcome back to minority status in 2012 fools.

Alex said...

1pb - hey at least you aren't using the teabagger slur. That's progress!

Peter Hoh said...

A few years ago, Christianity Today (or maybe it was The Christian Century) ran an article that proposed that the Simpsons were the most religious show on television.

Except for one episode in which they dabbled into Catholicism, Homer and Bart are protestants. According to Rev. Lovejoy, their denomination is The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has gone after the Simpsons a couple of times. He's already released a statement on the reports about the Vatican newspaper article.

More about the Simpsons and religion here.

James H said...

The nes articles here are misleading which is not unusual when people are talking tabout the Vatican Newspaper

The Vatican Newspaper "proclaimed" nothing. It was simply talking about a article that appeared in a Jesuit Journal

roesch-voltaire said...

Things get very mixed up with media people. Yesterday O'Donnell didn't know about the First Amendment baring Congress making laws respecting the establishment of religion. Apparently anything can be true in media world.

Phil 314 said...

Peter;
Christianity Today (or maybe it was The Christian Century)

How could you get those two mixed up?

Scott M said...

I would invite the 1st Amendment experts in this thread go back and review both the video and the transcript of that exchange. As a wise, sword-wielding Spaniard once said, "I do not think it means what you think it means."

I'm not sure how Catholic a Catholic Homer can be if he prays to Jebus.

ricpic said...

Voltaire - What O'Donnell didn't know was that the 1st Amendment is about the separation of church and state, WHICH IT'S NOT!

Triangle Man said...

"proclaimed" nothing

The headline was "Homer e Bart sono cattolici". Is the quibble "proclaimed" versus "declared"? Certainly the paper "wrote" that they are Catholic.

John Burgess said...

I'm pretty sure he was baptized Mormon. Repeatedly.

The Crack Emcee said...

Homer is obviously a NewAger.

Kidding.

Geoff Matthews said...

CE, Homer isn't a Newager, but Lisa definitely is.

Gabriel Hanna said...

I would invite the 1st Amendment experts in this thread go back and review both the video and the transcript of that exchange. As a wise, sword-wielding Spaniard once said, "I do not think it means what you think it means."

There were established churches and religious tests for office in this country well into the 19th century.

In 1791 there were amendments to the Constitution, proposed along with the Bill of Rights, which would have prevented state governments from establishing churches, but these were rejected by Congress.

The history of the separation of church and state is not as simple as some of us might like it to be.

O'Donnell is wrong to think that the Constitution, as understood now, allows public school districts to teach creationism to kids, or creationism's closeted twin, intelligent design. But she is right that the First Amendment as written was not understood to forbid it until the last fifty years or so.

Sprezzatura said...

ScottM

She's hung up on the talking point re 'separation.' But, Coons is never saying that those particular words are in the Constitution. And, she's completely dumbfounded when he's talking about the first amendment, but not the 'separation' phrase. Listen to 7:07 in my earlier link.

BTW, Malkin has a link indicating that Coons was stumped later on re all of the protections of the first amendment. Of course he just chose to not answer, so it's possible that he could have thought of a few of them.

After all of this, what can we conclude w/ certainty? If you take her at her word, it seems like O'Donnell interprets the constitution in a way that would allow public schools to teach the story of a Christian God creating the world in science classes instead of evolution. Is that your understanding? Do you believe that a correct interpretation of the Constitution would permit this? Do you want O'Donnell and others supporting judges/justices who would agree w/ this interpretation?

roesch-voltaire said...

Yes the phrase separation of church and state is generally traced to a letter by Thomas Jefferson, and I could almost believe this is what O'Donnell was questioning except she did't know what the 14th was about-- As I said before she is a media person who can make up things, or be anything she imagines.