Humour as a Lesson

The movie Saved with Mandy Moore was one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time. Most Christians would probably get offended immensely if they ever saw it. The entire movie is a parody of Christianity and its offsets. Most of the humour is probably against extreme conservatisms and extreme Pentecostalism, both deserving the slams that were given.

If you are one to get offended of people making fun of you and can’t laugh at your own faults or of your church, then I suggest you steer clear of this movie. If you want to learn key truths about what is lacking in Christianity and in church then this movie is for you. It probably borders on the edge of pluralism and liberalism a little too much, but I think it does so in a way that is tasteful. Sometimes you need to swing just as hard in the other direction to make people see their faults and eventually the swing will come to a halt at the balance where it needs to be.

Can humour be used to point out fault? Should it be used?

It can be used and it has, Shakespeare, the Simpsons, Family Guy, Seinfeld and almost every TV show uses it everyday to make fun of society too show them how shallow they really are. If we can’t look at the humour and see the truth in it, we are being prideful and stubborn. I know Saved stepped on a few toes, and I’ll probably step on a few toes even saying that I liked it, but that movie has revealed more truth about the problems of the church in two hours than I have ever heard from the pulpit. It’s amazing what you can learn from humour.

If you check out Lark News (www.larknews.com) you can read story after story (all made up) about the church. Laugh if you want, or get bitter if you want, either way the truth in the articles are mind boggling. The Onion (www.theonion.com) is another site but they make fun of everything from politics to sports to religion. Watch any episode of the Simpsons and find yourself laughing at them making fun of something trying to prove a point.

I personally find it absolutely hilarious watching Saved or reading Lark News. I also find it quite sad though, I find it sad that there is actually that many things to make fun off, and for the most part we deserve every bit of it. Next time when your ‘Jesus’ is getting made fun of or your religion or denomination remember they probably aren’t even making fun of the real Jesus, religion or denomination, they are most likely only making fun of the man-made one that we falsely represent. The humour can be used to bring you back to the truth.