The Simpsons Teach Theology

Because the numbers of youth attending church has been declining for the last 5 years, the Church of England has enlisted the help of the Simpsons (click here for story) to stem the exodus. Now, Homer, Mo, Bart, Smithers and the rest of those godly theologians will be discipling teenagers in Britain.

This is my favorite line, said by the Archbishop of Canterbury himself, Dr. Rowan Williams, “For all that Homer is a slob and Bart is a brat and Lisa is a pain in the neck, you know there's real affection and loyalty.” How can they have real affection and loyalty!?! They're cartoons! They don't exist!

This is not surprising, coming from a man that just last week celebrated "diverse perspectives on God and diverse ways of making God's work real for each other" and said the Bible is not "supernaturally giving us guaranteed information about everything under the sun" (click here for more).

Sadly, the Church of England will soon find out that if they don't have dozens of editions of these materials flying off the presses, they'll probably have an initial surge, but it'll die just as quickly because you keep people with what you got them with. Next, maybe they'll have "Faith & the Family Guy" or "Mickey & The Messiah" or "Discipleship with the Stars."

When you've abandoned hard work (1 Cor 15:10; Col 1:29; 2 Tim 2:15), the authority, inerrancy and inspiration of the Bible (2 Tim 3:15-4:2; 2 Pet 1:19-21) and the sovereignty of God for growth (Acts 2:47; 1 Cor 3:6-7, 12:18), you will cling to any ploy, gimmick and fad, even the Simpsons as theologians, for guidance.

Jesus did not say "Homer will build My church," but that He would (Matt 16:18).