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| The Flanders Family |
Everyone thinks of the Flanders family from The Simpsons as a good, wholesome, Christian family. They care for others, they go to church religiously (pardon the pun) and seem to be pure and good in every possible way.
But one thing springs to mind when looking at the Flanders: are they good Christian role models?
In class we watched the classic episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer the Heretic." In that episode Homer quits going to church. During the course of the episode various characters try to convince Homer to return to church: we have Marge questioning whether Homer has lost his faith and Rev. Lovejoy going to the Simpson residence for dinner (and sharing a hilarious exchange quoting Bible verses). But it is the lengths that the Flanders go to "win [Homer] back to the flock" that have me questioning whether they are good Christian role models.
It almost seems as if the Flanders view Homer's desertion of the church as some kind of personal insult. They ambush Homer while he is at home, knocking on his door to sing the Christian hymn "Rise and Shine" in the hopes that he will change his mind Then, after Homer rebukes them, they ambush him again by continuing their singing while Homer is driving his. When Homer attempts to speed away, the Flanders give chase. The whole scenario ends with Homer headed to Garbage Island.
The lack of tolerance for Homer deciding to discontinue going to churhc shows that the Flanders are more interested in keeping their church's numbers up than they are in being true to any faith. This lack of acceptance is something I find very problematic.
So, are the Flanders good Christian role models? I'd have to say, based on how they are presented in this particular episode, no. The Flanders clan comes off as pushy Christians who believe that the only way is their way.
P.S. If Marge and the kids are at church when Homer sets the house on fire, how is Ned available to save Homer from the fire? Shouldn't Ned have been in church as well? Hm...
Good point at the end! I didn't even consider the fact that Ned should have been at church too.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you – the Flanders are not good Christian role models. But I believe they are very accurate representations of many “Christians” in the world today. Having gone to church since the day I was born, I have come across every type of church-goer, which includes people or entire families that act very much like the Flanders. Like you mentioned, the Flanders seem more interested in keeping their church’s membership up than in being true to their faith. I had been part of a church that split into two sides after years of political tension. The church that had split formed two separate, new churches and fought over the remaining members. Both churches played a game of tug-o-war to increase their membership and frowned upon individuals who decided to attend the church that opposed them. Although both churches continued to practice the same religion, the people seemed to care less about whether individuals were true to their faith than whether they attended the “right” church. The Flanders and their concern for their church’s membership over faith seems to be an accurate representation of many people involved in the Christian church today.
The scene with the Flanders singing the hymn was probably my favourite part of the episode because it reminded me of Christian missionaries who do the same thing around the world. Many of these missionaries decide populations of low- and middle-income countries need Christianity more than anything else and spend resources without looking at what communities might actually need. More often than not, people who go to LMICs end up gaining more out of their experience than the communities they were visiting (Darnell, 2007). The Flanders remind me very much of people who travel across the world with missionary zeal to sing hymns and talk about Christianity whether the local populations want to listen or not.
Darnell, S. (2007). Playing with race: Right to Play and the production of ‘whiteness’. Sport in Society, 10(4), 560-579.
This response also posted on my blog:
[link] Homer The Heretic
Yes, I agree with you. The Flander’s have forgotten what it truly means to be a Christian. In this particular episode I feel that the Flander’s are behaving like Christian extremists because they have turned faith into hard work. I personally believe that the Flander’s family has forgotten that God is a forever loving deity and not a cruel and vengeful dictator. When Homer decides to skip church the Flander’s family immediately tried to bring Homer back to the ‘winning team’ by shoving Christianity down Homer’s throat. On a personal note, I am not a practicing Christian and I have not attended church in many years but if I were driving to the mall and my neighbors were chasing me down the street trying to bring me back to Christianity I would think they were trying to make me join a cult. It seems that because the Flander’s view themselves as perfect Christians they strongly believe that their interpretation of the Christian faith is the closest to being correct because they are the ones that survive off their faith. Little do they know, these so-called Christian perfectionists are failing at practicing and representing their religious beliefs because they think they are the true definition of a Christian.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the Flander’s family can be seen as selfish when it comes to their faith because they view everyone who goes to church as numbers. This simply means that by having the majority of the town attending church and following their religion, the Flanders Family are doing there Christianly duties to spread the word of God and produce as many followers as possible. When Homer decides to leave his faith I think that the Flander’s were more worried about them selves because if Homer were to leave his faith forever and convert to another religion then the Flander’s will think that they are not fulfilling their Christian duties to spread Christianity.
- Eric I
I am unsure if I agree with you or not on the issue if the Flander’s can be considered ‘good Christian role models’. I understand that you are concerned with the Flander’s ambushing Homer when he decides not to go to church. I disagree with your judgment of the Flander’s motives in going after Homer. However I believe that they are not showing a lack of acceptance, but instead are concerned with his salvation and show that they genuinely care, rather than them trying to get church numbers up. In fact, there are a few Christian churches that actually in force missionary work and going into the community such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Seeing as Christianity owes it’s entire existence to missionary work (Paul’s missionary work to the Gentiles far surpassed anything the Judean church did), the argument of the Flander’s missionary measures must be considered a norm in the Christian faith. I was just wondering what you meant by ‘keeping their church’s numbers up’? Are you referring to more money in coffers or more souls saved? Or something else?
ReplyDeleteHowever, in support of your argument that Ned Flanders can be considered a bad Christian, one must look to the episode A Star is Born Again (Season 14, Episode 13). During the episode, Ned meets and has pre-marital sex with a movie star (after Maude dies). In the Bible, pre-marital sex is condemned throughout both the Old and New Testament. Hebrews Chapter 13 says: “Give honor to marriage, and remain faithful to one another in marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery” and Matthew Chapter 5 notes Jesus preachings on adultery and lustful acts. Here, you could find an example of Flander’s acting against his usual ‘Okaly, Dokaly’ daily Christian routine.
Lastly, I would like to challenge your post-script message regarding Ned being home during the fire at the Simpson’s house… he may have attended another service on that Sunday.
Very stimulating post!
- Kathleen
A Star is Born Again (Season 14, Episode 13). Please begin around 17 minutes.
http://www.iwatchsimpsonsonline.com/s14e13-a-star-is-born-again/
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehttp://jesusblawg.blogspot.com/2011/01/response-to-are-flanders-good-christian.html
ReplyDeleteThe version on my actual blog has formatting and an awesome Simpsons screencap so you should probably read it there. BUT:
I’m a little late to the party here, but I’d like to reiterate that no, the Flanders are not explicitly role models of any sort. In the same way that programs like “What Not to Wear” show interested viewers what not to wear, I think that the depiction of not just the Flanders, but all the Christian figures common in The Simpsons create a solid Christian role model by showing the audience what not to do.
The Flanders are of course iconic of this. As an idealized version of the nuclear family, the Flanders find their main role to be the comic foil to the constantly dysfunctional Simpsons. Earlier episodes did portray the Flanders bluntly as the perfect family, but once The Simpsons needed more comic material the writers turned on the Flanders and began to explore the negative consequences of their brand of zealous Christianity.
Rodd and Todd are the ghastly result of shockingly over-protective parenting. Their exposure to culture is almost nonexistant (“Homer Loves Flanders”: “Over 230 channels locked out!”), and their social skills are lacking to the point where they gladly go to bed shocking early rather than play with the neighbour kids (“Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily”). Ned isn’t perfect either. He is completely incapable of accepting consequence, and attributes every part of his life to “the hand of god.” Admittedly this works better for Ned than it does for most non-fictional people, as seen in “A Star is Burns” when the hand of God descends from the sky to save Rodd from being washed away by the currents of the Springfield River.
Ultimately, while all of the characters in The Simpsons are deeply flawed (this is what makes them comical to watch!) I don’t believe this entirely prevents them from being role models. While it would certainly be foolish to treat ANY Simpsons character as a literal role model, the message hidden within their buffoonery is clear as day: “Here are some thing to absolutely not do. Ever.” At the risk of referring to The Simpsons too many times, here’s a visual representation of how the Flanders are, in their own weird way, passable Christian role models.
[IMAGE OF BART READING THE KNIFE SAFETY BOOK]