David Feltmate

From the Back Cover: Drawing on the worldviews put forth by three wildly popular animated shows – The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy– David Feltmate demonstrates how ideas about religion’s proper place in American society are communicated through comedy.  The book includes discussion of a wide range of American religions, including Protestant and Catholic Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Native American Religions, New Religious Movements, “Spirituality,” Hinduism, and Atheism. Along the way, readers are shown that jokes about religion are influential tools for teaching viewers how to interpret and judge religious people and institutions. 

Feltmate, develops a picture of how each show understands and communicates what constitutes good religious practice as well as which traditions they seek to exclude on the basis of race and ethnicity, stupidity, or danger. From Homer Simpson’s spiritual journey during a chili-pepper induced hallucination to South Park’s boxing match between Jesus and Satan to Peter Griffin’s worship of the Fonz, each show uses humor to convey a broader commentary about the role of religion in public life. Through this examination, an understanding of what it means to each program to be a good religious American becomes clear. 

Drawn to the Gods is a book that both fans and scholars will enjoy as they expose the significance of religious satire in these iconic television programs.

To preorder the book from NYU Press: http://nyupress.org/books/9781479890361/

The link below will take you to the Introduction

This article argues that the field of new religions studies is driven in large part by a paradigm based in the assumption that new religious movements are comparable because they are social problems. It outlines a social problems paradigm drawing upon the work of Joel Best,
illustrates how the paradigm is taught in textbooks on new religious movements, shows its value through the recent work of Stuart A.Wright and Susan J. Palmer, and offers a criticism of the paradigm through Benjamin E. Zeller’s study of Heaven’s Gate. The question of what makes each movement and its study significant is raised and challenged. The article concludes with reasons for moving new religions scholarship beyond the social problems paradigm in favor of a paradigm of social possibilities.

Written with Dr. Kimberly P. Brackett

: This article examines the relationship between being a sexual woman and a good mother in The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park. Considering the sexual criticisms of women in the “Mommy Wars” which continue to be fought across the United States, we find that these three programs reproduce conservative assumptions about women’s sexuality and motherhood. Through critical constructionist theories of humor and motherhood, mothers from each program are analyzed and the relationship between their sexuality and motherliness is examined in detail. We conclude with a discussion of the social constrictions of reality that humorous popular culture both exposes and reproduces.

Researching the paranormal frequently involves the study of how people discuss paranormal phenomena’s significance in popular
culture. Using Victor Turner’s concept of the liminoid, in this article I survey The Simpsons’ annual ‘‘Treehouse of Horror’’ episodes and suggest that thinking with these episodes can help scholars re-envision the academic construction of religion and the paranormal. I will argue that scholars should collapse the distinction between ‘‘religion’’ and ‘‘the paranormal’’ in academic and popular discussions.

Peter Berger is one of the world’s best known sociologists of religion, having made significant contributions to the theories of the social construction of religious worlds and secularization theory. He is also a lay theologian who has never been shy about putting forth his religious interpretations of modernity and combining his theological concerns with his sociological insights. This article considers the role of humor in Berger’s overarching theoretical framework, demonstrating its consistency over a thirty-six year period in his writings from The Precarious Vision (1961) to Redeeming Laughter (1997). After outlining his theory, Berger’s arguments are criticized for their theological elements and a corrective is offered from the sociologies of humor and knowledge. The article concludes with a consideration of Berger’s potential contributions to a sociology of religious humor and an invitation to future research on the topic.

This article examines of South Park's satirizing of Catholic practice and the church's sex abuse scandals within a sociology of religion, knowledge, and humor framework. It argues that the satire not only attacks claims to the church's sacredness (which are defended by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights), but that this humorous argument facilitates the desacralization of Catholic religiosity while sacralizing American civil religion.

The Simpsons' depiction of the evangelical Ned Flanders has become a well-known stereotype in contemporary American popular culture which has been discussed in academic and popular circles. This article uses a critical analysis of Flanders to challenge journalist Mark Pinsky's assertion that The Simpsons is “funny because it's true” (The Gospel According to the Simpsons: Bigger, and Possibly Even Better! Edition, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007, 226) and Conrad Hyers' theorizing of humor's religiousness by demonstrating that Flanders is a satire who contributes to ongoing political debates in the United States. This is accomplished through a cultural analysis of Flanders in light of political debates since the 1960s in which evangelicals have had a significant role. It is argued that Flanders' actions are simultaneously mocked and praised in a way which denigrates evangelicals and their political participation while supporting the individual acts of piety and Christian morality which do not lead to behavioral prescriptions for others.

"Through an examination of how generic “cults” are presented in three specific episodes of The Simpsons, South Park, and King of the Hill, this article illustrates how humorous prejudice is reproduced through popular entertainment. It argues that a generic “cult” stereotype has developed over time in mass media and is reproduced in these programs for comedic effect. After demonstrating how specific correlations between historic fears about
specific groups have found their way into these programs, it concludes with a discussion of the political significance of these programs’ satire."

""As globally syndicated television programmes that are celebrated for their biting satirical content, The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy are popular culture phenomenons. Furthermore, they are programmes which have consistently featured a wide variety of religious traditions, including a significant selection of new religious movements (NRMs). This article provides an overview of the different movements depicted in the programmes, categorizing them as accepted, annoying, misguided, untrustworthy and dangerous. It concludes with a discussion of this pattern’s significance, and suggests avenues for future analysis of NRMs’ humorous depictions in popular culture.
""

Examining the role of religion in the online, text-based fantasy role-playing game Darkmists, this article explores the factors that could lead to a religion existing exclusively online. Interviews with players and primary sources gathered from the game demonstrate that players create a culture in an online environment where religion is an important social element. Building on Erving Goffman's theory of frame analysis, the ways people use offline perceptions of religion to create online religions are analyzed for their theoretical importance.

Books reviewed are Hans Geybels and Walter Van Herck’s (eds.) Humour and Religion: Challenges and Ambiguities, and Selva J. Raj and Corinne G. Dempsey’s (eds.), Sacred Play: Ritual Levity and Humor in South Asian Religions.

Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 44 (2): 299-304.