Last weekend on Saturday Night Live, there was a skit that was a parody of the movie God’s Not Dead 2. What was shown was a mock “trailer” of a fictional movie called, God is a Boob Man, and the fictional storyline was that of a Christian baker being taken to court because she didn’t want to back a wedding cake for a gay couple. You can watch the skit here:
Now, In This Corner…
The reaction to the skit was rather predictable. It is those predictable reactions that I want to comment on in this post. On one side of the spectrum, Pat Boone, who played a role in God’s Not Dead 2, voiced his displeasure with the parody. Here is what he said:
“God has a sense of humor. Why else would he invent the porcupine and the giraffe? Something can be devilishly funny, but this skit is diabolical. God has only one real enemy—Satan. Satan ridicules faith, and they’re taking Satan’s side. They’re also ridiculing me and the film, telling impressionable young people not to see it because it’s ridiculous. Then they throw in that the lawyer is Jewish to make the Christian look even worse, but it’s just anti-Semitic.”
Boone said he used to love SNL, but that recently it had just gotten crass and filthy.
And In the Other Corner…
On the other side, columnists like Gersh Kuntzman of the New York Daily News wrote an article, savaging Pat Boone’s comments. He accused Boone of being “an Obama birther who denies the existence of racism.” He said “Boone is a genuine idiot. Every time he opens his mouth, he reveals the foolishness of blind faith.” And, in reaction to Boone joke about God creating porcupines and giraffes, Kuntzman accused Boone of being a creationist.
Simply put, the piece was quite mean-spirited to say the least.
So Joel, What Did You Think About SNL’S Parody?
Let me say up front that overall I thought the skit was funny. I didn’t care too much for the “God is a Boob Man” line, but the whole premise of the parody up to that point was clever. It satirized the segment of Evangelicalism that really believes the persecution narrative in God’s Not Dead 2; it satirized militant homosexuals who are making a big deal about baking gay wedding cakes; it satirized public officials who would rather make a big deal and enforce legislation about gay wedding cakes (and, sorry if this offends anyone on both sides, transgender bathrooms), than address real problems in society.
The whole thing is a spoof and parody of, not just God’s Not Dead 2, but of our current society as a whole. Of course, given the current state of our society, not too many people are going to get that. All they’ll see is, “SNL is making fun of Christians”—and they are. They’re just making fun of a lot more people as well.
Now, About Those Predictable Reactions…
Now, let me say that I see where Pat Boone is coming from. For the most part, I’ve started not watching SNL over the past few years too, because I see most of the skits as crass, stupid, uncreative, and just not funny. There certainly are no Dana Carveys, Mike Meyers, Will Ferrells, Chris Farleys in the current cast.
And as I said before, the “God is a boob man” line irritated me too, not because I’m fearful of some “gay agenda,” but simply because, as a Christian, I revere God and don’t appreciate what I view as anything that belittles God. For that matter, though, there are a number of Christian “worship songs” that treat God as every woman’s dream date, and sound more like a “One Direction” song, with the word “God” inserted for “Baby”—that’s offensive to me too. One of the best satires on that front was an old South Park episode in which Cartman put together a Christian rock band. His strategy for song writing was to take pop tune love songs, cross out “baby,” and insert the word “Jesus”—and voila, you have your stereotypical modern Christian “worship song.” The episode was funny because (sadly) it actually was true.
At the same time, I found Kuntzman’s comments to be just as, if not more so, angry, hostile and petty as Boone’s. No, that’s not right—I disagreed with Boone that the skit was “diabolical,” but his comments did not come across as angry, hostile or petty at all. Kuntzman’s comments, on the other hand, were just angry, hostile, and petty.
About Pat Boone
For all his reputation for being the “white-shoed, goody-two-shoes” Pat Boone, Boone is actually a well-grounded, worldly-wise guy. About twenty years ago he even put out an album entitled, In a Metal Mood, in which he crooned (in his signature Pat Boone style) a number of heavy metal covers. It was quite funny—and the conservative Evangelical community went nuts. They hated it and condemned him for going over to the dark side. Here he is, singing “Paradise City” by Guns and Roses…enjoy!
Even in his comments about the SNL parody, he didn’t just object to the way Christians were portrayed; he said homosexuals should be offended that the homosexual community is depicted as being all militant. He said,
“If I were in the homosexual community, or if I were Jewish, I would be just as irate as being presented fallaciously and ridiculously as the militant homosexuals are in the parody because they are demanding things that would embarrass any responsible homosexual, and I know quite a few. They would not like to be presented as being so idiotic as trying to prove in court that God is gay. That presents them in a horrible light and a very bigoted light.”
To that, I would like to say to Pat Boone, though, “Yes, that’s the point—the whole thing is purposely ridiculous. I don’t think most homosexuals care about the ‘baking the gay wedding cake’ either. By the same token, I don’t believe all ACLU lawyers are ‘money-grubbing liberal Jews.’”
The problem with God’s Not Dead 2 is that the way it portrays public schools, principals, public school administrators, and the courts is the exact same ridiculous way this parody portrayed gays, Jews, and Christians. The only difference is that the SNL parody is a parody—it is meant and understood to be ridiculous. God’s Not Dead 2, on the other hand, isn’t trying to be a parody—it really thinks public schools are out to get Christian teachers.
…and that’s why so many people are offended by God’s Not Dead 2. And herein lies the disconnect. Boone said that he saw the movie as really being about one thing: “It’s only theme is to present the concept that God is alive, God is real.” It seems that Boone really doesn’t see how God’s Not Dead 2 could offend anyone. After all, there really are instances of groups like the ACLU taking Christians to court over certain things, right? The Little Sisters of the Poor are being forced to included contraception and abortion coverage in their health care plans, right?
To that, I’d say, of course. There will always be hostility toward Christians. There will always be guys like Dan Barker, whose group Freedom From Religion Foundation actively looks for instances where they can take Christians to court. He objects to the government making a Mother Teresa stamp; he took a small restaurant owner to court because she gave a 15% discount to people who prayed before their meals.
But the thing is, common sense usually prevails. People can see that Dan Barker is a snipping troll—even that liberal show The Daily Show can see that! The fact is, those isolated incidents of “angry atheists” or “militant homosexuals” (or whoever) trying to attack Christians are just that…isolated incidents. They do not consist of nation-wide “persecution” of Christians. That is what Boone and the makers of the movie aren’t getting. He isn’t being militant, or even paranoid for that matter. He’s just being tone deaf. He sees God’s Not Dead 2 as saying nothing more than, “God is alive.” He’s failing to see that it’s also giving a very false view of the country, by taking isolated incidents of hostility toward Christians and claiming that there is some sort of organized nation-wide effort to, in fact, persecute Christians.
About Kuntzman
Kuntzman’s comments on the other hand are quite telling. In his savaging of Boone, Kuntzman even threw in racism and young-earth creationism. His comments pretty clearly reveal that to him (as well to many others), Christians are…racist, homophobic, young-earth creationists, nut jobs with a persecution complex. And he comes across as really hostile and angry about it.
Simply put, he is showing himself to be the very thing that many Christians are afraid of. In its short-sighted and naïve way, God’s Not Dead 2 was saying, “Hey, many Evangelicals are concerned over recent legal attempts that seem to target Christian belief and practice.” And again—yes, there really have been real instances of this. But in reaction to this, they hear guys like Kuntzman come back with, “Christians are gun-toting, racist, homophobes who want to deny civil rights to transgendered people, and who have a persecution complex!” (Yes, I’m being over the top and somewhat hyperbolic here). His reaction, therefore, actually reinforces those fears many Evangelicals have.
So what do you think is going to happen? Perhaps a God’s Not Dead 3 movie, that perpetuates this back and forth fear? I hope not.
Here’s the Point
There will always be people who are hostile toward Christians. There will always be attempts to try to depict Christianity as backward, anti-intellectual, and anti-everything. This has been the over-arching narrative of history ever since the Enlightenment—and it’s utterly false, and needs to be shown for what it is: Enlightenment propaganda that was put out by the likes of Voltaire, Rousseau, and friends with the expressed purpose of destroying Christianity.
But Christians (and I’m thinking “Evangelicals” here more than anything) can’t continue to be so naïve and fearful of “the world.” The movie, as well-intentioned as it may be, perpetuates a false narrative, and it makes it nearly impossible to actually address the very real challenges in our society when it comes to balancing civil rights and religious liberty. It makes people who are “sort of” hostile to Christianity even more hostile to Christianity. And that in turn gets displayed on social media, which in turn frightened already fearful Evangelicals a little bit more…and so on and so on.
There’s a smart way and a foolish way to deal with perceived threats to religious liberty. Ironically, John Stewart on The Daily Show is much better at exposing the hatefulness of some Christian opponents than the makers of God’s Not Dead 2.
Pat Boone seems like a good guy…a bit too sensitive on over the SNL skit, and perhaps a bit tone deaf to how the movie offends some people, but he’s a human being. Give him a break. Engage him on the issues and debate and talk civilly about. Don’t go the Kuntzman route, and use Boone’s comment to launch into your own petty tirade about every perceived evil under the sun.
