Humor in Religion

Some would call me a sinner for believing that, at times, there is humor in things related to religion, but it's true. I mean, why else would a priest crack a joke or two at the beginning of his weekly homily? Sometimes, you need a good chuckle.

Last night, I accompanied my mom to see some local theater. The play was called "Nuncrackers" and it was a holiday film about some nuns, a priest, and the students they serve in their New Jersey parish. There was obviously a multitude of religion puns and jokes throughout the play. My favorite was the scene where the priest was describing the parish's take on a video game for kids. The game was called "Moral Combat" and it would be used to teach youngsters the ways to live a moral life, particularly through the use of Catholic guilt. I could relate to that. Definitely funny stuff.

After the play, I was thinking about how sometimes there are things related to religion that aren't intended to be funny but make me laugh anyway. For example, on facebook.com, there's that news feed page that tells you what your 'friends' are up to, so you can be an 'internet stalker' without really being an 'internet stalker.' I literally laughed out loud the first time I saw this announcement:

"Jason became a fan of Jesus Christ."

People can also be fans of God. For some reason, I find this announcement humorous. (Not the actual belief of course, just how it's 'news' for 'friends.')

The last example I was only able to experience because I'm back home in the frozen tundra that is Pennsylvania, where last week, the temperature was a high of 6 degrees and it snows every few days. When watching local television, they run the bottom-of-the-screen announcements about school delays and school closings. My favorite announcement for a local school reads:

"Gates of Heaven: Closed."

Clearly, that's funny stuff. God's not working today, he's cold. Come back when it's warmer. Ha.