I would love to hear your feedback and recommendations.
If you have missed any parts of this paper, you can click on the following hyperlinks:
Part One: Introduction
Part Two: Defining the Evangelical: Melting Pot or Mosaic?
Part Three: Constructing the Mythology of the Evangelical
Part Four: Defining Evangelical - The KKK Evangelical Mythology
Bibliography
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“The Kook.” This term has an interesting etymological history. It can mean:
"someone regarded as eccentric or crazy and standing out from a group" (die.net, 2006).
It is also used for someone online known as a net.kook:
"...a regular poster who continually posts messages with no apparent grounding in reality...The kook trademark is paranoia and grandiosity. Kooks will often build up elborate imaginary support structures, fake corporations and the like, and continue to act as if those things are real even after their falsity has been documented in public... While they might appear quite harmless, and are usually filtered out by the other regular participants in a newsgroup or mailing list, they can still cause problems..." (die.net, 2006).
The eccentricity and craziness aspect of the kook profile is what is the common representation of evangelicals I would like to highlight. They are the Bible thumping bloggers who mediate their world in an "it's Jesus or hell" fashion. While they might appear harmless and deluded, they are presented as an annoyance that is needed to be tolerated by more sophisticated, intelligent members of society.
Are evangelicals portrayed as gullible, eccentric odd-balls?
I think The kook is best illustrated by Ned Flanders from The Simpsons (TV.com 1, 2006). Ned is Homer Simpson’s next door neighbor who could easily be dismissed as a bumbling idiot.
Wikipedia describes Flanders as being “insecure;” “obsessed with following the Bible;” “raising his sons in a strict climate of Christian morality;” “fighting for what he believes in;” “a soft anti-semite;” and “intolerant toward other religions” (Wikipedia 1, 2006). He is an uncritical, puritanical kook who is often “Hey diddley- ohing” and “Oodely doodling” the folk of Springfield.
To be fair, Ned is also portrayed as compassionate, a good father, and a faithful friend... but this is out of naïve, passive, uncritical legalism to the mores of Christian lifestyle and practice as opposed to critically intentional, socio-political activism – motivated by faith. Homer summarizes how we all think of Ned as his most common insult is, “Stupid Flanders!” Ned as a ‘kookey Christian’ is a clear example of the evangelical myth represented in popular media.
So, as I mentioned in the introduction of this paper: why does Flanders hold such an iconic position amongst evangelicals?
Blogger, Matthew Self suggests,
"..Christians bear the brunt of the worst kind of exaggerated characterizations than any other interest group known to man. We are either faithless, self-involved TV preachers or crackpots -- possibly even serial killers.
The one consistently positive Christian I've enjoyed on modern TV is Homer Simpson's neighbor, Ned Flanders. This is likely to draw some groans from a few people, but consider the facts.
Ned is:
- A Bible-believing sincere-to-a-fault Christian
- Imminently tolerable of his neighbor, who hates him for his goodness
- Supernaturally patient
- Committed to sharing and helping
- Perhaps the only Galatians 5:22-23 Christian ever on American TV
Matt Groening, who created the show, said he didn't set out to create an annoying Christian. He was commentating on the average Joe, and he decided the average Joe's nemesis would be a kind-hearted Christian -- because that Christian would be and would have everything that average Joe would feel he could not achieve. Homer hates Ned because Ned is the embodiment of the most desirable, yet completely unattainable standard. Ned doesn't lord it over him, and that irritates Homer even more -- the unintentional "heaping hot coals."Ned is far from perfect, which only endears me to him even more. He's a tad judgmental. He constantly fights his own legalism. His children, while well-meaning, are seemingly entirely sheltered from the world, and they have no ability to comprehend and interact with the world because of it. Frankly, this is the kind of commentary about modern Christianity I might write. This makes Ned very real to me.
The character allows these Ivy League comedy writers to take on some heady topics that no other show can do without crossing the boundaries of taste (Family Guy, in particular, has no shame). Even if it's just an interlude gag between storylines, Ned often offers a quick jolt of theological humor I find both appealing and rewarding...
I can think of better ways to characterize Christians on TV, including their faults, but Ned Flanders remains the gold-diddily standard for me until another intelligent, witty show with a three-dimensional Christian comes along" (Self, 2005).
Steve Goddard of Ship of Fools states that:
There really is something about Ned, says organiser Steve Goddard. "Ned is an innocent abroad in a world of cynicism and compromise. We love him because we know what it's like to be classed as a nerd - and to come out smiling at the end of it.
"We do know what it's like to be ridiculed and abused by the ignorant Homers of this world. We know what it's like to try to live simply, faithfully, =boringly - and not necessarily see the reward for it." (BBC News, 2002)
The Kook is a representation which has been with us for some time, and will probably continue to be. It is clear from evangelicals like Matthew Self and Steve Goddard that evangelicals are able to take such representations for what they are, laugh at them, see them as endearing, and even reapproriate them to celebrate our difference... In fact, I love Ned... but at what point do we ask why this is one of the only types of representations of evangelicals portrayed in the media? At what point does the joke cease to be funny - and cross over into being derogatory?
(Check out The Flanders Hymnal)
Go to part 6 - Essentializing the Evangelical - Representation: The Kon
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