Reverend Uses 'Simpsons' to Teach Gospel

[TexasStooge]

LONDON, England (AP) - Thou shalt not have a cow. So says the gospel according to The Simpsons. America's famous dysfunctional cartoon family will be the subject of a series of evening classes by the Rev. Robin Spittle on the Christian message in the popular show.

"They are a churchgoing family and they make moral decisions, some of which I agree with, some of which I don't, but either way they are a great way to open up a discussion," said Spittle.

Churchgoers at All Saints Church in Kesgrave, northeast of London, have been invited to attend four classes from the end of April on each of the four main family members — Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa.

Spittle says that each episode had Christian themes, even though Homer once described his religion as "you know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. Uh, Christianity."

The reverend, 46, cited the temptation for Marge and Homer to have extramarital affairs as a recurring story line.

"Both Marge and Homer have found themselves being offered the opportunity to play away from home and they both turn them down," said Spittle. "Temptation, choices and doing what's right - you can't get much more of a Christian message than that."

The references to Christianity in the hit show have been widely discussed and were the subject of a 2001 book by Mark Pinsky called "The Gospel According to the Simpsons."

"They have a clever way of covering a lot of ground in a short space of time. Each 20-minute show gets a whole message across," said Spittle, who has previously held services in the local pub and used Hollywood films such as "Harry Potter" to teach the meaning of Easter.

The family values — or the apparent lack of them — in the Emmy-winning series were criticized when it first aired in the early 1990s. In 1992, former President George Bush said that American families should be "a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons."

The show has long since silenced its harshest critics and gone on to become the longest running prime-time cartoon series.

The actors that give the voice to Homer's "D'oh!" and to Bart's "don't have a cow man" have been gaining attention again recently because of their demands for higher pay. According to the trade paper Daily Variety, each cast member is seeking about $360,000 per episode.