Okay, maybe not better than Comedy Central, but pretty close to the same level. The only thing missing is a laugh track, but it’s easy enough to overdub your own. What am I talking about? Sermons from the Conference on Baptist Fundamentalism, held every year in Wisconsin. It features, in liberal doses, what I like to call “Fundamentalist logic.” This sermon, besides giving a really bizarre take on the history of Liberation Theology – including a defense of North American corporations paying less than a living wage rate to their employees in Third World countries – includes this hilarious statement about the evil Billy Graham: “Billy Graham attended Bob Jones University. Not for very long, but he attended. He said that growing up, he liked fast women and fast cars, and Bob Jones wouldn’t let him have either, so he left after one semester.” Yeah. Try to write satire after spending a day listening to their sermons, and you’d be accused of plagiarism.
But why laugh? Because if you can’t laugh at it, what are you left with?
Listening to sermons like those listed above makes me even more grateful for the writings of people like my friend Matthew Paul Turner. Matthew wrote an essay recently on fear to read for his church, building on what he wrote in Churched: One Kid’s Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess (my review here.) Here’s the video.
Okay, here’s the thing. Too true to be funny for me. Almost makes me cry. But I did chuckle a little.