God Has A Sense Of Humor....Right?

Growing up Catholic, we were never allowed to take the Lord’s name in vain. Swearing with inclusion of ANY of the Holy Trinity was strictly off limits. In fact, when astounded as children, it was NOT appropriate to exclaim: “Oh my God!” Rather, it was “Oh, my GOSH”. Not nearly as descriptive, to be sure, but it kept you from being sent to your room. That last one my wife and I enforced with our kids too.

Such was also the case with any jokes that were not strictly garden variety, priest and nun stuff where the punch line was as tame as the setup.

As I’ve aged, I definitely have altered by viewpoint, coming to the conclusion that God MUST have a good sense of humor—after all, He created US! Additionally, much of the religious humor I hear has more to do with the human component of religion—the structure, the rituals and the incongruities that our mental picture of God and Heaven and all other supernatural phenomena have.

So, with fair warning, I’m including a clip from the standup comedy of Jim Gaffigan, one of the funniest people on the planet. He puts religion in the crosshairs here—and if you are easily offended, I’d suggest NOT watching.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k_9mXpNdgU


I laughed myself silly watching this the first time—but that old Catholic guilt also weighed in---like I SHOULDN’T HAVE FOUND IT FUNNY. Hope you didn’t find it a bit too much.

Again, I think God has a great sense of humor—and the ability to poke fun at our religious institutions and see the humor in all situations makes us no less spiritual than the next person.

That said, I may need to include this blog the next time I go to confession.

If you’d like my blog in your in-box, please let me know—just e-mail me at tim.moore@citcomm.com and I’ll include you on the daily list!