I know this image is a little dated (as it was a response to a fairly old comment by Bill O'Reilly nearly a year ago), but it popped up on a friend's facebook, and I couldn't resist reposting it here:
When Stephen Colbert first made that statement, it showed up all over divinity students' facebook pages for a good solid month, and the video definitely made an appearance on my profile as well. I think it's interesting that programs like
The Daily Show and
The Colbert Report often tend to give a more sympathetic read to --for lack of a better phrase-- "social justice Christianity" than other more traditional forms of media. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are both a bit on the liberal side, but the work of satire means that they are both continually making fun of all the little absurdities in today's popular and political culture, be they liberal or conservative; this is why I'll watch
Daily Show/Colbert Report but never the feeding frenzies on MSNBC and Fox News-- I like my news to make light of everyone, not just the party with which the commentator disagrees. In fact, I remember a year ago when my roommate made the observation, "You know, we should really be watching more news." He then grabbed the remote and flipped it to Comedy Central to catch the last few minutes of
Colbert.
Of course, Stephen Colbert's religious leanings (Roman Catholic) make for some fascinating commentary on current issues in Christianity. Stephen's been called a prophet by many, and given my definition of a prophet (one who speaks words of often-bitter and corrective truth to people who need to hear them, frequently without the words of comfort that would fall more under the "pastoral" heading), I'm inclined to agree. I wish we had more voices out there like Stephen's, and not just because I get a kick out of satire. His observations force us to take a hard look at ourselves, and I think it's a hard look that the churches in America need. Of course, this is precisely what the whole Emerging Church movement tried to do, but that doesn't seem to be going so well (which will be a post for another day).
--Tom
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