Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord; you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds.  They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.  They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.  That is not the way you learned Christ!  For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth in Jesus.  You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4: 17-24

Dialogue from the television cartoon South Park:

"Cartman, you don't know anything about Christianity!"

"I know enough to exploit it!"

Sadly enough the Church has come to a point where it is something that can be used and abused for greed and immoral purpose.  The "Gentiles" in Ephesians are understood as those who are outside the fellowship of the Church.  A large majority of people in modern society live in "the futility of their own minds."  It shows up every day in the wash of advertising that floods our lives, it becomes readily apparent as we observe the events in the ebb and flow of worldly matters.  The very ethos of our society is similar to the bankrupt morality of the time of the Judges, when "everyone did what was right in their own eyes."

The world is truly "darkened in their understanding" and "alienated from the life of God."  Societal blindness is reaching epidemic proportions, we cannot see the serious ramifications of our action any more than the foul mouthed, glutton of South Park, Eric Cartman.  The sad thing is that we are becoming a nation of Cartmans, political satire, which South Park exemplifies, holds up a mirror to society.  If you view satire and simply find it amusing, without any sense of sorrow at the conditions it mocks, you are most likely an integral part of the system, so lacking in sensitivity to your own plight that you can feel the detachment of humor.  Satire will not sting the oblivious masses, it will only sting those who care enough to pay attention.

When I chuckle at the crass humor of South Park I am nearly always reminded that, far from being escapist, these rudely drawn and foul mouthed children are a more accurate depiction of our society than the 11:00 news.  They deal irreverently, and by extension honestly, with many contraversial issues of our day.  They deal with the unquestioning move towards acceptance of homosexuality, they deal with the crisis of the Catholic Church, in the episode quoted above they deal with the vacuous blandness of much of today's Christian music.  When they mock the Church as an institution I am forced to agree in large part with their assessment but I am fully confident in the fact that faith in Christ, true faith in Christ cannot be mocked.

Some would be tempted to avoid a show such as South Park but as a pastor serving in 21st century America, I find that it is important to be able to laugh at the absurdities of our culture, perhaps especially the absurdities of our religious culture.  One caveat though, despite the fact that South Park is a cartoon it is not for children or those who are easily offended.  Their conclusions are not always terribly good, nor are they framed in accordance with Christian values but if you need, or want, to take a good, hard look at our culture, then check it out sometime.