God Has a Sense of Humor, REALLY

Around the world, religions are losing their sense of humor - if some of them even had a sense of humor to begin with. For me, I cannot believe that the supreme being, in whatever form envisioned by your particluar denomination, would bless us with the ability to laugh and smile - except in matters of belief. After all, is one's faith so delicate that jokes and satire can destroy it? I am not a weekly fan of the show South Park, but I do watch it on occasion. Last November I did catch the episode that lampoons Scientology (and Tom Cruise). I have also seen episodes that used Jesus and Satan as wrestling opponents, and several episodes that have roasted the Jewish heritage of one of the main characters. My reaction is sometimes a smile, sometimes a laugh, and on occasion, outright embarrassment. Once in a while, I may even think - oh that is such poor taste. But never once did I feel that my particualr religious beliefs were being yanked out from under my feet. Never once did I feel that some sort of irreperable harm was being done in the name of satire - in fact, truthfully, what has gone on in my religion in real life has done far more harm than any wise cracking cartoon. I'm sorry Isaac Hayes has left the show because he felt his religion was unfairly satirized. Personally, I found some of the songs sung by his character on the show to be more provocative than anything in this particular episode, but that's just me. To paraphrase Rodney King, why can't we all just lighten up? God created the playtpus, after all, and if you don't think that was a joke, you have truly lost your way.