Following the premise that God mocks us
from the satire apologist
Speaking here of two Christians who engage with satire, Terry Lindvall, author of God Mocks, and Anne Kennedy who wrote Nailed It. Are there others so working? Might this also be a topic of the Fantastic?
Dr. Lindvall also wrote Old Men of the Bible, co-authored with Craig Wansink. "We were simply looking at some old men [in the Bible] and realizing that in many respects they really didn't become better men." (P. 2) It's a book of stories with cartoon illustrations by John Lawing. The proposed subtitle was We're Not Getting Better, We're Getting Older, but the publishers nixed it.
God Mocks is a magisterial history (no sarcasm) of God's mockery of mankind. The satire in the book is God's own.... personally indicating to me that God is now identifying me as old. I would like, of course, to self-identify as young, but I must acquiesce to the Creator. As Erma Bombeck once said after she had had plastic surgery, "Does it do any good to look 40 when you can't stay more than 3 ft. from the bathroom?" This is a paraphrase. I might add, 2 ft. if you’re on a limited income and drink coffee. Christopher Hitchens thought it was hilarious when women made jokes about Depends™. Is this another case of manna, of Israelites complaining while eating manna through the wilderness on their way to the promised land? Let's see now where was I? Oh yes, thinking of ways to procrastinate on cleaning out the refrigerator.
And Anne Kennedy's Nailed It is -- believe it or not -- a book of 365 sarcastic devotionals anchored in readings of Scripture. The subtitle indicates that these readings are for "Angry or Worn-out People." Now lurching toward 50, if I'm not mistaken, Rev. Kennedy may have been working on this book when she turned 40. —But back to the refrigerator.... or was that the spice cupboard?
Following my premise that God mocks us (humanity), while at the same time loving more deeply than we are able to comprehend, I'm beginning to wonder (and have exhibited some of this in substack notes and here) if I have permission to use Scripture in satirical writings. (Might I also turn to the sacred Disney as source material…?) While having stepped out boldly before asking, I seem to be looking to Dr. Lindvall and Rev. Kennedy for this permission.
I have asked around elsewhere, example, a letter to the editor of Christianity Today, and comment in Samuel James's substack. I once submitted such a satire to the Babylon B. and got no response to a submission with the same premise as this. Then there's the comment CS Lewis (as Screwtape) made about flippancy. My next venture will be toward Mere Orthodoxy and Mere Fidelity. I hear the latter " merry band" laughing all the time on their pod-cast and mocking one another, but satire playing on Scripture? I'd like to read or hear conversations about this topic.
Perhaps it will happen before these merry mere critters get old?
(Apologies for heaping your mental plate with embeds.)
© S. Dorman January 2024