Missing Ned Flanders
By Stephen Reeves
I grew up with The Simpsons. I was in 6th grade when the longest running American sitcom debuted. You might remember that it stirred some controversy. Bart Simpson was a rude, disrespectful boy with a potty mouth who fought constantly with his dad and other authority figures. As a middle school boy, I was the perfect audience.
Of course, many Christians took the most offense. Lots of good church kids like me weren’t allowed to watch.
My dad thought it was hilarious. He watched right along with me and my brother. What I didn’t know then, but was eventually clear to me, was that this silly animated show was a genius satire of American life. You don’t stay on the air for 33 seasons if a kid saying “Eat my shorts” is all there is to a show.
In the fall of 1997, I was a sophomore at Texas Tech and was welcomed to join the annual adult retreat in Santa Fe with Second Baptist Lubbock. I don’t remember the guest speaker that year, but at some point, he mentioned that according to a survey of college students, the most famous public Christian was Ned Flanders, the dorky neighbor to the Simpson family.
As you might guess, the Second B crowd thought that was terrible. I eventually had the nerve to speak up and say something like “That’s really not that bad, Ned is a pretty good guy.” Well, that got me an invitation to teach the early morning men’s bible study at Furr’s Cafeteria where I brought this excellent book “The Gospel According to the Simpsons: The spiritual life of the world’s most animated family.”
What critics didn’t realize was that the show is filled with religious content. Yes, sometimes organized religion is criticized, but how many TV families are shown regularly attending church service?
He may be prudish, goofy and a little too zealous, but Ned is a really good neighbor. If anything, he is portrayed as too kind, too generous and too quick to forgive. You know, the type of guy who would give you his coat, walk an extra mile, or turn the other cheek.
I thought about Ned a few weeks ago when I read this article in Relevant Magazine suggesting a New Year’s resolution to be a little more like Ned.
While The Simpsons is still going strong, I highly doubt Flanders would be the first Christian college students of today would think of. I wonder who it might be - Robert Jeffress? Jerry Falwell, Jr.? Kanye “Ye” West? Justin Bieber?
I really don’t know, but I bet the person would have us longing for the days of a famous Ned Flanders. I fear the most visible Christians today are too often associated with hate, racism, homophobia, and Christian Nationalism, or perhaps celebrity culture and the prosperity Gospel.
I‘m confident that Ned Flanders would not have been among the crowd storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021, calling for the death of elected officials while carrying a cross or Christian flag.
One can lament a loss of values and a rapidly changing culture, but if beating up on the marginalized, defending the privileged, and clinging to political power through anti-democratic means appear to be core values, it’s no wonder young folks are often turned off from faith.
It has been many years since I regularly watched the Simpsons and I miss Ned Flanders. I think our country misses him too. If he still represented a stereotypical Christian most often portrayed in the media, I think we’d all be better off.
Stephen Reeves is the executive director of Fellowship Southwest.
