2008 Woodie Awards
The Last Straw:
Laughing under the steeple
Issue date: 11/9/05 Section: Opinion
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News Editor
"Three men walked into a bar…" is not the kind of humor you really need in a church, but humor can be just as important as the message, when used properly.
I am the type of person who likes to have a good time, within Biblical boundaries, and not take everything so seriously. Any situation, no matter the severity, can be funny, even a church setting.
In a past Chapel service, Ken Freeman, a Texas evangelist, spoke to the student body. Within his sermon, he incorporated many anecdotes and stories; to not only get laughs, but also to better convey the message. A mild shock came when he mentioned the department store, Victoria's Secret. At that moment, I heard a few scattered gasps as if the man had said a naughty word. The ones who let out those gasps were probably wondering, "Can he say that?"
Is it so wrong to joke about articles of clothing that over half of the people on this campus wear every day? So you wear underwear, who doesn't? Someone please explain to me, if we can't laugh about everyday things, when is it all right to laugh at all?
Some might say, "Well, the church wasn't established to be so vile and negligent about certain things. We're here to worship."
Does God not have a sense of humor? He must as long as I'm here breathing air. Heaven help us if we have a little laughter in this world that'll give us a reason to smile sometimes. Church is meant to be a time of devotion and worship, which is the main reason we go, but is it so wrong to crack a smile?
There are lines to be drawn in this situation, as much as any other. I don't expect it to be all right for a preacher to ask the congregation to pull his finger or tell a "knock, knock" joke. I do, however, find it fine to pick fun at life to make a connection with the way the Bible instructs us to truly live.
It doesn't matter if I drank plenty of espresso before the service, because the second I hear the preacher giving the message, reciting exactly from scripture, I fall asleep like it's the hundredth time I heard the story of this school. No offense to how far we've come, but we're paying for our education and our Chapel services and we want to grow, not see if we can start reciting the story from memory.
The problem the church faces is we've become too strict. Wear this and worship like that. Laughter is the key to winning hundreds of thousands of lost souls. Christians are already considered to be Bible-thumpers and those who make only right choices.
It isn't as though I'm a bad disciple of Christ, with no respect for the church. I just wish we would stop going to church and having one joke or disagreement frazzle our growth in that moment. God could be speaking to your heart, but because someone made you think of lingerie items or something equally ridiculous you didn't agree with, you shut the door on growth and opened the other door to bitterness. Grow up and laugh it off.