Jesus Does Not Have His Own Cable TV Chat Show
Originally posted @ http://scruffy-duck.net
Everything I know about history, American history in particular I pretty much learnt from cartoons. Originally from Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventures, Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiago, and others, and then The Simpsons. I don’t actually remember any history I was taught in primary school (if any), except bits about Kings and Queens. In secondary school, I did it all in Welsh, and I understood little, so basically my history came from television.
It’s really not a reliable source of information. Probably on a par with wikipedia.
Everything I learnt I remembered to take with a pinch of salt, even when I was a kid. I never thought TV was an accurate way to learn something unless it was a documentary (then I later learnt about bias in media studies). I rarely watch documentaries, I find them boring, I prefer to learn from books, articles, from reading. Even though my concentration is shot, so reading is difficult (so is writing sometimes, but less so).
I’m telling you this because I finally saw the Scientology episode of South Park, and had not long seen the Mormon episode. I’m pretty sure the Mormon episode was some reality and some bullshit mixed up together, but the point is that I don’t know. I wouldn’t know. And I’m pretty sure South Park is not the show to teach me the facts about religion, history or world politics. It can teach you common sense etc, which is a very good thing, but not the factual information. I think.
So I’m not sure what parts of the Mormon story to take from that episode, and definitely not sure what part of the Scientology episode is true, because the truth is so insane anyway.
Of course the answer to this is to read some books, I actually have an old book about Scientology somewhere, written in the 70s I think by someone who left the church, but I haven’t actually read it. I bought one of those Very Short Introduction books about the Mormons, cause I’m pretty interested, but not that interested. If that makes sense. Definiely not interested enough to let them in when they come to the door. Not that there are many in Aberystwyth (I’ve seen two).
It’ll be enough for explain it too me. And it’s short, so I should be able to read it without too much trouble (hopefully).
To be fair to South Park, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be interested in the Mormons until I watched that episode, I am interested in religions, I have a couple of books on Islam and a version of the Qu’ran, which I haven’t read yet, a book about Sikhism, Hinduism, and I’m keen to learn more about Buddhism too. I just never really thought about learning more about the Christian denominations, which I think Mormonism counts as. It’s about God and Jesus and I already know shit loads about those guys, especially Jesus.
Though, as it turns out, he does not have his own cable TV chat show.
Rats.
Share|
Everything I know about history, American history in particular I pretty much learnt from cartoons. Originally from Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventures, Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiago, and others, and then The Simpsons. I don’t actually remember any history I was taught in primary school (if any), except bits about Kings and Queens. In secondary school, I did it all in Welsh, and I understood little, so basically my history came from television.
It’s really not a reliable source of information. Probably on a par with wikipedia.
Everything I learnt I remembered to take with a pinch of salt, even when I was a kid. I never thought TV was an accurate way to learn something unless it was a documentary (then I later learnt about bias in media studies). I rarely watch documentaries, I find them boring, I prefer to learn from books, articles, from reading. Even though my concentration is shot, so reading is difficult (so is writing sometimes, but less so).
I’m telling you this because I finally saw the Scientology episode of South Park, and had not long seen the Mormon episode. I’m pretty sure the Mormon episode was some reality and some bullshit mixed up together, but the point is that I don’t know. I wouldn’t know. And I’m pretty sure South Park is not the show to teach me the facts about religion, history or world politics. It can teach you common sense etc, which is a very good thing, but not the factual information. I think.
So I’m not sure what parts of the Mormon story to take from that episode, and definitely not sure what part of the Scientology episode is true, because the truth is so insane anyway.
Of course the answer to this is to read some books, I actually have an old book about Scientology somewhere, written in the 70s I think by someone who left the church, but I haven’t actually read it. I bought one of those Very Short Introduction books about the Mormons, cause I’m pretty interested, but not that interested. If that makes sense. Definiely not interested enough to let them in when they come to the door. Not that there are many in Aberystwyth (I’ve seen two).
It’ll be enough for explain it too me. And it’s short, so I should be able to read it without too much trouble (hopefully).
To be fair to South Park, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be interested in the Mormons until I watched that episode, I am interested in religions, I have a couple of books on Islam and a version of the Qu’ran, which I haven’t read yet, a book about Sikhism, Hinduism, and I’m keen to learn more about Buddhism too. I just never really thought about learning more about the Christian denominations, which I think Mormonism counts as. It’s about God and Jesus and I already know shit loads about those guys, especially Jesus.
Though, as it turns out, he does not have his own cable TV chat show.
Rats.
Share|