The Simpsons never shied away from religious topics. These episodes about religion were some of the show's best.
Across more than three decades on the air, The Simpsons has tackled pretty much every topic there is to make a TV episode about. One of the writers’ favorite subjects to satirize – because it’s such a broad concept and there’s so much material – is religion. The show has tackled just about every religion there is, but since the Simpsons themselves are Christians (except for Lisa, who converted to Buddhism midway through the series’ run), Christianity is their most common target.
Some of The Simpsons’ best episodes have been about religion, with Homer interrogating his relationship with God and Lisa questioning her family’s ethics.
When Ned Flanders builds a Christianity-themed amusement park in memory of his wife Maude, business is initially slow and he faces bankruptcy. Then, business picks up when guests start having religious epiphanies in front of Maude’s statue.
However, when Flanders discovers that the epiphanies are the result of a gas leak, he has to choose between letting people breathe in gas to feel close to God and reporting the leak, which would tank his new business venture. As always, he does the right thing.
As Homer becomes famous for teaching victory dances to athletes, Flanders decides to start shooting his own Biblical epics. What begin as home movies starring Rod and Todd evolve into full-scale blockbusters with impeccable production value.
However, what draws in the crowds is the excessive violence, so that’s the part of the Bible that Flanders’ movies increasingly focus on, much to Marge’s chagrin.
When Matt Groening first created Krusty the Clown, he didn’t consider his religion. Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky decided to make him Jewish in a parody of The Jazz Singer (a man with a religious upbringing defies his father’s wishes and becomes an entertainer) in the season 3 episode “Like Father, Like Clown.”
Meticulous research went into crafting the episode, with two rabbis being brought on as consultants. The producers found the perfect guest star to play Krusty’s father in legendary comedian Jackie Mason, who was once an ordained rabbi.
Season 9’s “The Joy of Sect” has been described as one of The Simpsons’ most socially important episodes, as it has a strong message about the seductive power of cults.
The episode doesn’t have a specific target, but rather tackles the subject broadly. In creating the cult that the Simpson family joined in the episode, the Movementarians, the writers were inspired by such organizations as Heaven’s Gate, Peoples Temple, the Unification Church, the Rajneesh movement, and Scientology, among others.
Ned Flanders questions his faith in the season 8 episode “Hurricane Neddy,” when a storm tears through Springfield and the only major damage is the complete destruction of Flanders’ house. This leads him to wonder if God is neglecting him, or if God even exists.
When the town rebuilds Flanders’ house with good intentions and not much know-how, he snaps at them and promptly checks himself into a mental institution.
Bart and Milhouse are made to clean the church organ after pulling a prank during a service in season 7’s “Bart Sells His Soul.” Bart doesn’t believe in the soul, but Milhouse insists that, since every religion teaches the existence of the soul, it must exist.
In order to prove it doesn’t, Bart sells his soul to Milhouse for a couple of bucks. But then, strange things start to happen.
Matt Groening’s Futurama co-creator David X. Cohen wrote the season 9 episode “Lisa the Skeptic,” in which Lisa tries to find the scientific truth in a seemingly inexplicable occurrence. Lisa protests the construction of a mall, excavates the land it’s being built on, and finds what appears to be the skeleton of an angel in the ground.
Springfield’s residents immediately accept the angel’s legitimacy, and embrace God as a result, but in an intentional parallel to the Scopes Monkey Trial (in 1925, a high school teacher was tried for teaching evolution in his class), Lisa seeks the truth.
When Homer skips church and has a great Sunday to himself in season 4’s “Homer the Heretic,” God gets angry and visits him in a dream. He’s later saved from a house fire by volunteer firefighters from all different religions, like Flanders and Apu.
The episode has a hilarious ending as Homer decides to return to church, but sleeps through the service. God visits him in another dream and just as he’s about to reveal the meaning of life, the closing credits roll.
When Homer and Bart accidentally destroy Springfield’s church with a model rocket, the desperate church council accepts funds from Mr. Burns. He fills church services with corporate sponsors, leaving Lisa disillusioned with her religious affiliation.
She denounces Christianity and seeks out a new religion, eventually committing herself to Buddhism after meeting Richard Gere, who appeared to be in the episode as long as Buddhism was depicted accurately.
Homer gets an illegal cable hookup in the season 2 episode “Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment,” and invites all his friends over to watch a highly anticipated fight.
But when Lisa finds out, she protests the cable hookup, telling her dad that stealing is wrong. Homer ends up leaving his friends watching the fight to sit outside with Lisa, in one of their many sweet father-daughter moments throughout the series.
