3 Reasons to Joke About Spirituality

I love humour. I like to joke around. Can’t you tell?

But, I remember when I was in youth group. One day we were playing floor hockey. One of my friends got mildly hurt. He got hit in the shins with a stick. He was kind of laughing and groaning. Not a serious injury. I knelt beside him, laid my hand on his shin, raised my other hand, closed my eyes and shouted like an evangelist, “BE HEALED IN JEEEEESUSSSS’ NAME!” The youth leader grabbed me by my neck and scolded me in front of everyone.

Lesson? Don’t joke about spiritual things! Ever!

As you might have guessed, I grew up in an environment where spirituality was a serious matter— life and death, heaven and hell, evil or good, demons and angels, Satan and God. It wasn’t a laughing matter.

Apparently, the scolding didn’t stop me.

In fact, I think joking about spiritual things is healthy. In other words— good for you!

Here are three reasons why.

1. Ridiculing Ridiculous Theology

If some theology is, in my opinion, ridiculous, then I’m going to ridicule it. If you think an idea is useless, stupid, fear-invoking, or harmful, make fun of it! Put it in its place. I think of C.S. Lewis, who thought laughter was a good medicine against bad ideas. My cartoons attempt, sometimes in a humorous way, to show how ridiculous we people can be.

2. Humor Helps Humility

When we poke fun at ourselves, it reveals a kind of humility. We don’t pretend we are perfect. Chesterton said Satan fell through the force of gravity because he took himself too seriously. I don’t want to take myself too seriously. I admit I’ve made mistakes, and some of them are hilarious. I hope my cartoons come from a place of humility where we can laugh at ourselves.

3. Humor is Disarming

If one of my cartoons can turn someone’s hate against marginalized people into a new appreciation and love for them, then I’m going to draw it. The advantage of a cartoon is that one doesn’t have to read a 1,000-word post on the issue, but just see a cute cartoon and in a split second have their minds opened and their hearts changed. Humour has that kind of power.

Even John Wesley said sour religion is the devil’s religion.

I don’t want to be sour.

Do you?