By: Freddy Genther
Everybody loves cartons growing up. I have many memories of Saturday morning Animaniacs, Loony Tunes, and The TICK. The cartoons I loved so much as a child faded as I aged. Some people (me being one of them) wish that the Saturday morning cartoon times would never end. Seth McFarlane is one of those dreamers with talent. Seth McFarlane created an adult cartoon show called Family Guy. Family guy has been a cartoon family phenomenon throughout the 2000’s and continues to be a popular show. Family Guy first aired in 2001, with a rocky start Fox dropped the show. After the show was cancelled people bought up the first two seasons on DVD. Fox noticed the popularity and brought the show back in full swing in 2005. The popularity of the show has made it almost impossible to not recognize the main characters.
Family guy, is a show about a family with a dumb fat father at the helm Peter Griffin, his skinny wife Lois, their three kids: one daughter who cant find her identity Meg, the chubby loner Son Chis, and the baby main character Stewie, the family is accompanied by their super intelligent speaking dog Brian. Peter Griffin has his best friends as neighbors. The show is pretty much about what this family does. The carton would be considered a satire as the whole show makes fun of politics, people, and especially religion.
Family Guy is popular because of the humor that appeals to a lot of young people in the 2000’s. A humor that seeks out people, to make fun of, and if the show is not explicitly picking on one person or people group, the show on a whole is making fun of the “typical American family”.
The part of the show that I dislike the most is the ignorant based humor of religion. And the most made fun of in the show is Christianity. The show makes a point to make fun of God, and people who believe in God. By taking uninformed opinions to tear down Christianity, and make fun of God just for some laughs. The blame does not belong to the writers of the show, because they wrote this stuff but the fans think it is hilarious and want more. The effects of message on young minds, gives them a uniformed opinions about God, and Christianity. It makes religion one big joke. I think back to the book “Pop cultured” where the author states that we no longer have people who study and teach philosophy. We have movies, and TV shows that implicitly or explicitly gives the writers worldview.
Today I look at the peers I grew up with, who have such strong opinions about Christianity. The worldview of Christianity in American is viewed as a joke. As pastors our goal should be standing up to the ridiculous statements thrown around on Family Guy. Maybe showing a scene from Family Guy that bashes Christianity, and then talk about the biblical truth that combats those statements.
Studies in Youth Culture 
I loved watching Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid; it was one of my very favorite activities. I remember when Family Guy first came out there was a lot of excitement around it and I partook in being entertained by it for a few seasons, this was before I was a Christian. I used to find some of the religious jokes to be extremely funny when I was younger and naïve. Reflecting on this fact I realize now that a significant part of my rejection of Christianity was due to not wanting to be left out in my friend group. Most all of the friends that I watched this show found Christians to be ridiculous and because of this I did not want to explore the faith even though I had been curious. I agree that It is important to encourage the youth to think deeper than what television show are portraying and as pastors combat the lies with a place or atmosphere for truth to be shown.
I grew up eating breakfast with my siblings and watching Saturday morning cartoons while waiting for our parents to get up. The cartoons we watched were always PG and kid friendly. Cartoons were stories that we would later act out outside, if it seemed doable. Today, my siblings are now teenager and they are influenced more with the mass media cartoons. TV has become less PG on the networks that we use to watch as kids. My parents have freaked out time and time again about new cartoons and they say that the show is not Christian-like. Family Guy is one of these shows that I have been lectured on to not watch it. I have avoided it myself, but many of my sibling’s friends have poked fun at my siblings for their religion due to this show. It is concerning to me that this show has influenced today’s youth. It brings out “fun” for laughing at others. Parents and pastors should be concerned to teach their children to not copy what is seen on tv, for if you watch something long enough you will start acting it out! 😛
I too spent a good amount of time in my late teens watching Family Guy. That was always my biggest gripe with the show also, the fact that they consistently poked fun at Christianity, making Christians out to be dumb, arrogant fools. I actually stopped watching the show a few years ago, partly because I was bored of it, but also because I lost respect for the show when the default joke became “make fun of the Christian.” Shows like this can be really dangerous to the developing worldview of youth. The show offers, as you said, an uninformed and honestly quite ignorant picture of Christianity and Christians. When inaccurate and unfair philosophies about God and Christianity are presented through humor in a show that is widely accepted as comedy gold by their peers, it can be easy for young people to accept what is being said about God without actually testing it for validity. As you mentioned from the book, instead of having people who study and teach, we have television shows that inform young people in biased ways what to believe. People are less likely to dissect specific notions of worldview when they come in the form of a funny cartoon than if they read it in a newspaper, a book for school, or the Bible. So, what do we do as ministers? I think our best option is to teach young people to think critically; if we equip them with tools to pick out the postmodern, anti-Christian sentiments found within pop culture and see them for what they really are, then maybe we can limit the danger of youth being misled by shows like Family Guy.