King of the Hill on the Megachurch

There is a scene in “King of the Hill” where Hank and his family are trying new churches.

Repeatedly to no avail they cannot find one that they fit in exactly. After much effort, Peggy asks Hank if they could try the local megachurch as an alternative. She describes all the amenities and the programs that this church was running: “It pampers all of them. They have their own coffeeshop, florist, minimart, bank and a drycleaner that accepts all competitor’s coupons.” Hank’s response is classic:

“If I wanted to go that route, I could just walk around the mall and think about Jesus!”

I’m not sure why people outside of the church have greater understanding about the church than the people inside. If I didn’t know better we are getting more honest commentary outside of the church than within. I wonder how thick the walls of the churches are that we cannot hear the laughter of the people outside. 

King of the Hill on Christianity

I used to watch King of the Hill a lot.

There is something quintessenially American about the television show–the perfectly arranged front yards, men grouping together around the beer, the women looking out their kitchen windows over their children with careful eyes. There is something about that show that describes the life of working class family, in a wonderfully stereotyped kind of way that is. Actually, TIME magazine have gone so far as to say that King of the Hill was one of the “most acutely observed, realistic sitcom about regional American life bar none”.

Because of this, I watched with interest an episode on Youtube for how it interpreted Christianity. It actually was a slimcast, which condenses the episode into 10 minutes instead of the original 25–which is probably why it was on youtube legally. Anyway, it was illuminating in how they present an image of the Nu-Christianity that has taken over a youth group that Bobby (the son) has joined. In many ways, it is not very much different from the Christianity that is given in churches today.