Within the Simpsons, Marge Simpson is portrayed as the typical loving housewife who gathers her family every Sunday to attend Church. She is caring and definitely not unfair, and she is helpful to every other character. Her frustration is most noticeable when Homer informs her one Sunday that he does not believe in God and refuses to go to Church. When alone, God approaches Homer in his dream and confronts him about why he didn’t go to Church. Homer replies that he isn’t a bad guy, and he takes care of his children, so “Why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I’m going to Hell?” Reverend Lovejoy explains in Church that “the devil lives among them” and Bart begins to attack a man with a goatee before he can explain what he means. Reverend Lovejoy suspects Homer, and does not find his behaviour amusing at all. Homer is quite modernised, despite being Christian he does not wish to attend Church whereas Reverend Lovejoy and Ned Flanders follow the stereotypical pattern of religious people. They wear ‘old fashioned’ clothing, and are completely pure, attending Church regularly. Homer is in touch with the modern world, whereas Flanders and Lovejoy are shown to be a little out of touch.
Furthermore, Second Generation was a two part drama that aired on Channel 4, and told the story of a Muslim and Hindu family living in Britain, which contained both traditional and modern lifestyles as well as views. Heere, the youngest daughter of Mr Sharma, was engaged to a man who was not the same race or religion. She had been disowned by her father, who was a Hindu, because of her supposed act of impudence of getting engaged to Jack, a non-Hindu. Jack exclaims to Heere’s father that it isn’t fair to disown his daughter like that, but Mr Sharma orders them to leave. Heere is conveyed as in touch with the modern world, and although she leaves Jack, she gets together with Sam Khan, who is a Muslim. Her father, Mr Sharma, is very out of touch with the modern world as he is a strict Hindu, and goes as far as disowning his own daughter.
The Heaven & Earth show, despite being religious, is aimed at those people that are interested in the modern religious and moral issues. Many young viewers view this programme to discuss and extend their knowledge, not only about religion, but about more modern and controversial issues such as abortion, euthanasia, pre-marital sex, etc. The Heaven & Earth show intends to show that religion is not old fashioned, but does contain aspects of the modern world that interest some younger and modern viewers. Although it doesn’t have characters to mention whether they are portrayed to be in or out of touch with the modern world, it is obvious from the population of the audience of this show; that religious people that view this show are quite in touch with the modern world and interested in the present day issues.
According to the characters I have analysed, television now portrays characters to be quite in touch with the modern world. Although there are some characters in programmes such as the Simpsons and Second Generation that present traditional religious people, the majority of characters I have researched are in touch with the modern world despite being quite religious. Characters such as Heere from Second Generation and James from Coupling remain in touch with the modern world, even though they are religious. They tend to have a modern dress sense and are still able to live their lives almost like non-religious people would, therefore they are in touch with the modern world along with being religious. The Heaven & Earth show is evidence that many people are still religious and in touch with the modern world as well as there are many young viewers of this show and the Vicar of Dibley presents characters that live an extremely religious life but are also interested in everyday, ‘modern’ aspects of life such as latest television programmes, relationships and socialising, parts of these aspects that may not necessarily be considered as the ‘right’ way of living life according to religion. Therefore it is fairly obvious that television nowadays does not always present religious people to be out of touch with the modern world.
