Thanks for Nothing, George Carlin
Well, the tributes to comedian George Carlin have been flowing around the world since his death. Flowery-worded eulogies, tender laments, and warm words of gratitude and thanksgiving for his contributions to American culture are posted all over the Internet, and those are just the Christian blogs. The headline on Fox News showed his photo with the subtitle, “Drugs, Dirty Words Were Subject of Routines”. Mourning the passing of Mr. Carlin with a great deal of pathos, including a big thank-you to him for bringing so much laughter into the world, is this Christian blog. It is singularly fitting that what passes for Christianity today would celebrate the life and comedic routines of George Carlin. In fact, based on the language and spirit of much in the purportedly Christian blog world today, I would say that there is no better representative icon of post-Christian Christianity than George Carlin. iMonk’s website begins by saying this:
Those of you with the list of who is going to hell will just have to restrain yourself from posting names, because I’m not going to have that stuff in my comments.
That’s right. The Scriptures already give us a rundown on who cannot be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. We don’t need anyone’s opinion on who goes to hell or heaven. Scripture already tells us.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
I Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV
George Carlin made history in my city back in 1972. A policeman and his wife and little boy decided to attend the comedy event at our city’s SummerFest by the lakefront. Within minutes, the police officer, his wife and son, as well as everyone else in attendance, was hit in the face with the filthiest language that exists. This non-Christian police officer, in possession of a greater sense of decency than most professing Christians today, got up and promptly did something about it. Carlin was in violation of several city ordinances on obscenity, and he was arrested and taken to jail for his conduct. Carlin’s response years later?
“It wouldn’t have changed anything I did if I had known there were children in the audience,” Carlin said. “In fact… I think children need to hear those words the most because as yet they don’t have the hang ups, it’s adults who are locked in to certain thought patterns.”
Yes, we in America owe a great deal to George Carlin and his “7 Words You Can’t Say on Television” routine. George served as one more valiant foot soldier in the cultural war that now gives my children the opportunity to read headlines like “Hot Taboo S–” while they stand in line at the grocery store with their mother to buy milk. Carlin deserves some sort of posthumous medal for doing his part in helping the cause of public obscenity and indecency in all areas of American life. Talk about a profile in courage. It takes a real man to introduce children to filthy words and rob them of their innocence. It takes a true American hero to take lavatorial language and spew it on stage in front of families. Bring out the laurel wreaths, the medals, the flowers. Yes, we owe a great deal to George Carlin in this country, emerging pastors in particular. In some small way, George has given many of them the moral courage to use toilet speech in the pulpit in their quest for realness. We all know that being real requires the use of vulgarities and obscenities. Anyone who doesn’t is a complete hypocritical fraud deserving of jeers and sneers of the highest order. George Carlin talked about his grandparents having s-x in the most obscene manner? How real is that? If he had lived, he could have been guest speaker at any number of cool churches today.
George Carlin’s hatred for God and the Bible resulted in a tragic life of a little over 70 years. The fruit of his life was the promotion and celebration of everything that God clearly forbids. This is a cause for sadness. George had no answers for America’s sin problem. He could only joke about the wages of sin which is death. He could only mock and blaspheme the God who created Him. But at the end of the laughing, there is the reality of eternity, and every human knows it inside (Proverbs 14:6). Our only refuge from sin and its terrible destruction is in the cross of Christ. Only the cleansing blood of Jesus can wash us from the filthiness of our sin. George Carlin’s life is a cautionary tale. The laughter someday will all be gone, and when we stand before our holy God, only those clothed in the righteousness of Christ will find God to be their friend.
by
Ingrid Schlueter
