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Buddhists respect the diversity of other religions. As long as they're based on love and compassion.

Richard Gere

"She of Little Faith" is the sixth Christmas episode of the animated series The Simpsons, aired as the sixth episode of the show's thirteenth season. It was nominated for the 2002 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour); however, it lost to the Futurama episode "Roswell that Ends Well".

Synopsis[]

While watching a 1950s science fiction movie, The Planet from Outer Space, Bart and Lisa see a commercial for a model rocket kit and Bart orders it by using Homer's credit card number. Six to eight weeks later, Bart gets the rocket and asks Homer if he wants to help put the rocket together. Homer joins him and Milhouse in the backyard to help them. Soon the rocket is ready, but it blows up before it can lift off. Jealous that Ned Flanders built a superior rocket, Homer enlists the help of his nerdy college roommates, Gary, Doug, and Benjamin. Once they are done with a pretty high-tech rocket, he shoos them and Milhouse away, and prepares to launch it himself. Unable to get their hands on any space monkeys, they use the school hamster, Nibbles, to pilot the rocket. The rocket lifts off successfully, but it develops complications and starts drifting off-course. After Nibbles bails out (disobeying Homer's rather simple instructions), the rocket crashes into the church and blows it up, aided and abetted by Homer, who tries to destroy it with a shotgun.

The church council meets up to decide how to come up with money to fund the repairs to the church. With no help, they will have to do it themselves. At that moment, Mr. Burns, looking more sinister and evil than the Devil, shows up and offers to fix the damage provided that they allow him to run the church like a business. At first, the group is a bit reluctant, but they have no choice, so they agree. He introduces them to Lindsay Naegle, who will be overseeing the church renovations. Together, Lindsay and Burns make the church into a commercial monstrosity, complete with advertising signs, a Lard Lad statue, and a Jumbotron. Lisa, on seeing this, is appalled.

Three weeks later, the newly renovated church is thrown open to the public. The whole place seems like a shopping mall and it even has new pews, resembling first-class airline chairs. When Lisa objects, she is labeled a "Pouting Thomas" on the "God Cam". Reverend Lovejoy starts the service rather solemnly, as usual, but suddenly starts endorsing big-screen TVs and pizzas. At this point, Lisa has had all she can take and denounces how horrible the church has become, likening it to the Whore of Babylon, much to everyone's astonishment. Some people try to talk favorably about the new renovations. Lisa agrees with them, but tells them that they cost the church its soul, and leaves, saying she has lost her faith in the church, much to Marge's horror (Homer is unsure of how to act).

That night, Marge tries to "talk sense" into Lisa by pretending to be God as she prays, but Lisa, offended that her mother would eavesdrop on her prayers, is not to be swayed. Bart comes up with some religions she should consider taking up, but she shoots them all down. She goes for a walk, passing many sacrilegious signs; like Whiskey A God-God, Church of The Latter Day Druids, and Bed Bath & Bahá'í; until she happens upon Springfield's Buddhist temple. She enters and sees Lenny, Carl, and actor Richard Gere inside. After hearing and reading about the virtues of Buddhism, she declares to everyone that she is a Buddhist.

Stunned at the conversion, Marge tries unsuccessfully to bribe her back to Christianity. Lisa plants her own bodhi tree in the backyard, much to her mother's disapproval. At the church council, they decide to bribe Lisa back during the Christmas season using presents, using what looks like a pony named Clip Clop wrapped in paper (in actuality, it is Ralph and Milhouse wrapped inside). However, she gets wise to the fact that Rev. Lovejoy is outside watching and runs away. She runs to the Buddhist temple, where she complains about how her family tried to trick her into celebrating Christmas. Richard Gere informs her that while Buddhism is about one finding inner peace, it is also about respecting the diversity of other religions, as well as love and compassion. In other words, she can celebrate any holiday. Richard Gere leaves to spend Christmas with his daughter, and Lenny and Carl leave to prevent Moe from attempting to kill himself (as he does every Christmas).

Lisa goes back home and tells everyone that she will be celebrating Christmas with them and continue paying lip service to Christianity while practicing Buddhism. When she asks about Clip Clop, Marge nervously tries to change the subject by saying "Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year." At the end, we hear Marge still saying "Happy New Year" and Lisa calling for Clip Clop.

Songs[]

Uncredited

Availability[]

The episode made its home video debut on the Christmas with the Simpsons DVD, released in 2003. It was later included on The Simpsons: The Complete 13th Season DVD and Blu-ray sets in 2010.

Notes[]

  • The title is based on the following from the Holy Bible:
Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?

— Matthew 16:8

Edits[]

  • Syndication omit the cutaways in the scene where, as Homer's rocket is launched, a homeless person lying in the gutter, upon seeing the rocket, stops drinking his bottle of wine and throws it aside, only for a business man walking by to catch the bottle and then start drinking it himself.

Cast[]

Voice actor/actress Character(s)
Dan Castellaneta Homer Simpson
Sideshow Mel
Space captain
Julie Kavner Marge Simpson
Patty Bouvier
Selma Bouvier
Nancy Cartwright Bart Simpson
Kearney
Todd Flanders
Ralph Wiggum
Yeardley Smith Lisa Simpson
Hank Azaria Carl Carlson
Comic Book Guy
Spaceman
Doug
Money changer
Usher
Harry Shearer Announcer
Ned Flanders
Benjamin
Wino executive
Rev. Lovejoy
Mr. Burns
Lenny Leonard
Richard Gere Himself
Pamela Hayden Milhouse Van Houten
Jimbo
Tress MacNeille Lindsey Naegle
Dolph
Karl Wiedergott Bum

External links[]

20th Century
Movies
Miracle on 34th Street (1955 remake) (1973 remake) (1994 remake) • Die HardDie Hard 2Home AloneHome Alone 2: Lost in New YorkGeorge Balanchine's The NutcrackerTrapped in ParadiseJingle All the WayHome Alone 4The Family StoneDeck the Halls12 Men of ChristmasHome Alone: The Holiday HeistJingle All the Way 2Home Sweet Home Alone
Television episodes and specials
20th Television
M*A*S*H "Dear Dad" • "Dear Sis" • "Death Takes a Holiday" • "All About Christmas Eve"
Tracey Ullman "Santa Baby" • "Kay's Gift" • "Merry Catnip"
The X Files "Christmas Carol" • "Emily" • "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas"
Malcolm in the Middle "Christmas" • "Christmas Trees" • "Pearl Harbor" • "Hal's Christmas Gift
Bones "The Man in the Fallout Shelter" • "The Santa in the Slush" • "The Goop on the Girl"
How I Met Your Mother "How Lily Stole Christmas" • "Little Minnesota" • "False Positive" • "Symphony of Illumination" • "The Over-Correction" • "The Final Page, Part 1" • "The Final Page, Part 2"
Glee "A Very Glee Christmas" • "Extraordinary Merry Christmas" • "Glee, Actually" • "Previously Unaired Christmas"
New Girl "The 23rd" • "Santa" • "LAXmas" • "Christmas Eve Eve"
The Mindy Project "Josh and Mindy's Christmas Party" • "Christmas Party Sex Trap" • "Christmas" • "When Mindy Met Danny"
Last Man Standing "Last Christmas Standing" • "Putting a Hit on Christmas" • "Elfie" • "Wedding Planning" • "Gift of the Wise Man"
Other shows "Christmas Story" • "The Worst Noel" • "Haus Arrest" • "Amends" • "Blue Christmas" • "A Christmas Story" • "Cookies for Santa" • "In God We Trust" • "Road to Tradition" • "Afternoon Delight" • "Christmas" • "The Glitch That Stole Christmas" • "Secret Santa"
20th Television Animation
The Simpsons "Simpson Christmas" • "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" • "Marge Be Not Proud" • "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" • "Grift of the Magi" • "Skinner's Sense of Snow" • "She of Little Faith" • "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" • "Simpson Christmas Stories" • "Kill Gil, Volumes I & II" • "The Fight Before Christmas" • "Holidays of Future Passed" • "White Christmas Blues" • "I Won't Be Home for Christmas • "The Nightmare After Krustmas" • "'Tis the 30th Season" • "Bobby, It's Cold Outside" • "The Way of The Dog" • "A Springfield Summer Christmas for Christmas" • "Manger Things" • Feliz Navidad
King of the Hill "The Unbearable Blindness of Laying" • "Pretty, Pretty Dresses" • "Hillennium" • "'Twas the Nut Before Christmas" • "The Father, the Son, and J.C." • "Livin' on Reds, Vitamin C and Propane" • "Ms. Wakefield"
Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas" • "The Best Christmas Story Never" • "The Most Adequate Christmas Ever" • "Rapture's Delight" • "A Cleveland Brown Christmas" • "Road to the North Pole" • "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls" • "Murray Christmas" • "Season's Beatings" • "Die Semi-Hard" • "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" • "'Tis the Cleveland To Be Sorry" • "Minstrel Krampus" • "Christmas Guy" • "Dreaming of a White Porsche Christmas" • "The 2000-Year-Old Virgin" • "How the Griffin Stole Christmas" • "Ninety North, Zero West" • "Gifted Me Liberty" • "Don't Be a Dickens At Christmas" • "Santa, Schmanta" • "Christmas is Coming" • "Yule. Tide. Repeat." • "The First No L" • "Christmas Crime" • "The Return of the King (of Queens)"
Futurama "Xmas Story" • "A Tale of Two Santas" • "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular" • "I Know What You Did Next Xmas"
Bob's Burgers "God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins" • "Christmas in the Car" • "Father of the Bob" • "Nice-Capades" • "The Last Gingerbread House on the Left" • "The Bleakening" • "Better Off Sled" • "Have Yourself a Maily Linda Christmas" • "Yachty or Nice" • "Gene's Christmas Break" • "The Plight Before Christmas" • "The Nightmare 2 Days Before Christmas"
Other cartoons "Hook's Christmas" • "A Christmas Surprise for Mrs. Stillman" • Olive, the Other ReindeerIce Age: A Mammoth Christmas • "The War on Grafelnik" • "Miracle on Culpepper Slims Boulevard" • "A Very Solar Holiday Opposites Special" • "Dip the Halls Adventure" • "Xmas with The Skanks Adventure"
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