Stand-up Christians Preach the Spiritual Value of Humor

“Disney to the Rescue,” blares a headline in the April 1 newsletter of North Hollywood Presbyterian Church, which has been without its main church building since the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The newsletter mailed this week said that Walt Disney Co. would fund a $50-million, 2,500-seat concert-and-worship complex with the church as majority owner.

“I thought it was time that we got into the God business,” Disney official Bob Bigbucks is quoted as saying.

The church’s one concession to the Burbank-based entertainment giant will be to permit a statue of Mickey Mouse atop the planned structure instead of a cross, said Pastor Mike Roffina.

The improbable elements of that “story” and similar bogus items were expected to tip off congregants that this was an April Fools’ Day prank by newsletter editor Gil Chesterton.

But this kind of frivolity should be a regular exercise for more Christians in April--the usual month when churches celebrate the Resurrection, contends the leader of the nationwide Fellowship of Merry Christians, based in Michigan.

“Since 1988, we’ve been encouraging churches to observe April as Holy Humor Month, starting with the secular April Fools’ Day, by becoming ‘fools for Christ,”’ said fellowship founder Cal Samra, citing the Apostle Paul’s advice to the Corinthians not to worry about appearing ridiculous to nonbelievers if they were strong and wise in their faith.

The origins of April Fools’ Day, first reported in 18th-century England, are obscure. In France, the victim is called “an April fish.” Germans and Norwegians celebrate on the first and last days of April, while in Mexico the equivalent--Holy Innocents Day, is Dec. 28.

Samra said Christians can look to their own history for holy laughter. Easter Monday or the Sunday after Easter were once considered by churches to be a time for parties, picnics and frivolous activities. Many Eastern Orthodox Christians still follow midnight Divine Liturgies with eating and games lasting into the morning of Easter Sunday or gather later for large community picnics.

From their home in Portage, Mich., Samra and his wife, Rose, have edited “Holy Humor,” a newly published book with the best anecdotes and jokes from clergy and puckish churchgoers, plus cartoons that have appeared in their publication--The Joyful Noiseletter--during the past 10 years.

Cal Samra tells of a pastor in Clearwater, Fla., who has clowns, balloons and joke exchanges on the Sunday after Easter--with ushers feigning puzzlement as they bring empty collection plates to the altar.

The fellowship is bucking an entrenched pattern in churches that see Easter Sunday as thankfully culminating a hectic Lenten season. “A lot of churches are pretty wiped out by Easter Sunday,” Samra admitted. “Their feeling is, ‘Thank God, it’s Monday.” ’

Samra also admits that he probably never hears back from pastors who are influenced by his ideas on mixing the sacred with the silly and using humor to preserve humility.

For example, Samra did not know that his ideas influenced the Rev. Gilbert Stones of Woodland Hills United Methodist Church last year to label his service on April 2 “The Holy Feast of All Fools.” The choir wore funny hats, the pastor wore a loud Hawaiian shirt, and the service included a joke-telling exchange.

One prank by Stones had some repercussions, however.

A previous newsletter announced that the church would close in three months and merge with Canoga Park United Methodist Church and two Methodist churches in Chatsworth because of “poor attendance, lack of financial support and generally low commitments” in the four churches.

The last line: “April Fools!”

An apology appeared in the next newsletter: “The intended humor hit close to home and was designed to make us think about commitment,” Stones wrote. “It was not meant to offend or upset anyone.”

Actually, the fictitious notice caused no resentment in his own congregation, but it drew “mixed reviews” from the other churches, Stones said this week. The pastor also said he was rightly reprimanded by the office of United Methodist Bishop Roy I. Sano for using the bishop’s photo to add authenticity to the announcement.

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The phony news items in North Hollywood Presbyterian’s April Fool newsletter are easier to spot as jokes, in the opinion of editor Chesterton, who teaches journalism at Beverly Hills High School and advises the school’s weekly newspaper and yearbook.

“Aliens Abduct Choir Member in Parking Lot,” proclaims one headline. Another item said local television news directors have bowed to church pressure and agreed to drop murders, drive-by shootings and car chases as lead stories on their newscasts.

No jokes this year, though, because the closest Sunday is Palm Sunday, a major church holiday.

As for the unauthorized use of the Disney name, a subject the company’s lawyers are notoriously touchy about?

“I hope Disney has a good sense of humor,” Chesterton said.