Musing on Humor in Religion

Jesus said do not burden yourself with needless anxieties and concerns.

The Koran mentions that he deserves paradise who makes his companion laugh.

And Buddhists have statues of a laughing Buddha.

These are some of the points comedian Terry Braverman plans to make in a speech Jan. 31 at the Huntington Beach Church of Religious Science. His talk, which will begin at 9 a.m. at the church, 7641 Talbert Ave., is titled “When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Lighten Up.”

Braverman, who has appeared on the Comedy Central cable channel and at the Improv comedy club, will talk about the spiritual and healing power of humor as well as the role of humor in religion.

“I see it as a common thread through all religions,” Braverman said.

Braverman, 45, likes to talk about how humor has helped him deal with the sometimes bizarre and painful twists in his life. At 13 he witnessed the death of a rabbi shot during a friend’s bar mitzvah by a man released from a mental institution. That same year, Braverman’s father died of lung cancer.

Humor, he said, is necessary to detach yourself from the sense of loss and to heal spiritually.

He remembered the words of one Jewish woman who put on vaudeville shows while imprisoned in Auschwitz.

“In spite of all our agony and pain, we never lost our ability to laugh at ourselves and our miserable conditions,” he recalled her saying during a conversation. “We had to make jokes and impersonations about camp life to survive and save ourselves from deep depression.”