[Adam] Ford, who once yearned to be a pastor, stressed that he is trying to be critical and supportive at the same time.<\/p>\n
“God can and does use goofy things like lasers and smoke machines to bring people to Christ, sure, but I believe church services that are reminiscent of WWE productions have peaked and will be less and less successful and prevalent moving forward,” he said.<\/p>\n
The key is that Ford is a modern man who is filling an ancient role, said media scholar Terry Lindvall, of Virginia Wesleyan College.<\/p>\n
“The biblical satirist shares in the blame and shame of his defendants. He may be God’s prosecutor, but he is also entwined with the people he ridicules,” wrote Lindvall, in his book “God Mocks: A History of Religious Satire from the Hebrew Prophets to Stephen Colbert.” A skilled satirist, he added, holds up a prophetic mirror that “offers a comic frame in which to look at and to look through the heart; the satirist finds that none are righteous, including himself.”<\/p>\n