"Conscience is what makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does." - Evan Essar

Some topics are too culturally sensitive for humor. Racist humor is out of line unless you're a member of that race. Cf. the ESPN reporter who got fired for writing that there was a chink in Jeremy Lin's armor.
I think any group that has been the object of persecution gets a pass on being mocked once that persecution is seen as a social evil. Cf. the change in the appropriateness of humor that targets gays.
Fundamentalist Christians are clearly not on that list, as the SNL's "Church Lady" skits (very funny) demonstrate.
Now that it looks like we'll have a Mormon candidate for the White House will they be the subject of skits and stand-up routines? Or are they on the Do Not Mock list?
It's not like there isn't plenty of fodder there.
SNL will be our early indicator.

You gotta go look at this car!
Look at the size of that thing! And the distance from the back door to the back bumper. If you look at the detail pictures you'll notice that the back seat isn't especially spacious and neither is the trunk. So what's in all that space between them? A guest apartment? Storage space for a teardrop trailer? I want to see that monster in person.
And I love the dash. Notice that the only gauge, the speedo, is mounted on the steering column. The dash is flat all the way across except for the radio in the middle.
Great car!!!

Through a link to a link I read an article (here if you're interested) about the foolishness of expecting each quarter's profit to be bigger than the last. Through a review of recent decades in the automotive industry the author argues that periods of reduced, or no profitability are not only good, they're essential to qualitative improvement, and that making perpetual growth the metric of merit leads to compromises of core values.
I read the article from the perspective of a pastor and thought about how that dynamic pertains to the local church.

Church growth (a term understood to refer to numerical growth, as if there were no other kind) has generally become the measure of a church's health, and in extreme cases its legitimacy. A congregation with static numbers must have issues somewhere within, and falling numbers mean something has to change soon.

The Old Testament prophets would have a problem with this ecclesiastical version of the profit centered assessment. As a group they argued for quality, not quantity. For them the problem was never the size of the nation but the degree of its obedience to their calling as the people of God. Righteousness, not numbers.

Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 21 are written either to churches or to church leaders. Not one verse in those 21 letters refers to numerical growth. They do contain extended instructions on what it means to live as a child of God, the actions and attitudes that reflect a restored relationship with our Creator. The Apostle Paul wrote three letters to pastors (First and Second Timothy and Titus) in which he urges them to teach the flock the Word of God and instruct them on holy living. Nothing about increasing the size of the flock, adding ministries upon ministries, or going to a third service to handle the overflow crowds. (Granted, the risk of becoming lunch for a lion hampered recruiting efforts.)

The author of this article draws a direct connection between the financial failures of the Big Three and their need for bailout money with their decision to take the easy route to increasing quarterly profits by building more silly vehicles (SUV's and trucks). Instead of investing in R & D and making better vehicles they looked only at the short term and the quarterly report. A tightening economy showed the foolishness of that course. Have they learned their lesson? Uh, no. Look at the percentage of trucks and SUV's in their lineup. Then look at where gas prices are going.

What has the obsession with attendance done to the real health of the local church? Nickels, numbers and noise are not the same as biblically defined health - a body of believers living the Word as sojourners in a foreign land, ministering grace to each other and those around them.