On May 21st, Liz Bucar, professor of religion, Dean’s Leadership Fellow, and WGSS affiliated faculty at Northeastern University, wrote an opinion piece for Religious News Service that claimed “we are losing a great American prophet.” The prophet? Stephen Colbert of “The Late Show.”
As a leading expert in religious ethics, Bucar acknowledges that using the term prophet to describe Colbert might seem extreme, but, after all, prophets have always been “intermediaries who stand between us and a truth we cannot yet see. They name what is real when institutions that are supposed to protect people are instead protecting power. In this time of political, environmental and tech-driven crisis, we need all the prophets we can find.”
Recalling Colbert’s comment last summer – which led to CBS cancelling “The Late Show” days later – that condemned Paramount’s $16 million settlement with President Trump as a “big fat bribe,” Bucar argues that it is actually comedians who are most equipped to address the truth, and there is certainly a long precedent of comedians speaking out.
“After 25 years studying religious ethics, I think comedians are doing some of the most serious moral work in America right now.”
As she mourns the loss of Colbert’s late-night platform, Bucar makes a broader argument for the vitality of humor amid great sadness.
Read the full article here.
