She of Little Faith/References

Trivia

 * Lisa catches Marge listening to her pray. Marge catches the Flanders brothers praying in "Bart Has Two Mommies".
 * Marge tells Lisa she hopes at least one of the Simpsons will go to Heaven. In "Simpsons Bible Stories" that's what happened - Lisa starts ascending to Heaven, but Homer grabs her and takes her down to the barbecue in Hell along with the rest of the family.
 * While walking into the new church, a man claims that he can exchange money for the patrons, Lisa remarks that it "could not be more blasphemous!". This is a reference to the biblical account of Jesus and the money changers.
 * When Marge tells Homer that this is the worst thing he's ever done, Homer replies that she's said it so much that the words have lost all meaning. Marge has also told Homer something is the worst thing he's ever done in "Brawl in the Family" (when it's revealed that Homer married the barmaid from Vegas). She's also said something very similar to that in "The Cartridge Family" (when Bart finds Homer's gun and uses it to play William Tell with Milhouse).
 * Syndication cuts a scene where as the rocket is launched, a homeless person stops drinking his alcohol and leaves it. A business man subsequently sees the alcohol and drinks it at the same spot.
 * This episode reveals that Homer wears contact lenses.
 * Lenny and Carl's meditation mantra is from the "Short shorts" song (the Royal Teens, 1958). This also appears in Homer the Heretic (9F02) and El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (3F24), interestingly all three episodes deal with spiritual matters.

Cultural references

 * Plan 9 from Outer Space. - Parodied as the cheesy science fiction movie at the beginning of the show, "The planet from outer space".
 * Homer's "break the surly bonds of gravity/punch the face of God!" speech is a parody of Ronald Reagan's speech following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, which quotes from the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr..
 * The opening plot with the rockets is a spoof of the biopic October Sky.
 * This episode satirizes the phenomenon of Megachurches.
 * When Reverend Lovejoy is done with his sermon, he says that the Noid has somethings he'd like to say, and the Noid in question walks up to the podium.
 * Bart's chalkboard gag was probably a subtle reference to his limited-edition breakfast cereal released in 2001, Bart Simpson Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch Cereal by Kellogg's.
 * On the "Jumbotron", Lisa is captioned with the words "Pouting Thomas", a play on the phrase Doubting Thomas.
 * This is also a reference to the 1970s episodes of Saturday Night Live where, after a sketch ended and before the show went to a commercial break, the camera would zoom in on someone in the audience and a bizarre or risque caption would appear below the shot.
 * When Ned hears Lisa announce that she is a Buddhist, he exclaims, "My Satan sense is tingling!". This is a spoof of Spider-Man's catchphrase, "My Spidey-Sense is tingling!".

Religion references

 * The title is a reference to a line quoted in the Bible "ye of little faith."
 * What Lisa was chanting while ignoring her father was Om mani padme hum, a mantra popularly associated with Tibetan Buddhism.
 * The Buddhist temple's main figure is not actually the historical Buddha himself, but rather a Western misinterpretation of him; the familiar obese laughing figure is actually the Chinese interpretation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, who has come to be a representative of the Buddha in some episodes.