She of Little Faith

She of Little Faith" is the 6th episode from The Simpsons' 13th season. It aired on Fox at 8:00 P.M. on Sunday December 16, 2001. This episode marked a watershed event in Lisa's life, as she converted from Christianity (a religion Mr. Burns commercialised, to her disgust), to Buddhism.

Plot
Bart and Lisa watch a cheesy science fiction movie, obviously made in the 1950s or before. During the commercial, a model rocket kit is advertised and Bart, predictably, wants it. So, using Homer's credit card number, he orders it. Six to eight weeks later, Bart gets the rockets and asks Homer if he wants to help put the rocket together. Homer joins him and Milhouse in the back yard to help them. Soon the rocket is ready, but it blows up before it can lift off. A second attempt proves no better. Jealous that Ned Flanders built a superior rocket, he enlists the help of his nerdy college roommates, Gary, Doug, and Benjamin. Once they are done with a pretty high-tech rocket, he shoos them and Milhouse away, and prepares to launch it himself. Unable to get their hands on any space monkeys, they use the school hamster, Nibbles, to pilot the rocket. The rocket lifts off successfully. However, it develops complications and starts drifting off-course. After Nibbles bails out (disobeying Homer's rather simple instructions), the rocket crashes into the church and blows it up.

The church council meets up to decide how to come up with money to fund the repairs to the church. With no help, they will have to do it themselves. At that moment, Mr. Burns, looking more sinister and evil than the Devil, shows up and offers to fix the damage provided that they allow him to run the church like a business. At first, the group is a bit reluctant, but they have no choice, so they agree. He introduces them to Lindsay Naegle, who will be overseeing the church renovations. Together, Lindsey and Burns make the church into a commercial monstrosity, complete with advertising signs, a Lard Lad statue, and a Jumbotron. Lisa, on seeing this, is appalled.

Three weeks later, the newly renovated church is thrown open to the public. The whole place seems like a shopping mall and it even has new pews, resembling first-class airline chairs. When Lisa objects, she is labelled a "Pouting Thomas" on the "God Cam". Reverend Lovejoy starts the service rather solemnly, as usual, but suddenly starts endorsing big-screen TVs and pizzas. At this point, Lisa has had all she can take and denounces how horrible the church has become, likening it to the Whore of Babylon, much to everyone's astonishment. Some people try to talk favorably about the church about some wonderful things. Lisa agrees with them, but tells them that they cost the church its soul, and leaves, saying she has lost her faith in the church, much to Homer and Marge's shock.

That night, Marge tries to "talk sense" into Lisa by pretending to be God as she prays, but Lisa, offended that her mother would eavesdrop on her prayers, is not to be swayed. Bart comes up with some religions she should consider taking up, but she shoots them all down. She goes for a walk, passing many sacrilegious signs, like Whiskey A God-God and Church of The Latter Day Druids, until she happens upeon Springfield's Buddhist temple. She enters and sees Lenny, Carl, and Hollywood actor Richard Gere inside. After hearing and reading about the virtues of Buddhism, she declares to everyone that she is a Buddhist. Ned hears this and takes his sons into an underground bunker. They ask how long they'll be there, to which Ned replies that they may never come out, much to the boys' apparent delight.

Marge is shocked at the conversion, and tries unsuccessfully to bribe her back to Christianity. Lisa plants her own bodhi tree in the back yard, much to Marge's disapproval. At the church council, Burns gives the money to them, after trying to escape with a smoke bomb, which fades just as he grabs the door knob, leaving them one of the topics on agenda: "Marge Simpson's devil daughter". Since Christmas is coming, they decide to bribe Lisa back using Christmas presents, using what looks like a pony named Clip Clop wrapped in paper (in actuality, it is only Ralph and Milhouse wrapped inside). However, she gets wise to the fact that Reverend Lovejoy is outside watching and runs away.

She runs to the Buddhist temple, where she complains about how her family tried to trick her into celebrating Christmas. Richard Gere informs her that while Buddhism is about finding inner peace, it is also about respecting the diversity of other religions, as well as love and compassion. In other words, she can still celebrate Christmas and be Buddhist. Gere leaves to spend Christmas with his daughter, and Lenny and Carl leave to prevent Moe from attempting to kill himself (as he does every Christmas).

Lisa goes back home and tells everyone that she will be celebrating Christmas with them and continue pay lip service to Christianity, all the while remaining with Buddhism. When she asks about the pony, Marge nervously tries to change the subject by saying "Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year." At the end, we hear Marge still saying Happy New Year and Lisa calling for Clip Clop.

Trivia

 * Lisa catches Marge listening to her pray. Marge does this again in "Bart Has Two Mommies," that time with the Flanders brothers.
 * 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.

Cultural references

 * The title is a reference to a line quoted in the Bible "ye of little faith."
 * The cheesy science fiction movie at the beginning of the show, referred as "The planet from outer space", is a parody of Plan 9 from Outer Space.
 * Homer's "break the surly bonds of gravity/punch the face of God!" speech is a parody of Ronald Reagan' sspeech 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 bio-pic 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.
 * 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.
 * When trying to decide how to get funds to rebuild the church, Marge suggests that they write to David Bowie.
 * 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.
 * Lisa getting shown on the "Jumbotron" with "Pouting Thomas" on the bottom of the screen is 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 Spider-Sense is tingling!".