Reverend Timothy Lovejoy is the priest who runs the First Church of Springfield. Quite religious yet not quite as much as Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy is seen giving sermons every Sunday to the inhabitants of Springfield. He practices the Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism, and has a particular dislike of Catholics.
Lovejoy first came to Springfield full of idealism in the seventies, but became cynical and disillusioned about his flock and ministry, quite in contrast to parishioner Ned Flanders. Lovejoy eventually became very annoyed with Flanders, who came to him because of issues such as coveting his own wife.
Lovejoy is very strict with parishoners about their faith. For example, in She of Little Faith, when Lisa converted to Buddhism, he called her "Marge Simpson's devil-daughter". He also refuses to perform homosexual marriages, and burns things that are against the Bible, or anything that encourages evil, for when Krusty the Clown committed armed robbery in Krusty Gets Busted, Reverend Lovejoy made the inhabitants of Springfield burn all Krusty merchandise. He often reads readings about Hell from the Old Testament during sermons, encouraging a pessimistic attitude.
Once, when Homer sued the Church and bought it, Reverend Lovejoy was forced to leave Springfield because he had no place to preach. However, when Homer caused a flood of Springfield because God was not pleased with him, Lovejoy returned in a helicopter and saved all the Springfieldians.
The Reverend, although being holy, is hardly perfect. He encourages his canine to go to the bathroom on Flanders' lawn, he once scammed the members of his church, once used violent means to subdue cult worshipers, and even once attempted to burn his church down. Nevertheless, he is respected as a spiritual and religious leader throughout Springfield.
Reverend Lovejoy is married to Helen Lovejoy, and has one daughter, Jessica.
Name
Matt Groening has indicated that Reverend Lovejoy is named after NW Lovejoy Street in Portland, Oregon (the city where Groening grew up), which is in turn named for Portland co-founder Asa Lovejoy.
Profile
Rev. Lovejoy is the Pastor of the Church (of uncertain Protestant denomination, mentioned as "The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism" in "The Father, The Son, and The Holy Guest Star") that almost everyone in Springfield dutifully attends. In one episode, Dr Hibbert and his family (who are among the wealthiest in town) decide to attend the First A.M.E. Church of Springfield. In earlier episodes Lovejoy is sometimes seen with a Catholic Priest's cassock. He originally spoke with a very heavy southern accent, but it has been toned down since the earlier episodes.
In the episode In Marge We Trust, he describes how he initially came to Springfield an eager, idealistic young man in the seventies, only to become cynical and disillusioned about his flock and ministry, mostly due to Ned Flanders, who constantly pesters him with such non-emergencies as coveting his own wife. Lovejoy would dispatch such concerns with maximum brevity so that he could return to playing with his model trains (his true passion).
Regarding his ministry, he once explained to Marge, "I just stopped caring. Fortunately by that time it was the eighties, and no one noticed." Lovejoy demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the Bible, citing parables such as the "foolish man who built his house on sand" in Homer the Heretic, in an attempt to warn Homer against the dangers of founding a self-serving "religion". Homer retorts with a random passage of his own, which Lovejoy cites immediately as having no relevance to the discussion. Homer then tries in vain to cover himself by saying, "Yeah ... think about it!"
His sermons currently vary between dreary recitations of more opaque parts of the Old Testament, to the occasional "fire and brimstone" scaremongering about Hell — and very little of the love and joy that the Reverend's surname suggests. When congregation members begin to nod off, Lovejoy can awaken them by pressing a button on his lectern resulting in pre-recorded sounds, including an eagle, an ambulance siren, a disco whistle and a blimp attack. The church building is a clone of the one seen in the film The Graduate.
Tolerance
His tolerant side is demonstrated when he performs a marriage for Hindus (though he apparently thinks Hindus are a Christian group), co-hosts a religious radio program with Krusty the Klown's rabbi father, and admits evolution may be true. However, despite the fact that he married a Hindu couple, he is unable to identify Apu's religion in other episodes.
However, Lovejoy has become increasingly intolerant, possibly to mirror the increasing extremism of the American Religious Right in recent years. In She of Little Faith, he calls Lisa, who had converted to Buddhism, "Marge Simpson's devil-daughter". Moreover, he appears bitter about the tall Episcopal church across the street, wanting to build a larger steeple and, when mentioning the other church, placing the emphasis on "pis". He also read to Lisa an excerpt from the Bible to justify Whacking Day (during which many snakes are killed), but refused to show her the supposed text supporting his argument. While he seems to have originally believed in evolution, he later takes up the creationist cause to bolster his church's membership. He has also driven a "Book-burning-mobile", further revealing an extremist nature. He seems rather stingy as well. In one episode, it is revealed that Lovejoy checks his Bible out of the local library every Friday for 9 years; when the librarian asks him whether it would be easier to simply buy a Bible, Lovejoy acidly implies that it would be possible on a librarian's salary.
Negative Qualities
Despite being a clergyman, Lovejoy does not always follow the word of the Bible, and has been shown to do things that would be considered sinful. Lovejoy has been known to exploit his congregation for money, brawl with a Catholic priest, encourage his dog to foul Ned Flanders's lawn, told Moe he had little to live for, and burned down his church for insurance money (saying "I never thought I'd have to do this again" during an aborted attempt in The Joy of Sect).
Lovejoy is not always enthusiastic about The Bible and is often disparaging about its content and purpose. ("Have you ever really read this thing? Technically, we're not allowed to go to the bathroom.") He tends to stress church and community work over any involved study of biblical text.
Family
Reverend Lovejoy's rarely-seen daughter Jessica loves to pull pranks and manipulate people. In the episode Bart's Girlfriend, her hijinks are revealed to stem from her hunger for attention, which her father does not sufficiently provide. Reverend Lovejoy sent her to boarding school in an attempt to curb her tendencies, but Jessica was expelled, having shown no improvement.
Lovejoy's wife, Helen, who looks older than her husband, was originally portrayed as a moralistic gossip, but in voice actress Maggie Roswell's long absence her character was seen but not heard. Now Helen is rarely seen without being at her husband's side. Despite the 1950s aura, it is she, not her husband, who is the driver of the van that takes the Lovejoys out of town when Homer Simpson is deeded the church by the court (in Pray Anything) after suing them for falling in a hole outside the church building and ends up bringing the wrath of God upon Springfield, which is allayed only by the Lovejoys' return.