Fandom Religion

Post Author: Rev. Corey Turnpenny

Sometime during the catastrophe that was 2020, my husband told me there was a new show we could watch. An American football coach goes to England to coach a professional soccer team. I wasn’t really interested in a sports show, but with a newborn at home and nowhere to go, I finally agreed to watch the first episode a few weeks later. The first half of episode one seemed predictable though charming. By the end, I found my assumptions about the main character, Ted, getting challenged in the best way. I said, “OK, I’ll watch it.” And that was how I became a Tedvangelist. 

I’ve long been a TV connoisseur, immersing myself in the multiple artistries of an impeccable series. We are living in the golden age of TV, and I am here for it. I’ve had the “what are your favorite shows” conversation with friends and acquaintances more times than I can count. Among my favorites are Six Feet Under, Schitt’s Creek, Firefly, Mad Men, Doctor Who, The Good Place, and honestly so many more. Ted Lasso is of course at the top of that list, but it’s hard to even think of it as just a TV show anymore. I’ve actually said Ted Lasso is my new religion. This might sound blasphemous as a Christian pastor, but what else is religion than a shared metaphor for understanding God?

Ted Lasso has gone from a show to a community for me. Not long after bingeing the first season (for the first time), I joined the Ted Lasso Talk Facebook group. There, I found hundreds of other devotees who shared my passion and joy for this show that so beautifully expresses the human experience. Even in the year plus between season two and season three, the Facebook group stayed active. People shared new things they noticed after rewatching for the fifth or sixth time. There were posts from people inspired to handle hard situations with more grace or bravery. There was support and sharing and vulnerability and hope, all in a Facebook fan group for a TV show. It didn’t take me long to realize we had created church. This is what I call the Church of Fandom.

Church in the Wild’s altar from their Fandom series week on Ted Lasso.

As new episodes were airing, the group became a place to process and propose ideas about what might happen. People were doing research and digging deep into the smallest details. I’ve pastored some incredibly faithful Christians over the past decade, but I’ve never seen a group of lay people so excited to research details of their sacred text. This is exactly what Ted Lasso has become for so many.

It used to be that the dominant religion of an age and area provided the shared metaphors with which people could talk about the mysteries of life. For a couple hundred years in the U.S., we could count on most people knowing the basic Bible stories, which is why we have phrases like “Good Samaritan” and “go the extra mile”. The days of most people knowing Bible stories are gone, though. With the introduction of television to nearly every North American home, we now have the opportunity to use the stories of pop culture as our shared metaphors. It might take finding the right one, but if you find someone who has watched the same show or movie series, or read the same book, you share a language of metaphor you can use to apply to life. Trekkies and Star Wars fans have been doing this for decades, and with shows as inspirational and accessible as Ted Lasso, new groups of fans are being initiated into the Church of Fandom.

Many pastors have jumped on this bandwagon of “Fandom Church”, preaching on Disney or Marvel movies, and plenty have done preaching and teaching series on Ted himself. But what still strikes me the most as a leader of a faith community is the unique kind of community that has been created by Ted Lasso fans. During the most difficult years of my life, Ted Lasso Talk became my church. It was a place I found inspiration, hope, and encouragement. Every time someone spots a BELIEVE sign, it gets shared to the group. Last year, I was stopped in the grocery store parking lot by a couple who saw the BELIEVE sign proudly plastered to the back of my car. They told me they’d just had a baby, a miracle for their age. They said “believe” became their mantra as they tried and hoped for a child for years. As the man held his newborn in a car seat, he told me they just started watching Ted Lasso and had to tell me how much he loved my BELIEVE sticker. We blessed each other and went on our way. 

About halfway through this season, I hit a rough patch. Out of nowhere, I felt depressed and weepy for a stretch of days. It was hard to find hope, and as the days wore on with no relief, I started getting scared that this depressive stretch was turning into full blown depression. With a therapy appointment scheduled and various other attempts at self-care done, I did the only thing I could think might help and started watching the current season of Ted Lasso over again, from the beginning. Much like some turn to scripture, I turned to Ted Lasso apparently, and this is not something I am ashamed to admit as a Christian pastor. Ted Lasso, like poetry, nature, and scripture, possesses and expresses Love. It’s the Love, the Divine, the Spirit of them that gets me through hard times and helps me enjoy the blissful. 

The more I participate in the Lasso Fandom, the more I see it as a form of religion. Our members are passionate evangelists, devout scholars, and inspired followers of an ensemble cast that shows us how good people can be despite how awful others are. As a pastor, I could scoff or worry this was watering down “the faith,” but as a human I know the more stories and examples I have of people at our best, the better off I’ll be. This new religion doesn’t take away from my faith in our Maker, it strengthens it. As my UCC siblings are fond of saying, “God is still speaking.” In the 21st Century, why not add TV shows to the updated cannon? I hereby commend Ted Lasso to your sacred stories and encourage you to find a Fandom Church of our own.