Ask TV Squad: Stephen Colbert teaches Sunday school?

TV Squad reader Jorge Gonzalez asked:

On Conan last night, The Red One said that Colbert teaches Sunday school. Seeing the kind of humor that Colbert displays, including his many "This Week in God" segments on The Daily Show, I find that hard to believe. Are you able to confirm that at all because I sure as shit can't.

Well, you're in luck, 'cause I, as the resident Colbert fangirl, sure as shit can confirm it. Yes, Mr. Stephen Colbert does teach Sunday school. In fact, this isn't the first time that he's mentioned it ("I go to church, I teach Sunday school. I have family values," he said here). Colbert's a devout Catholic, raises his children under the church, and even served as his daughter's catechist.

In an old interview with Terry Goss on NPR (worth a listen), he explained his boundaries when it came to religious humor... "I don't want to criticize anyone's religions for the fact that it is a religion. What's funny to me is what people do in the name of religion," he said. And while deciding whether or not a joke is appropriate, he said that he asks himself, "'Does it disrespect the concept of their belief?' and if it does, then I really don't think I can do it... Because who am I to say that what they believe is wrong? But if they're doing things, using religion as a tool in some other behavior... y'know, hypocritical or destructive... then it's fair game."

I think he best summed it up with "I don't believe I can't disagree with my church."

Check out Conan O'Brien's interivew with Stephen. Stephen does one of his famous Strangers With Candy dances and shows one of his old high school yearbook pictures. Fun stuff.