March 26, 2009 | 12:20 pm

The Gospel of South Park

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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Best “South Park” episode in a while last night.

The topic of ridicule was the house of cards that was our robust economy and the hysteria that has followed its collapse. This episode, maybe more than any other, was tinged with religious references. In fact, in hopes of pleasing the economy it had angered, the town of South Park transformed into a Roman-era community where the denizens wear bedsheets instead of clothes and the pharisees squirrel—rodent stoning, I guess—anyone who spends money at the mall.

Kyle, “the young Jew,” was cast in the role of Jesus—“perhaps he is the economy’s only son, sent to save us”—complete with a sermon on the mount in which he proves that just about anyone can qualify for a credit card these days. His audience cowers when he whips out the platinum AmEx card he applied for only the day before. But he tells them not to fear. Instead, they should spend money and have faith:

“Faith is what makes the economy exist,” he says. “Without faith it is only plastic cards and paper money.”

As you can imagine, Jews receive their share of blame for the economic crisis, primarily from Cartman, who accuses them of having stolen money from the banks and hidden it in their secret Jew cave. He also ends up being Judas, though instead of 30 pieces of silver he wants Grand Theft Auto IV: Chinatown Wars.

The Jews get blamed in the above clip; I recommend watching the entire episode here.

And, oh yeah, Kyle ends up “paying for everyone’s debts” with his limit-free AmEx card.

“He’s paid for our debts so that everyone else can spend.”

Of course, in the last scene President Obama takes credit for being our savior.