Ned is very honest and sincere in carrying out the Christian doctrines of charity, kindness, and compassion. He is frequently shown doing volunteer work, and is rigorously honest and upright, even going so far as to spend an entire day tracking down a
Leftorium customer in order to give him the extra change that he had forgotten to hand over. In "
Homer's Triple Bypass", he donates a kidney and a lung out of the goodness of his heart to whoever needs them first. He also is a good neighbor to the Simpsons, regularly offering his assistance. Ned's dogged friendship inspires the loyalty of others; when his Leftorium shop appeared on the verge of bankruptcy shortly after it opened, Homer arranged a bailout with the help of many people in Springfield. Homer is often shown "borrowing" (stealing) items from Flanders, such as a
weather vane, a
camcorder, a diploma, a
toothbrush and an
air conditioning unit. Even the Simpsons' couch came from "the curb outside Flanders' house". Homer has since come to have a
love-hate relationship with Ned, sometimes being his best friend, partly due to Ned's selfless tolerance of him, and other times treating Ned with complete disregard. Homer seems to genuinely care for Ned, despite still expressing and often acting on feelings of loathing. and a devout
Evangelical Christian who strictly follows the
Bible literally and is easily shocked when challenged on any point of dogma. This causes frequent calls to
Reverend Lovejoy, even over minuscule things, to the point that Lovejoy has stopped caring and has even suggested that Flanders try a different religion. This was a running joke in the early seasons, but has been used less in the later episodes. In the
eighth season, the episode "
In Marge We Trust" would examine the relationship between Lovejoy and Flanders, and shows the history of their relationship and how Lovejoy became increasingly uninterested in Flanders' problems.
Family and job Ned is a widower, having been married to the equally religious
Maude. They had two children together, the sheltered and naïve
Rod and
Todd Flanders. In the
eleventh season episode "
Alone Again, Natura-Diddily", Maude died an untimely death in a freak accident involving a
T-shirt cannon, leaving Flanders alone and grieving. While still married to Maude, Ned married Ginger, while on a drunken bender in
Las Vegas. parents Ned got his diploma from
Oral Roberts University in an unspecified field and worked as a salesman in the
pharmaceuticals industry for the bulk of his adult life. Having saved much of his earnings, Flanders decided to quit his job and invested his family's life savings into a store in the Springfield mall called the Leftorium specializing in products for left-handed people. In the fifth season episode, "
Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song", Superintendent Chalmers fires Ned Flanders, who has become principal after Skinner being sacked, only because he freely expresses his religious views in the school. However in the Season 29 episode "
Left Behind", owing to declining sales, the Leftorium had been downsized from an outlet to a kiosk, eventually going out of business alongside the
Sears outlet at Springfield Mall. Left unemployed, Flanders returned to Springfield Elementary School, finding a new job as Bart Simpson's new teacher and substituting the void left by his deceased second wife Edna Krabappel, as well as honoring her life dream. Flanders remained Bart's teacher until the Season 33 episode "
My Octopus and a Teacher", at which point the role was assumed by Rayshelle Peyton. In the episode "
Hurricane Neddy" a flashback to 30 years earlier shows Ned as a young child, despite the fact that in the episode "
Viva Ned Flanders" he says to the church congregation that he was actually 60 years old, attributing his youthful appearance to his conformity to the "three Cs"—"clean living, chewing thoroughly, and a daily dose of vitamin church". Ned grew up in
New York City and was the son of "freaky
beatniks" who did not discipline Ned (as they did not think it was right) and let him run wild. Eventually they took him to Dr. Foster, a psychiatrist, who put the young Ned through the
University of Minnesota Spankalogical Protocol, which involved eight months of continuous spanking. The treatment worked so well that it rendered Flanders unable to express any anger at all and resulted in his trademark nonsensical jabbering at moments when he was particularly close to losing his temper, causing Ned to unknowingly repress his anger. ==Reception==