Cutting Him out
07/11/09 20:21 Filed in: Psalms
The latest submission for Sorted magazine.
(click to enlarge)
The previous version of this cartoon can be found here.
(click to enlarge)
The previous version of this cartoon can be found here.
EN65 Atheism Reasons
01/03/09 13:55 Filed in: John
The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you will need to scroll down to find the exact part). Read More...
EN52 Cutting out God
22/01/08 13:54 Filed in: Psalms
The Bible epilogue text can be found here.
This strip uses a quote from one of my regular RE lessons. We were looking at the ten commandments and I was aiming at trying to get the kids to understand what the original meaning for Israel was. It was as if I had started a war or something! Read More...
EN37 Secular Sunday School
The Bible epilogue text can be found here and here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).
One of the regular things I am interested in exploring is the shift from a predominantly pre-war christian worldview to an overwhelmingly modern secular one. This strip pokes fun at the age-old joke among christians that the answer to every sunday school question is 'Jesus'. In a secular age God gets replaced with something else, and Google seems to be doing just that.
Just before doing this strip I had been slightly disturbed by the way in which Google had really achieved a fundamental role in the way I was operating on the web. I began to reflect on the link between the parallels between my online dependencies and greater worldview ones.
I just went for something really simple here with the carpet suggesting the worldview shift. I like dots.
The Zechariah bible text is something I had stumbled on in the early 90s when I had just started at university and was reading this magnificent old testament book. The images keep on reflecting something of God's omniscience and power for a people who were feeling the pinch.
EN34 Three Yellow Cards
01/08/06 13:52 Filed in: Psalms | Ecclesiastes
The Bible epilogue text can be found here and here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).
Poor old Graham Poll. He was the inspiration for this philosophical debate based on the governing principles of a football match and what happens when you change things at the foundation level. There is a lame literal gag about shifting the goal posts that I just had to stick in there... the big idea here is that if you ditch the absolutes of God you are making a very serious step into relativism.
This was wrongly produced in colour... I thought we'd moved to a regular colour print but was put right soon after by John Benton.
Thanks to Radcliffe and Mike Tindall for their helpful comments online about this. I think I dedicated it to John and Demelza because they had both just moved on from previous ministry positions. Great people, much missed.
EN30 Where Cartoonists Fear to Tread
01/03/06 13:52 Filed in: Acts
The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).
I really like this one. The Muslim cartoon protests were hitting the headlines big time. One of the things about doing this strip is that there are sometimes easy targets and then less obvious ones. The end example is something I am pleased with because it doesn't do the obvious thing of criticising Muslims - it goes one better (in my view) and asks the question what is sacred to the secularists?
Fundamental to the whole event is the attitude of the secular press toward sacred beliefs, and I wanted to turn the tables.
My favourite bit is the caps lock gag. Thanks to the editorial assistance from John Batchelor who was a good mate to us at the time. Man can he laugh.
EN29The 'Root of All Evil', so called.
01/01/06 13:52 Filed in: Luke | 2 Corinthians
The Bible epilogue text can be found here and here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).
Richard Dawkins is an intelligent man with plenty to say about christianity and religion that is fundamentally flawed. A TV program was shown where he basically did a rather stupid hatchet job. I wanted to point out that this hero cannot continue to be such a thing if he continues making straw-man arguments.
I wanted to dedicate this to the Christians in Science organisation, who do a great job of portraying a thoughtful response to so much incredulity.
EN28 March/Speech of the Penguins
22/12/05 13:51 Filed in: 1 Corinthians
The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).
March of the Penguins had come out and was doing very well with the christian cinema-going public. I have a number of friends who don't agree with the christian worldview and one thing I am quite keen on is trying to explain my perspective in the most effective way possible. This strip picks up on my unease with the so-called 'intelligent design' debate. Personally I think that it isn't the best way of 'selling' the christian faith because nothing gets there better than talking about Jesus. It has some value to reflect on good things in the world around us (and this is undoubtedly a strong point in the film) but to use it for some mildly political christian point is (to me) a bit of a shame.
I used the Balaam's Donkey idea of a talking animal here, and the pengui-logue reinforces it.
This is a good example of the EN editor's editorial insight. John Benton has occasionally stepped in to encourage me in one direction or another. On this strip he later commented on the need to avoid criticising christians, which is a good thing. My original 'pitch' for this strip was to do something jokey about church culture, but he came back to me with the better idea of taking a satirical view of the non-christian world - which has proven to be be a much more healthy exercise as I have been pushed to reflect on the world outside the church and how it does/does not relate to the perspective in the Bible. A good editor is a life-saver.
EN25 The 'Incitement to Religious Hatred' Law
01/10/05 13:51 Filed in: Hebrews
The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).
The Christian Institute had made some responses to the discussion on a proposed 'incitement to religious hatred' law. A worrying aspect of the issue was that a law that was intended to protect religious views could end up being used to legislate against faiths like christianity. I had listened to some testimonies of people from around the world where they had been hounded and eventually thrown out of their own countries due to this kind of law being passed. I wanted to reflect on the changes implicit in this law.
A couple of my friends’ boys are mentioned in the dedication. I think it speaks for itself.
EN19 Secular School Dinners
01/04/05 13:50 Filed in: Psalms
The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).
Who wasn't moved by Jamie's School Dinners? I loved the way he made the link between dietary intake and the kind of children we are creating. It only follows that in a secular educational system obsessed with grades and levels you produce a form of spiritual blindness.
EN18 The New Ten Commands
01/03/05 13:50 Filed in: Romans
The Bible epilogue text can be found here (you may have to scroll down a bit to find the exact part...).
Jon Snow presented this really interesting show called 'The New 10 Commandments' on channel 4. Apart from a total misunderstanding of what the 10 commandments actually are, it provided an interesting perspective into what people value in todays ideological climate. The strip explains itself - relativism is notoriously interchangeable - commandments voted in by the public aren't commandments - they are options.
Interestingly the number one command was based on a story of christian forgiveness, but this link wasn't reinforced.
