Mike Du Jour has always been one of my favorite comic strips, but today Mike lost me with his 19h century Catholicism. I am 83 years of age and grew up in fear and distrust of the Catholic Church and its teaching that “Freedom of Religion” meant freedom to preach and teach the truth, i.e. the Catholic faith, not freedom to teach heresies (i.e., non-Catholic faiths). Almost fifty years ago, the Vatican entered the 20th Century and dropped this hateful doctrine. With that change, I and tens of millions of other Americans gave the Catholic Church the benefit of the doubt and anti-Catholicism largely evaporated –at least in the Protestant and conservative communities. In fact Catholic and conservative Protestants have become natural allies in many areas of importance to us both. But I’m sure Mike and I would agree that anti-Christianity in general, and anti-Catholicism in particular, have prospered and grown among the liberal left.
This underscores the offense I take at today’s strip’s transparent message that all Judeo-Christian faiths are “sects”—-only the “true Church” does not appear when “sect” is googled in today’s strip. In fact none of the religious groups that Mike considers “sects” appear in the top listings. Dictionary.com has several definitions of “sect. The second obviously is the one he had in mind: “a group regarded as heretical or as deviating from a generally accepted religious tradition.”
I don’t’ begrudge Mike or small extremist Christian groups their right to believe that all of us who fail to accept their beliefs are damned to perdition, in fact I laugh it off. But he shouldn’t expect to gain fans or allies with such blatantly offensive messages.
hendrix_david over 9 years ago
Clever, if somewhat off color.
berryboymd31 over 9 years ago
Mike Du Jour has always been one of my favorite comic strips, but today Mike lost me with his 19h century Catholicism. I am 83 years of age and grew up in fear and distrust of the Catholic Church and its teaching that “Freedom of Religion” meant freedom to preach and teach the truth, i.e. the Catholic faith, not freedom to teach heresies (i.e., non-Catholic faiths). Almost fifty years ago, the Vatican entered the 20th Century and dropped this hateful doctrine. With that change, I and tens of millions of other Americans gave the Catholic Church the benefit of the doubt and anti-Catholicism largely evaporated –at least in the Protestant and conservative communities. In fact Catholic and conservative Protestants have become natural allies in many areas of importance to us both. But I’m sure Mike and I would agree that anti-Christianity in general, and anti-Catholicism in particular, have prospered and grown among the liberal left.
This underscores the offense I take at today’s strip’s transparent message that all Judeo-Christian faiths are “sects”—-only the “true Church” does not appear when “sect” is googled in today’s strip. In fact none of the religious groups that Mike considers “sects” appear in the top listings. Dictionary.com has several definitions of “sect. The second obviously is the one he had in mind: “a group regarded as heretical or as deviating from a generally accepted religious tradition.”
I don’t’ begrudge Mike or small extremist Christian groups their right to believe that all of us who fail to accept their beliefs are damned to perdition, in fact I laugh it off. But he shouldn’t expect to gain fans or allies with such blatantly offensive messages.bcathey1960 over 9 years ago
He must have googled “religious sex” instead…