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Show The Salt Lake Tribune RELIGION Saturday, April 10, 1999 WORLD VIEW Hart Makes No Apology for Religious Views You ANDI WILL BE ADAM AND EVE, WE'LL ee — WOW... WERE ; HES FAR AWAY FromS00 Him | NAW. —0 YouTull NK wales Us, ADAM 2 |) LOVE, Eve — ~~ ——_. L @ Continued from C-1 Compiled by PeggyFletcher Stack Early Christians Did Not Use Cross Symbol The cartoon was simply four empty panels, with no art. The first panel was gray. The second was darker. The third was darker still. And the last was completely black. Thatfinal panel carried the caption: Good Friday All of which raises two questions: Whyis Johnny Hart doingthis Though today thecross is one of the most widely seen symbols of Christianity, some scholars believe that it was almost never used by early istians. Numerousarchaeological finds have been made of early Christian symbols such as thefish, the anchor and various forms of christograms — thefirst letters of Jesus Christ in Greek superimposed on one if it gets people so riled? nd: Whydoesit get people so riled? is exposing yourself to ridicule. It's easy to mock thereligious beEvery time a religious strip runs, Newcombe says, the syndicate gets hundreds of letters. and torture,” said Father Je- Somearecritical, but most, he rome Murphy-O’Connor, a says, are from approving Christians, To understand why Hart does it, Newcombe says, you have to meet Johnny: He is humble and filled with love. Pope Enters Top 10° Speaking of Catholics, Pope John PaulII entered the “Top 10” of longest pontificates in early April. At 20 years and five months, the pope dis- Placed Pope Leo III, who reigned from 795 to 816. By the end of 1999, Pope John Paul will move into the No. 7 spot, surpassing Popes Syvlester I, Urban VIII and Leo I the Great. The longest pontificate was the 31-year reign of Pius IX, from 1846 to 1878. — Catholic News Service o Refuses Blind Woman Ride A Muslim cab driver in Cincinnati refused to pick up a blind womanandher guide dog on religious grounds, and nowthe city must issue a deci- sion. Federal and state laws guarantee guide dogs access to all public places and vehicles, but the First Amendment protects religious freedom. A complaint was filed in February by Annie McEachrin against Hassan Taher. McEachrin,blind since birth, , has a constant companion, a black Lab named Jessica Taher, whoadheresstrictly to Islamiclaw, sayshis religion considers dogs impure. — The Associated Press says, because its message is simple: Be good. Worship Jesus. Avoid Hell. Hart values simplicity. He is married to his wife, Bobby, for long. Hart says he cannot understand why some readers — and some newspapereditors — get so angry at his religious messages when all heis trying to do is impart to the world The Truth as he knowsit to e. It's that simple, he says. The Doonesbury Effect: Daniel Polsbyis a lawprofessor at Northwestern University. He teaches the First Amendment. He is Jewish. He doesn’t believe in But he thinks Hart is a hero for free cept Jesus will burn in Hell. Homosexuality is the handi- tions the strip “Doonesbury.” “A lot of people who love it work ofSatan. America was founded as a Christian nation, and should re- main one. The country’s moral decline began the day that prayer in the public schools was outlawed. The end of the world is approaching, maybe by the year 2010. And: Johnny Hart is going straight to heaven. Hart is 68, looks a decade younger, with tousled silver-white hair and a mildly bemused expression On this dayhe is working alonein a studio the size of an amphithe- ater. It is out in the country, 20 miles east of his native Bingham- ton, N.Y. His studio has an atrium with a 30-foot ceiling, thickly paneled walls, two pool tables, a piano, a liberalintellectualelite. He men- when Garry Trudeaudoesit with his religion, which happens to be the secular religion of politics, can’t stand it when Johnny Hart doesit with his religion.”” Trudeau almost never speaks for the record. But he said he would bewilling to look at some of Hart's religious cartoons. He read them. Laughed. “Pleasetell me this is not controversial,” he said. “What's the problem — that, God forbid, JohnnyHartstill believes in God? Theseare good. “What's important is that he still honorshis first professional cue nae which is to entertain. Welcome to All? acre lake, which Hart owns. His ed. immigrants, were scornful of us even though we rescued their nary man. Who happenedto speak to 100 million people everysingle day. cated. He began drinking high- UneasyAlliance: Humor and “We are a nation of immigrants,” he said coming crunch, crunch, crunch of eggshells. Johnny Hart sometimes treads like a man walking on eggshells with hobnail boots. Perhaps the most cryptic and controversial strip Hart ever beginning, hesays, it helped him. He became less inhibited. But the drinking soon got out of hand. Material goods, and having fun, became overwhelmingly impor- drew appeared in newspapers April 19, 1998. Peter the caveman etches a message on a stone tablet and tant to him. In 1977, he spent a fortune to buy this house and studio, and found himself shuffling around a giant compound, fabulously wealthy, and unhappy. casts it out to sea, where it will presumably be read bya distant civilization. The message reads: “Over here, we are changing our Local cable TV could not reach statue in the harborto read, ‘Give meyourlying, worthless trash./ past the lake, and so he needed a satellite dish. The installers were Your sleazy scum who cheat born-again Christians. They kept the TVs tuned to religious stations. Hart began watching. Bit by and steal/ who see our faith as balderdash/ bit, he decided this was The and sin with vulgar zeal.’ Hourslater, a reply comesfloating into shore. It reads: “A dysfunctional country! Ha! I doan bleeb it! You theenk you are unique, do you? You lousy, steenking, racist pig of a Yankee Truth. Hart sees the thumbprint of Godin all of this. There are coincidences he cannot otherwise explain, not the least of whichis the nameof the town to which he had moved.It is called Nineveh In the Bible, God orders Jonah infidel!” That wastheentirestrip. to warn peopleto repent theirevil Muslimssawit as anti-Arab, becauseit used the word “infidel.” ways or be destroyed. Instead, Jo- nah flees. God finds him, saves him from the whale. And so, Jo- Nearly everyone whowrote a letter thought it xenophobic, a con- nah heads for a city and delivers a brief, terrifying sermon on the need to repent. The Prcple heed people. Hartsaid heregretted the language of the final panel, the use of vulgar dialect. He apologized, if anyone was offended. religion do not easily intersect. Religion entails faith, and humor frequently relies on skepticism and doubt. In this tricky arena, demnation of immigrants. Hart was forced to write a lengthy ex- Pause. You can almost hear the on- “The only thing I object to is when they comeover hereillegal- ly and havea child so the mother and father can get on, ah . Hart gropesfor the word. Welfare? “Yes, welfare.” New Project: These days Hart has a new project, something Big. He wants to drawan elaborate cartoon, a mural, rendered as a time line, with various overlays, explaining the meaning of life. Hart says he should befinished with this project by now, but he keepsgetting distracted. Hart says he knows whythis is happening. It is that when someonetries to do God's work, heis “inviting a lot of aggravation bySatan.” The Devil is distracting him. “You know.” he says suddenly. “There is not an end to the overlays. There'd haveto be one on all the prophecies and the fulfillmentsof them,and onbloodsacrifices He looks away, lost in thought “Maybe,” Hartsays, slowly, “it can't be done. This thought startles him. “Damn,” he says. ‘‘There’s Satan again.” Py “herch Religious of Science Ockwood Village Center se saat fa a (265-8601 “Sitting In The Fire” Rev. Sue Spencer Hart once thought they did, but li has since changed his mind. He brandishes his leather-bound child to be baptized into the sa) No Neanderthals? No. Since Darwin is l a ie.” ‘TheBible is an oasisofsanity in research among nonactive members of the Church of Nursery Care: 10:30 am AA Comenunity Church The Episcopal Church Welcomes You For complete information on weekday and other Sunday services, please call the numbers listed below. His FAMILYv CHURCH fhe od onee re ‘rumo Se Ba f he suntey 3004 Little tare1030. Ra (9800 5.) A new Foursquare ° =! 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Entering its 18th year, ICSis accepting applications, for the 99/00 schoolyear, pre-school through grade 12. Join us to learn more about quality Christian Education in Salt Lake Call 942.8811 for more information, t bbhitd 968-2751 Church of The Resurrection 92 Bast Pages Center Ur“eioi 1700 South 1700 East Deer Valley (ovita row to wore wth The charen §=—487-7576 Worat ae &901100 Susyat 90 Scrose' om “Breath Of Hope” as cu Rev. David A. Henry heBeOwed A. envy ev. 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Behrend Intergenerational Service: 10: R ieligious Education aod Nursery care: 9:00 am 10:15 am & 11:00 am 12:15 pm All s Church 1710 Foothill Drive Salt Lake City, UT 84108 Sunday Holy Eucharist 6:00 am, 10.00 am A& 6:00 pm Scotland found an “over- Tri fooetn) Tern Worship, Sunday Schoo! & which means that he believes the wordsof the Bible areliterally the word of God, not metaphors, not parables, but the literal truth. Early fundamentalist Bible scholars, working backward from the roughlyat 4004 B.C. First Congregational Church Free. Liberal & Democratic family Bible, generously annotated in the margins. baptized church member for a — Religion News Service other countries, the source of our But how? He wasjust an ordi- municating with his dead mother. Life, says Hart, became compli- Thecartoon was not a condem- nation of immigrants, Hart explained, but of ourselves. The final panel, he said, showed that sus jeopardyunless they embrace Je- he said, he believed he was com- cate Website. It was contrite, though it fell short of a full-scale apology. warn people that their souls arein daily, for her to be cured. It didn’t work. “I got mad at God,” Hart says quietly. He strayed from Christian faith. Dabbled with reincarnation. Dabbled with Ouija boards. Once, with cancer. Hart prayed to God, planation on the Creators Syndi- Cavemen have been very good the Creation, Hart says, man has existed as man. There were no forebears. ‘No species ever evolved into another species,” he welcome’infuriated most of veh, N.Y., to urge repentance, to after his mother, only 52, fell ill to JohnnyHart. Even though they never exist- Gospels, placed the Creation those attending from the pe was no signal moment, Hart says, of his religious conversion. He had always been a Christian, but mislaid his faith in the early 1960s house is a quarter-mile down the road, which he also owns. It is all part of a 150-acreestate. assembly of the Church of Scotland, which meets May 814 in Edinburgh,that there whelming desire” for the denomination to baptize anyone who asked, ‘The very idea of children being rejected by a church that proclaims toall its It took a few years, but Hart eventually became convinced that God gave him a second chance. too. That God sent him to Nine- Religious Conversion: There SOUTH VALLEY \ UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY equipment. There is a panoramic picture windowoverlookinga 25- should be no changein the rule set up in 1963 requiring that at least one parent be a Protestant denomination. But That town was Nineveh. ATTEND THE CHURCH OF YOUR CHOICE drum set, a bar and exercise “Tam literalist,” he says, A working groupset up two years ago has concluded in its report to this year’s general [= him, confess their sins, wear sackcloth and are spared. hestarting drawing “B.C.” In the speech. Polsby thinks the issue is about the intoleranceof one religion for another. And the tyranny of the Jews and Muslims who don’t ac- If he wants to stimulate people into thinking about the nature of faith, more power to him.” balls at 10 a.m. every day, just as Johnny Hart has been talking amiably for six hours. His voiceis gentle, almosttimid. He says: o riphery,” said thereport. But the Bible cures this, Hart the divinity of Jesus. Cavemen Never Existed: Se) too many choices. He despairs. nearly50 years. He has known his chief gag-writing assistant since high school, and his Wizard collaborator, Brant Parker, just as liever.” tureelectric chair.” — Catholic News Service material world fills a man with not big on change. He has been another — butthe cross does would be like wearing a minia- a confusing world, Hart says. The “Johnnyis the most controver- not appear until the fifth century. “The cross at the time was being used for crucifixion New Testamentscholar. “To wearit around one’s neck os. | says Richard S. Newcombe, president of Creators Syndicate, which distributes “B.C.” “Johnnyis also the most courageous person on the comics pages. To be outspoken on the subject of Christianity sial person on the comics pages,” —_ Worship Gam & Church Schoo! 10rtihem “t Just Saw Jesus” Rev Bteve Reinert “ oe Severn Dey Advertet Crnsun er y 9000 Bevin352-0700 Sy mererene Fe Foe be om 6 1 om Ouch kteo fa Sete e ee |
