THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407080135
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Issues of Faith
SOURCE: Betsy Wright
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
SOMETIMES I write about an issue that touches a raw nerve and the readers just don't want to let it go. Such is the case in the now infamous BilKeane cartoon of a little girl holding her baby doll over a toilet bowl and saying, ``I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son, and into the hole you goes.''
The original cartoon ran June 9 in the comic section of The Virginian-Pilot, and the newspaper immediately got calls and letters branding it ``blasphemy'' and ``offensive.'' I wrote a column about it on June 25, basically telling folks to ``lighten up'' over the gently humorous cartoon.
Week-before-last's reader response was heavy, and when I walked into the office this week, there was much more of the same.
Your column of June 25,'' wrote an angry Margaret H. Newsom of Virginia Beach, ``is the height of bad taste in joking about the sacrament of baptism! As a devout Christian and a Baptist, I will desist in reading your column in the future and suggest that you find another vocation.''
Others - for the record, about three-to-one - felt just the opposite of Newsom.
Hooray for your column of June 25,'' wrote Wayne W. Ferguson of Virginia Beach. `` `The Family Circus' baptism cartoon was nothing more than a very sensitive peek into the mind of a child. . . . I believe Robert Frost's prayer sums it up nicely: `Dear Lord, forgive my little jokes on thee, and I will forgive thy great big jokes on me.' ''
Looking back on all this hubbub, I realize there are several issues involved here. One - the one I dealt with on June 25 - is the whole issue of humor and religion. It would be wonderful if there were some heavy black line dividing acceptable religious humor from sacrilege, but there's not. In reality, one person's delight is another person's blasphemy.
One of the best letters received this week touched on a second troubling aspect of this furor:
As a longtime admirer of Bil Keane's work, I can rest assured he is no acerbic anti-religionist,'' wrote Harry Brooks of Virginia Beach. ``In fact, Keane is downright reverent throughout his corpus of delightful and witty cartoons. . . . The childish perceptions of Deity and religious ritual held by young Billy, Dolly and P.J. can sometimes remind us adults of our own past notions.''
In a phone call earlier this week, I discussed the controversial cartoon with our newspapers' public editor, Lynn Feigenbaum. It seems that after she got negative feedback on the cartoon, Feigenbaum called Maria Carmicini, managing editor of King Features, which distributes the comic.
Feigenbaum said that Carmicini called Keane ``reverential and respectful of religion,'' adding that those who read him ``on a regular basis will know there was no disrespect intended.''
Feigenbaum also related a revealing anecdote told to her by Carmicini. It seems cartoonist Keane himself doubted the humor of the comic in question. One day a nun was visiting his studio and Keane showed her the cartoon. The nun thought it was hilarious, so he submitted it.
Later he had second thoughts, even going so far as to make another comic panel available to some newspapers. Feigenbam said The Virginian-Pilot either didn't receive that optional panel or received it too late for a change.
One more interesting thing. In talking with the folks at King Features, I discovered that we're the only paper in the country to have called with complaints on the comic strip in question. I'm not saying no one else was offended but simply that no other newspaper called the distributor about any such complaints.
I guess what bothered me most about all this controversy is not that some folks thought the cartoon was wrong. I can accept that, even though I strongly disagree.
What really got my goat is that many of the folks who Bil Keane seem to have never before seen ``The Family Circus.'' Based on this one ``baptism'' cartoon, many folks were willing to brand him anti-Christian. That's a ridiculous claim. It's also scary to me that folks are so easily willing to write off a long body of pro-Christian, pro-family work because of one panel that might or might not have been humorous.
Taking that one cartoon out of the context of the body of Keane's work and calling him anti-Christian is like pulling the story of Lot and his daughters out of the 19th Chapter of Genesis and claiming that the Bible advocates incest.
It just ain't so.
Hopefully, I've heard the last about this topic. Let's move on to other Issues of Faith next week.
P.S. Several readers wrote asking about copies of ``The Laughing Jesus'' portrait mentioned June 25. It can be purchased at Dolphin Tales, 2955 Virginia Beach Blvd., Va. Beach, Va. 23452, or call (804) 498-7909. A 10-cent prayer card and a poster for $2.25 are available. MEMO: Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her
opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,
150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510; call (804) 446-2273; FAX
(804) 436-2798; or send e-mail to bmw(AT)infi.net. Deadline is Tuesday
before publication. Must include name, city and phone number.
by CNB