Well, Bruce Tinsley and his Mallard Fillmore comic strip are at it again with the reference to Presbyterians. You may remember his previous reference a little over a year ago where he referred to “radical Presbyterians.” Rev. Ed has preserved that comic and he and I riffed on it a bit.
The comic strip from today and the reference to “rogue Presbyterians” is not so amenable to the discussion of Presbyterian polity so I only note it for the reference. (Then again, maybe it does fit the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria post I just finished — I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine if one side or the other is “rogue.”) In fact, it appears that the use of Presbyterian is simply to make the rhyme work in the limerick.
But I will also note the… what shall I call it? coincidence, irony, providence?… of being at work over my lunch hour on my previous post about Nigeria and Presbyterians only to have a phone call from my family alerting me to the fact that the comic strip had also made reference to both of those. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.
This is just on of the many “defenses” of Presbyterianism I’ve seen because of Mallard Fillmore. Why?
I think it’s obvious that both strips are pointing out the absurdity of what it perceives to be the media’s social agenda (“diversity above all else) by portraying an absurd and tongue-in-cheek claim from the personified media that perhaps radical or rogue Presbyterians are just as guilty of terror as Muslims.
The rather obvious point is not to attack Presbyterians, but to attack what the author sees as an absurd social agenda in the media.
I hardly think that necessitates a defense of Presbyterianism, so why are so many people doing it?
Well considering that conservative bent of Mallard Fillmore, I can guess who they’re calling rogue … !
On the one hand, I can see the use of Presbyterian here since it works with the rhyme of the limerick.
Now, maybe I am sensitized to it, but on another level I think I see Presbyterians used more frequently than other mainline denominations when a “token” mainstream religion is used in a cartoon or comic. I guess I’m trying to figure out what that means about our culture on a deeper level.
Or… I’m just over-interpreting.