This is a bad scan of a panel from the comic I did this weekend for the January issue of the Ann Arbor Paper. If you can’t read the quote, or tell who it is saying it from my not-quite photo-realistic portrait, it’s something from Thomas Jefferson. Here’s what he said:
“Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the ‘wall of separation between church and state,’ therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.”
Then, right across from it, in the comic, I reprint this 1985 quote from Chief Justice William Rehnquist, taken from the Dissenting Opinion in Wallace v. Jaffree:
“The ‘wall of separation between church and state’ is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.”
There’s lots of other stuff in the comic too, including references to the giant Jesus torso of Ohio, and the creationism museum, but this is how it ends.
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And I’ve just learned that, in spite of his health problems, Rehnquist is planning to stay on as Chief Justice. Perhaps it’s testament to just how fucked up things are in the US right now, but that news actually makes me happy. (If he leaves, I fear, Bush will bring in someone even worse.)
“If you leave, don’t leave now. Please don’t take my heart away.”
Are you ever planning on setting up something, somewhere that we can see the past comics that you’ve done at a readable resolution?
Also, “bad history”? Oh yeah, the dark ages when freedom reigned.
The Ann Arbor Paper posts them on their site, but they don’t look good. They’re too small. I keep thinking of publishing them in a book/zine of some sort, and maybe one day I’ll actually get around to it… Then again, I have quite a few projects that I never get around to.
-Mark
I can’t believe you haven’t gotten around to that. It’s completely safe, easy & fun to do!
Here’s a thought. Check out lulu.com. It’s an “on-demand” publishing place. Their prices seem reasonable and that way you don’t have a huge stash of unsold books on your hands. It’s how I plan on doing my first book (hahahah. whenever that is).
Thanks for the link, Collin… and the very funny “If you leave, don’t leave now” line).
Um. You’re welcome? (I can’t tell if the bit about the line was sarcasm…)
It wasn’t sarcasm, Collin. It was genuine. I didn’t get it at first, but, when I did, I laughed out-loud. It was much appreciated… Although, for the rest of the day, I pictured Rehnquist in a video for the song.