Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 13, 2023

Isn’t that a small price to pay for your friendship?

A lot of the gods are have alleged to threaten that through their mouthpieces. The middlemen who collect the money and power over the idiots who believe in all these non existent deities.

A LITTLE worried?

Rev, have the good grace to just decline and bow out. This charade of trying to have it both ways demeans you both.

These days just about anyone can perform weddings. (See: Universal Life Church) No doubt Zonker would be glad to do it.

I believe there are rumors that Jesus was himself intimate with a couple of his (male) disciples.

Anyone know for sure??

the idea of Valhalla awaiting me after an honestly enjoyable military career seems to be a lot more believable when viewed objectively.

For him or them, or both?

Awww. Well, so much for that friendship. Hope you think it was worth it, Scot.

“The fighting young priest that can talk to the young.” LOL

“Matthew 24: 24 24 For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and they shall give great tokens and wonders [and they shall give great signs and wonders]; so that also the chosen be led into error, if it may be done.” GOD is. Jesus. The Holy Spirit is. Those folks working solely for gold and not GOD are one of the many signs Jesus knew what he was talking about. Matthew 25:31-46 Authorized (King James) Version 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Anyone who turns their back on the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the jailbird, the stranger and who says they have Jesus in their heart clearly has not.

End of the day, that’s what drives homophobes: The possibility of something that will never happen because of their own broken moral compass.

The Rev should thank Mark for giving him this chance to challenge himself and to grow.

I wonder if the Devil has created the I Voted For Trump room.

Guess I was wrong, he is Catholic, the hair threw me.

And would these same preachers have problems marrying people they knew to be unrepentant alcoholics? Gamblers? Wife-beaters?

I hope you get just as worked up when asked to perform second marriages… or marry people with tattoos…

It’s funny. I remember most of the rerun story lines, but this one took me by surprise. I thought Scot was a typical liberal college chaplain (certainly not Catholic), and even in 1999 I would’ve expected him to be OK with same-sex marriage, even if it wasn’t technically legal back then.

Hey Rev, is that shirt cotton/wool blend? If so, you’re already going to the warm place! Sorry.

Not getting invited to dinner at Mark’s house isn’t worth the price of eternal darnation.

Jesus roamed the land with 12 guys and a woman of ill repute. I doubt He would worry about it preacher!!

Isn’t the deal that, if you pray for forgiveness, God, well, forgives you, so the “sin” ceases to be relevant? See, that makes me wonder about why the Catholic Church collectively worries so much about violating confession (regarding pedophiles and others) because, hey, ask God to forgive you violating confession and everything’s dandy. Uh, right? :-|

If a person fears eternal dam-nation, I’m thinking taking a hard pass is not unreasonable.

Fortunately we’ve come a little farther. At least some of us.

I’m an agnostic but I was raised in a religion that didn’t do afterlife. That was one of the features I liked about it.

All you can ask of him is respect and trust in return. Rev is entitled to his own beliefs and feelings. I support gay rights, (some of my best ex-wives are lesbian) but I don’t support gay wrongs. (Trite but true).

I should, perhaps, mention that I’m not too crazy about “flaming heterosexuals”. :)

Why do both of them keep switching the phone from one side to the other??

First off, I’m don’t care one way or the other. However, Mark’s attitude is the reason that there is so much pushback today. His absolutist position alienates people like Scot who have a few doubts, but not going oppose the idea. That absolutism simply pushes doubters to the opposite absolutist position. Whatever happened to allowing other people to be wrong?