Debates over the place of religion in campus and community discourse continued Monday evening as the Navigators Christian Fellowship at Dartmouth discussed a recent comic strip caricature of Jesus.
The caricature, which Paul Heintz '06 drew as part of his "Guy and Fellow" comic strip in The Dartmouth, portrayed Jesus as a marijuana smoker and Student Body President Noah Riner '06 as a crusading theocrat in the wake of his Convocation speech.
Riner's numerous invocations of Jesus during his Convocation remarks bewildered and offended some members of the Class of 2009 and prompted the resignation of a high-ranking Student Assembly official.
In a routine meeting Monday, Navigators officers responded to Heintz's comic. Their reactions ranged from emotional criticism to casual dismissal.
Betsy Lucas '06 expressed her personal offense at what she saw as the irreverent tone of Heintz's cartoon.
"If someone who you think saves you and is responsible for your creation -- when he's insulted -- it's understandable that you would feel disrespected," Lucas said.
Some members of the Navigators, however, noted that Jesus shares certain "hippie" values.
"I tend to agree with the author Don Miller when he says that hippies have a lot figured out because they love each other and they love nature, probably more than a lot of Christians," Allison Smith '06 said.
"We don't know if Jesus would have smoked pot -- he's not here right now, and we weren't there," Smith added.
While some members respected the idea of a liberal, modern Jesus, the officers present agreed that Heintz did not present the idea appropriately.
"We'd be the last people to say, like, 'censor the comics,' but there's a wit to sarcasm or humor or satire that was lacking in Paul's comment," Brittany Pheiffer '06 said.
Although the Navigators have not organized an official response to the comic strip's portrayal of Jesus, one member, Bruce Gago '05, sent BlitzMail messages to many Christians on campus encouraging them to write letters to The Dartmouth in protest.
Heintz later drew a follow-up comic strip, which appeared Monday in The Dartmouth, that depicted the comic's titular characters holding hands with Jesus, Buddha and several other religious figures under the caption, "Can't we all get along?"
"I was deeply offended by Noah's choice to use his matriculation speech to give a sermon to the '09 class about his own personal religious beliefs," Heintz said in a statement to The Dartmouth. "My comic was clearly not meant to offend but rather to satirize a controversial campus event. I think that anybody who is familiar with 'Guy and Fellow' understood my message."
Heintz's comic strip, "Guy and Fellow," stars two stick-figure protagonists and features guest appearances from various campus and national celebrities, often represented by cutout photographs. The comic strip has developed a reputation for its offensive and shocking brand of humor.
"Guy and Fellow" fan Amanda Dobbins '06 said the asinine nature of "Guy and Fellow" should defuse any controversial statements in the cartoon.
"It's two stick figures saying incredibly insane and ridiculous comments to Photoshopped heads on other stick figures," Dobbins said. "When you take the tone, it was a fair, sarcastic and ironic, but fair, response to something that I imagine Paul was offended by."
