Land Of This Guy

The recent announcement that the city will  no longer sponsor Bele Chere (a downtown street festival that has been around since 1979) affected people in different ways. Many locals have long derided the festival as no longer relevant to anything “local” and many local merchants closed down during it out of protest or necessity, many saying the traffic and crowds simply blocked them off from regular customers, rather than bring in any new ones.

However, a big source of consternation for many attendees have been the multiplying presence of (oftentimes out-of-town) street preachers who assemble—often assisted by voice amplification equipment—to preach to (and some would say, instigate confrontations with) what they consider a sinful populace, needing the salvation of their particular religious belief system. (I’m feeling particularly parenthetical today, apparently.) This cartoon, therefore, examines the idea of those same traveling megaphone wielders looking for new sinners to chastise/save.

(The sole use of Biblical laws from the Leviticus passages—even though such laws are now claimed to be nullified by some believers—were a slight reference to their continued use as a Biblical reason to regard homosexuality as anything but an abomination and deny any legal protection or acceptance for it. Although, I know there are those who have justifications for the seemingly hypocritical practice of following some Leviticus laws, but not others, I can’t address all arguments and make everyone happy, even with five whole panels to fill up.)