Christofascist cartoonist Johnny Hart dead at 76

[Pab Sungenis]

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070408/NEWS01/70408001

I'm of mixed feelings. On one hand, I'm sad to see him go as I would be for the death of any human being. It's also a yet another tiny little bit of my childhood falling off the cliff into the sea; BC was one of my favorite strips growing up (I even bought the "Quest For Tires" videogame tie-in cartridge).

In recent years, however, BC had lost its appeal for me as Hart made humor take a backseat to proselytizing for his Evangelical Christian beliefs, and bashing and criticizing anyone and everyone who dared to disagree with him. The strip from a few years ago comparing Islam to an outhouse, for example, symbolized what I consider to be stepping over the line.

The real problem with his doing this with BC is not so much that he did it, but that he turned what had been an apolitical, family-friendly, humor strip into a political animal. This wasn't "Boondocks" or "Doonesbury" or "Mallard Fillmore," all of which came to the table with a clear political agenda; this was the equivalent of having Garfield lecture about banning abortion, or Hagar the Horrible advocating a socialist form of government. At best, it was subversive. At worst, it was fraud; Hart signed contracts with papers and a syndicate to deliver harmless humor, and ended up delivering political screeds.

I'm also torn in what I want to see happen from here. Usually, I'd say let the feature die and make room on the comics page for something fresh and new, but I'd almost like to see the syndicate step in and hand BC off to someone new, who will rescue it from the preachiness that had belabored it in recent years, and once more make it all about the funny.

Rest in peace in the hands of your God, Johnny Hart. May he forgive you for the way your actions and behavior alienated others from his teachings.

©2007 P. Sungenis, All Rights Reserved.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Good post.

Summarizes my feelings pretty. I loved BC when I was a kid. These days ... not so much.

[Maat]

4. Well-said. I read it when I was a kid also ..

but I confess I haven't read since then - so I don't even have an idea of what fundamentalist crud it became. I mean ... I take DUers word for it. I hope they just end the strip also - unless they return it to nonpolitical humorous fare.

On edit: may he rest in peace, ascending to a higher consciousness.

[uppityperson]

2. RIP JH, let BC die or change it back the way it was. Good writing pabsungenis

RIP to all who died recently, we all will get there eventually. That said, I truly hope they either stop BC or change it back to the way it was before it became the funamentalist crap it became.

Edited to add today's strip.



And last weeks

[ClintonTyree]

6. That's a comic strip?

:eyes: About as funny as a turd in a punchbowl.....I wonder how many papers carried his strip after he started pushing his religion?

[uppityperson]

7. Granted they are Easter and Palm Sunday ones, but they are rather peaceful

I haven't read it in the last yr or so because they started getting really nasty. I mean, Family Circus is creepy, Filmore Mallard political bs, but BC just got nasty fundamentalist type "anyone who thinks differently should get stoned" sort of stuff.

[Madspirit]

87. "I mean, Family Circus is creepy,"

Family Circus is creepy and not funny and Bil Keene is...I guess, judging from his strip...conservative but he does have a sense of humor personally.

My girlfriend's best friend's husband used to write underground comic books. In one of them he had a little strip making fun of Billy, one of the children in Family Circus because Billy only had one nostril...<g> Bil Keene found out about the comic and sent our friend an autographed picture of Billy with three nostrils...<g> It's funny.
Lee

[Pab Sungenis]

62. He had somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,300

...compared with 2,500 currently carrying "Garfield" and 2,620 that were carrying "Peanuts" on the day of Schultz' passing.

And just because we don't find something funny doesn't mean it isn't. However, I doubt he was trying to be funny in the posted strips. He still had the capability of humor in his later years, as the "ants and the wheel" strip posted below demonstrates.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. That's truly sad to see ... I used to enjoy BC and Wizard of Id.

Seems more appropriate to the times!

[BearSquirrel2]

18. What is funny ...

What is funny about B.C. is that the title kinda completely undermines Harts topic. Apparently Hart's Cavemen are all prophets. It's kinda appropriate hat people who cannot sort the age of dinosaurs from the age of man can consider conversations of Christ before he even came.

B.C. BEFORE CHRIST!!!!!!!

[uppityperson]

23. You mean there weren't dinos and cavemen AD?

[Swamp Rat]

27. Of course there are 'AD' dinos and cavemen: The GOP.

Solly Mack from this weeks DUzy Awards:

"... and then one day a T-Rex accidentally ate Bam-Bam, causing Pebbles to go berserk and kill off all the dinosaurs."

:rofl:

[youthere]

77. I guess those cavemen were "preparing the way". LOL!

[demobabe]

3. He was a beautiful and gracious man

He wrote what he believed. I am sad to hear the news.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[uppityperson]

11. That is what he believed.

Those who didn't hold to his standard should be persecuted, at the least. I don't care what anyone's beliefs or religion is, so long as it does not promote hatred and intolerance. He did write and draw what he believed.

[demobabe]

16. Well, we just learned something about you...

Hate isn't going to take us anywhere in this world except in the kinds of situations we're trying to get out of right now.

[seriousstan]

25. If you just learned it you haven't been paying attention.

He always strikes me as a person talking into a mirror.

[uppityperson]

34. remembering back to the DU time of "superblock/ignore".

[Ian David]

68. Not hate. Rightous anger against those who have abused us for the past six years.

It sure beats being a chronic victim.

[donco6]

50. Nothing beautiful about bigots, IMO.

According to him, me and all my kind are destined for an eternity in fiery torment because we don't love people of the opposite sex. What in hell is beautiful about that?

Plus, once he went fundy, his stip lost all its charm and humor. That's the real tragedy here.

[Pab Sungenis]

54. "what he believed"

He wrote what he believed. I am sad to hear the news.

Here's another quote for you.

"Men who wear their faith on their sleeves wear it not in their hearts. Their faith is so weak and fragile that they believe that it will fade away unless they scream it at the top of their lungs at all times. They have taken the saving Cross of Christ and turned it into a bloody club to crush those who disagree with them. They claim to have chosen Christ, but along with the crowd in the square, have shown that they prefer Barabbas the killer to the saving Grace of the Lord."

-- Me.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

85. What he believed was ugly as hell.

I'm not sad to hear the news.

No big loss.

[Ezlivin]

5. Let the strip die - do not "regenerate" it with a new artist

I agree with Bill Watterson (artist of Calvin & Hobbes) on this one.

Comic strips have a natural lifetime and any cartoonist ought to be able to quit or retire without fear that his syndicate will hire some hack illustrator to keep the work going. It's time syndicates stopped maiming their comic strips by passing them on to official plagiarists. It's also time that the would-be successors of comic strips had more respect for their own talents and for the work of those who created something original. If someone wants to be a cartoonist, let's see him develop his own strip instead of taking over the duties of someone else's. We've got too many comic strip corpses being propped up and passed for living by new cartoonists who ought to be doing something of their own. If a cartoonist isn't good enough to make it on his own work, he has no business being in the newspaper. From "The Cheapening of the Comics"

There are many talented artists out there that need their shot at the papers. How else will we ever "discover" the next Peanuts or Calvin & Hobbes?

[Pab Sungenis]

76. Latest news: they're going to continue it

...but not with a new artist. They're going to white out his dialogue from old strips, re-date them, and put in new jokes.

Rumor has it that's what he's been doing for a few years, anyhow.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[donco6]

51. I'd even pay for that one. n/t

[Ian David]

65. Remember the outhouse cartoon?

The one where he compared Islam to an outhouse and said, "It stinks in here"?

Here's how I envision his memorial cartoon. It would be a single-frame picture of that rock the caveman always sits on. It would have the cartoonist's epitaph written on it. In front of it, would be a little mound of dirt and a single daisy. And a speech bubble would would be coming up from the grave, saying, "It's HOT in here!!!"

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. Your feelings echo mine

I liked the early BC, and am glad I quit getting a paper and reading it just before it got preachy. If you read Mort Walker's "Backstage At the Strips", which, if memory serves, came out in the '80s, he talked of Hart and his crew drawing and creating the strip after an all night bout of drinking. I wonder if Mr. Hart's conversion made him stop drinking, and turned a wryly funny strip into a preachy one.
BTW, congratulations on syndication of your own wonderful strip!

[ComerPerro]

13. I want to see cartoonists publish, in his honor, a series of cartoons

describing what a right wing jerkoff he was.

I think he would appreicate it, no? LMAO

[demobabe]

14. He was well respected among cartoonists

Sure there was controversy among cartoonists over his religious strips, but he was well respected among cartoonists. I wouldn't be surprised if they did a cartoon tribute to him. The times I've been around him and talked to him at cartoonist events, he was a kind and gracious person - fun to be around, not some zealot bent on selling me religion.

One thing nobody is saying on this thread is exactly HOW restrictive newspaper editor are, just about to the point that the newspaper comics aren't worth reading. Fine if Johnny Hart wants to draw religious cartoons. That's where his heart is. If you don't like it, don't read it.

But cut Hart out of the comics, and then we should cut out the Trudeaus, and McGruders, etc...

We need more tolerance from both the right and the left. This world is just getting screwball.

[Pab Sungenis]

19. A few points.

You missed what I said. My main problem is that Johnny Hart used an already-established platform for his proselytizing, where Trudeau, McGruder, Tinsley, and others, never denied that their features were political in nature. If he had decided to create a new feature for his religious stories, that would have been his privilege, and publishers would have been able to go into it with their eyes open. Repurposing an existing feature like "BC" for religious purposes is, in my opinion, wrong.

All the positive stories I've read about Johnny Hart date from before his "conversion." In recent years he'd become just short of a nutball in his intolerance. Like so many other Christofascists, he was all for his own freedom of speech but against other people's. He felt that he was correct, and thus everyone else was wrong and shouldn't be tolerated.

I never called for his feature to be pulled, but now that it's at a crossroads, we'll need to see where it goes. Unlike most features today, BC is owned by its syndicate, and it's not up to Hart's family what happens from here. Creators Syndicate has the right to bring on a new artist and writer, and keep the strip going, or end it. The right thing would be, in my opinion, to end it, but if they do decide to keep it going, I'd like to see it go back to its neutral roots. No politics, no religion, just humor.

One interesting thing to note here: Hart had made it known he was gunning for a World Record, the longest time continuously writing and drawing the same feature. He's not going to get it. The record, at 55 years, stays in the hands of Ernie ("Nancy") Bushmiller.

[demobabe]

26. A few points back atcha...

The last time I saw Hart in 2001 at a convention at the World Trade Center, he couldn't have been nicer. Perhaps he changed since then, but the guy was in his 70s - people can change dramatically in their last few years if you catch my drift.

But as for comic strips being repurposed, BC was the creation of Johnny Hart, so how could he repurpose it?

It was his strip, his platform, and had he gone whacko enough off one end, the newspapers would have canceled it, or the editors pulled it. If you didn't like it anymore, that's fine, but there is no "should be" as to how a comic strip is drawn. It is a product of it's creator. The market determines the success or failure of a comic strip.

It's interesting you bring up Nancy. That strip wasn't even Bushmiller's creation! You talk about repurposing a strip - Nancy - or actually Fritzi Ritz, was about a wild flapper girl who changed boyfriends as frequently as she changed hats. Fritzi was a wild woman. Nancy was kind of added in as a character around the time Little Orphan Annie was big, and the strip was eventually renamed with her as the star!

Additionally, the award for longest running cartoonist continually writing and drawing a feature actually goes to Australian artist Jim Russell, who drew The Potts. He died in 2001.

:)

[Pab Sungenis]

47. Thank you for the clarification on Jim Russell.

Ernie Bushmiller drew "Fritzi Ritz" and "Nancy" for 55 years. How long is Russell's record?

Even with Nancy supplanting Fritzi Ritz (just as Snuffy Smith supplanted Barney Google in his strip), the tone and attitude of the strip stayed the same. It stayed a gag-a-day humor strip. Johnny Hart took a humor comic strip and turned it into a ministry. That's a marked transformation.

Did he have a right to do that? I don't deny it.

Was he right to do it? I think not.

His interviews and comments since his "conversion" were truly remarkable. Comics expert and columnist Mark Evanier once dismissed Hart's denials of antisemitism in the strip by noting how many times Hart said that all Jews were condemned to Hell.

Oh, well. As I said, I hope he's finally found peace and true understanding. And I've chosen to honor him in my own strip tomorrow. No matter what he became, he did still provide decades of entertainment. It's too bad his later intolerance overshadowed his previous work.

[Blue_Tires]

55. well done

when i was a kid i loved reading all of my dad's old BC and wizard of id books from the 70s--hard to believe it morphed into the same strip today..

[demobabe]

69. Fun comic history stuff

Russell did his Potts feature for 62 years! Pretty amazing even though most Americans haven't heard of him.



As for Ernie Bushmiller, he TOOK OVER Fritzi Ritz from Larry Whittington, who had drawn the strip for about three years. And the tone MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT STAY THE SAME!

Check out old Fritzi Ritz strips! You won't believe it. She was a wild woman - nothing like the "Aunt Fritzi" she became to Nancy - the non-descript woman who would poke her face into a strip once in a while with some distraught expression over something Nancy had done.

http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/features/fritzi/fritzi.asp

No, what Ernie Bushmiller did with the strip was a complete 180 - a complete repurposing of the strip.

Johnny Hart created B.C. - nobody else. He was solely responsible for the strip's content, and like many other cartoonists, changed over the years. Yes, what he did was more dramatic, and maybe you didn't like it (I wasn't fond of his religious strips, either), but it was his strip to do with what he wanted. Editors tolerated it, else it would have been gone. They certainly have no qualms about pulling an offending Doonesbury or even a Cathy once in a while.

Even Charles Schulz's work changed dramatically in tone over the years. The later strips were nothing like the early ones...

Cartoons are commercial art ultimately, and while they have the forum, cartoonists will draw what they can - if there isn't a market, then their views are automatically censored. Fair? Right? What in life is, fellow cartoonist friend?

;)

Was wondering, did you ever meet Johnny Hart?

[WhollyHeretic]

22. The man was a bigot

[demobabe]

28. Is this strip supposed to be proof of bigotry?

I've seen more "bigotry" against Johnny Hart's beliefs here on this thread...

I don't hold the same religious viewpoints as Hart. But tell me, what makes your viewpoint so much more valid than his? Do you believe he shouldn't have been able to express his religious viewpoints in his strip?

[WhollyHeretic]

29. You don't see the anti-semitism in that cartoon?

:eyes:

[demobabe]

32. Yes, Jews don't worship Jesus. Christians do.

Are Jews bigots for not worshipping Jesus?

So Johnny Hart believes Christianity is right, and Judaism is wrong. A Christian proselytizing. Who woulda thunk? Christians never do that.

[WhollyHeretic]

37. It's a menorah burning away into a cross

Including the words "Forgive them: They know not what they do" over a menorah. The anti-semetism is pretty clear.

:eyes:

I guess you don't care about his misogyny either

[michreject]

43. I thought a menorah had nine arms....nt

[WhollyHeretic]

48. "I wanted everyone to see the cross in the Menorah.

It was a revelation to me, that tied God's chosen people to their spiritual next of kin—the disciples of the Risen Christ." -Johnny Hart

http://www.bluecorncomics.com/unfunny.htm

[uppityperson]

44. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do" is 1 of the last "words"

Each of these 7 statements are the last 7 things Jesus is supposed to have said. They are known as the Last Words. You will find them in all sorts of songs, plays, movies, etc. "Forgive them" is aimed towards the Romans that were killing him, nothing to do with semitism.

[demobabe]

71. Right, I see that...

If you go ask a Christian whether the Jews got religion right, they're going to say no. Vice versa, if you go ask a Jew if they accept Jesus as their Lord, they're going to look at you a bit funny at the least.

There is a reason we have more than one religion...

Surely this isn't the first time you've seen someone (or a religious figure) come out and say another religion has got it all wrong, and how we must pray for them or forgive them or whatever...

Johnny Hart wasn't burning Jews in ovens. He was spreading his Christian viewpoint as he interpreted it, ie, proselytizing.

Do I want a sermon in my comic strip? No, not really. I'd just read another strip.

Just how much do you want to censor cartoons? They've already been boiled down to the equivalent of flavorless oatmeal as far as humor and content goes. Look at the Fritzi Ritz I posted in #69. That probably would be considered misandry by today's (and your) standards.

What I really don't care for is political correctness bull. It's paralyzed our culture and removed the creativity from it. Everybody is second guessing and worried about offending others all the time that we never get to the point. It sucks.

[WhollyHeretic]

72. I said absolutely nothing about censorship

Please point out where I did...

Sorry if you liked the bigot but don't make crap up.

[WhollyHeretic]

73. And gee! You pull out the right-wing "political correctness" meme

What a surprise!!! :wow:

[Pab Sungenis]

75. There's no censorship involved.

No one was arguing that Johnny Hart shouldn't have the right to say what he wanted. There was no censorship involved.

Some papers didn't like the new direction and dropped it. I'm sure some also picked it up when it descended into jackchickery. That was their right, whichever way they went.

His syndicate never sought to pull strips or cancel his contract. Granted, Creators' Syndicate is rather right wing (full disclosure: my own strip is going to be distributed by their main competition) but I've never heard of them giving anyone trouble about what they do or say.

I may question the propriety of him masquerading religious tracts as a family-friendly comic strip, but I never said he didn't have the right to do it.

[LeftishBrit]

82. I may be naive...

but I interpret that cartoon as implying the change from the religion of the Old to the New Testament; of the older religion of Judaism morphing, through the life and death of the Jewish Messiah Christ, into the newer religion of Christianity.

Not at all a message to my taste; but not anti-semitic in the strict sense, though it does imply that Christianity is a superior religion to Judaism. But I don't think it's intended to portray the Jews as an evil Christ-killing race. I may be naive here; but I'm generally pretty quick to jump down hard on anything that I do perceive as truly anti-semitic, and I don't quite see this here.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

86. Hart taunted McGruder over his race, publically.

At a cartoonists convention.

I seriously doubt he was that well respected.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

66. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

15. I didn't like that his strip jumped off the RW/fundie bridge, but all the same, the guy died. I'm

not sure calling him a Christofascist in the thread title announcing his death was necessary but whatever.

[Yukari Yakumo]

17. Me thoughts...

Part of me feels bad he's dead, while the rest is glad no more of that trash named BC will ever be made.

[demobabe]

21. That depends on syndicate contracts and the cartoonist's wishes

I don't know what Hart's contract was with Creators Syndicate or whether he specified that no further cartoons be made after his death. It is possible Hart's estate may want to continue the strip and will find an artist.

When Charles Schulz died, he specifically made it clear that no further strips be created, so that's why we see reruns now. His death didn't slow down the marketing of Peanuts one bit.

[Swamp Rat]

20. Bye bye Johnny Hart!

:hi:

[GliderGuider]

30. My momma told me to only say good about the dead.

"Good".

[Swamp Rat]

31. My momma taught me to be honest and speak my mind.

I have nothing to say about Johnny Hart other than I liked his cartoons when I was very young, and I give my condolences to his family.

[Gabi Hayes]

40. really! WTF is going on here? are we going to be so filled with endearment for the following,

when they start burrowing their way to the eternal BBQ pit:

Kissinger

Rumsfeld

Perle

Cheney

bin Laden

Ledeen

Feith

Coulter

Chalabi

can't wait

[Swamp Rat]

41. Not me!!!

:evilgrin:

[spoony]

57. Endearment =/ decency

I assume all of you call yourselves liberals, which is supposed to mean that we recognise the value of each human. Even if you hate them, their deaths should not be on your wish list, nor your party planning calendar.

[Gabi Hayes]

70. no.....it doesn't! decency means ....decency! can you figure that out?

as I said, will you be 'decent' in recalling the lives of the people on the list I provided?

will you say that binLaden, on his death, was a swell guy, with a large, loving family, and that we should wait a "decent" (there's that word again!) amount of time before discussing the TRUTH about him?

would you have waited a "decent" amount of time after Hitler's death, because he was nice to his dog?

jesus

get real, friend

being liberal does NOT mean being an ostrich

[Pab Sungenis]

60. He was a human, and his passing lessens us all.

...as does every person's passing. Yet, his death not not diminish his ill works.

The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar.

[NormanYorkstein]

24. fraud? That's a bit much

the worst than can be said was that his strips weren't funny. This reminds me of the "uproar" when For Better of Worse had a gay character. It's a comic strip!

[tuvor]

35. I thought he was a bit of a dink from early on, before the whole Christian thing.

The names for his only two female characters, "Fat Broad" and "Hot Chick," always left a bad taste in my mouth, even as a youngster.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

53. Same here

Though I thought it was Cute Chick, not Hot Chick. But it was definitely Fat Broad. It never endeared me to his work.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

39. I guess I didn't understand his damn cartoon enough to know what was going on

I'll take my sexism straight up, like in "Beetle Bailey".

[UTUSN]

42. Really???!!1 Well, he reached his limit--both mentally AND mortally. n/t

[LuckyTheDog]

45. My grandmother loved B.C.

I never paid much attention to it. But if it Hart made my grandmother smile, then he gets credit for that.

[Tyo]

46. We and he have all passed on to a better world n/t

[will_in_chicago]

49. Some thoughts on B.C..

I liked B.C. as a kid, but I was not aware of the direction that it took in more recent years. While I can feel sorry for a man's family, it seems that Hart did not have much respect for beliefs other than his own. I am personally offended about the menorah in the same way that I think a Christian would be offended by an image of Jesus on the cross accompanied by a message castigating Christianity.

[Kelly Rupert]

52. May he rest in peace.

He brought joy to millions in the first part of his career. And, regardless of my feelings in the matter, I'm certain he thought he was doing the right thing in the second.

[Name removed]

56. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pab Sungenis]

59. How is discussing his later intolerance and bigotry

"pissing on his grave?" I don't deny his genius, or his early work, but what he became (and reduced his strip to) in later years is abominable.

He took one of the greatest gag strips in history, and brought it (on a regular basis) down to the level of jackchickian screeds.

[LuckyTheDog]

61. OK, I would not be as strident

But I get your point. It was a comic strip. And the man had every right to express his views. I also had every right to mostly ignore the strip -- which I did, mainly because I didn't think it was funny most of the time.

And like I said earlier, my grandmother liked the strip a lot. And anyone who made my grandmother smile couldn't have been all bad.

[Name removed]

67. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nicknameless]

58. I hadn't read his strips in years, so I didn't know about his shift to the reich.

But, I can easily imagine that he could have gotten a frightening health diagnosis and then tried turning to religion before his death.
Given what has become of fundy xtianity these days, maybe his strips just reflected that dismal reality ... and maybe some senility as well.

[LuckyTheDog]

63. My grandfather did that

When my grand-dad saw the handwriting on the wall, so to speak, he turned to a fairly fundamentalist Baptist church. I never judged him for that. He was old and dying. So, whatever made that easier for him was cool with me.

[nicknameless]

74. I get the feeling that's probably pretty common.

[mwb970]

64. I'm tired of skipping over his religious crap when I read the comics.

I'm sorry for the guy's family, but I found his excessively "Christian" "humor" to be cloying, sappy, and extremely annoying.

Hopefully they will just pull the stupid strip from the paper instead of running it forever like they do with Peanuts, which deserves the respect.

[Sammy Pepys]

78. "Christofascist"?

WTF?

[Pab Sungenis]

79. Fascist in Christian clothing. Dominionist.

One who uses their alleged Christianity as an excuse to bash those they disagree with.

[FormerDem06]

80. So can I start using Atheiofacists too?

I, a christian, have suddenly become a magnet for Atheists who wish to force their beliefs down my throat and belittle and demean me for my beliefs (it's only happened once or twice on DU mind you, but at work and in my neighborhood there are two that would fit that bill).

I don't like Islamofacist either, and I think that sucks that people want to misuse the facist wording, but some of us more moderate Christians do take offense to "Christofacists".

A Christofacist Johnny Hart was not. He never once forced you or anyone else to read his strip. People did that of their own free will.

[Sammy Pepys]

81. That definition opens some major cans of worms...

Call him what you want, but I can't say that I agree with such casual use of the term "fascist."

[LeftishBrit]

84. I am a bit uncomfortable with over-extension of the term 'fascist'

However, I think that the term 'Christofascist', which I assume started as a reaction against the term 'Islamofascist', may be defensible when it refers to people who impose Christianity on others by law, or start wars in the name of Christ. But it is not IMO appropriate when used to refer to those who merely preach Christian views by speech, writings or, as here, cartoons.

[LeftishBrit]

83. RIP

I don't like the Christian proselytizing, and find some of his cartoons, especially those around every Christmas season, to be extremely embarrassing and at times somewhat offensive. But the best BC cartoons are absolutely superb, and have given me lots of enjoyment over the years.