Some Advice for Jamie Stiehm

Full disclosure:
I'm not a Catholic. I'm a Methodist...we're way removed from those Catholic types because we got excommunicated from the Anglican Church over several disagreements of which ordaining ministers in the rebellious 13 colonies was the final straw...though a strong strain of what would later be called Disestablishmentarianism probably did not help. I mention this for two reasons....

First: I have for years tried to work the word  antidisestablishmentarianism into a post and the above mention of its polar opposite is probably the closest I'll ever get.
 
Second: For the purposes of this post I need to assure my readers that that as far as I'm concerned  them thar Catholics are all infidels and I am not being manipulated, threatened or brainwashed by papist puppeteers.

US News &World Report is publishing Chick Tracts without art.

I'm afraid this is just poor form.

There's good analysis of this unpleasant development  here, and here, but in both cases it does not actually touch on the lack of illustrations. This is a major problem.


Allow me to explain:

Jamie Stiehm, you've made a fundamental error that is inhibiting your ability to spread your message.


If your opinion piece contains paragraphs like...

  Catholics in high places of power have the most trouble, I've noticed, practicing the separation of church and state. The pugnacious Catholic Justice, Antonin Scalia, is the most aggressive offender on the Court, but not the only one. Of course, we can't know for sure what Sotomayor was thinking, but it seems she has joined the ranks of the five Republican Catholic men on the John Roberts Court in showing a clear religious bias when it comes to women's rights and liberties. We can no longer be silent about this. Thomas Jefferson, the principal champion of the separation between state and church, was thinking particularly of pernicious Rome in his writings. He deeply distrusted the narrowness of Vatican hegemony.

...then your target audience is composed mostly of a bunch of Know Nothings with two digit IQs.

Now there are certainly some communist leaning, intellectuals who are on the same page as you ...but they don't need to be persuaded.They aren't your target audience...they're your cheer-leading squad. 

The people you're trying to PERSUADE are those who don't already believe this crap. Unfortunately for you, it is likely that most of them are actually going to be pretty horrified by talking points that would not be out of place at a KKK rally, so you've got to go for the ones that don't read history, preferably those who don't read much at all.

Now don't despair! Keep in mind that it is not generally appreciated nowadays just how vitriolic and pernicious anti-Catholic bigotry was in the 19th and early 20th century, or how that Kennedy's election was seen as nearly as big a step forward as Obama's with regard to equal opportunity...So you've got that bit of ignorance going for you.

However,  there is a fine line between this and those who don't read at ALL, because it's hard to convey ideas to true illiterates in print and anyway, they probably don't have drivers licenses...so you need to aim just a BIT higher.

I suggest that your happy medium is is best reached by comics.

Look, here is someone saying exactly what you are and reaching the ignorant mountebanks you need to persuade...

See how easy that was? Just take out "Satanic" to preserve your secular bonifides and you may want to do something about that flag reference so you don't get dis-invited to the dinner parties, but in general, Thomas Nast is your friend...and mentor.

Here's someone else who can probably help you out. Mr. Chick is still breathing and he may even be hiring. He pretty much agrees with you that those damn papal puppets cannot be trusted anywhere near the halls of power. He believes a lot of other things too, but if you're going to set as a precedent singling out a group and barring them from public office then,,,well...why stop there? You can always control any prairie fire you light since you have the match..right?

At least your publisher has your back.

Anyway, I hope this helps....

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_{This, perhaps, ought not to be under the fold...it isn't strictly about politics...or religion for that matter, at least it ought not to be...not in the US I grew up in. Religious freedom and freedom of speech are foundational principals of this Republic going back before the Constitution, or the Articles of Confederation to people like William Penn and Lord Baltimore... I don't see this being partisan...and yet...}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:06 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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