A Collection of Curiously Christian Comics
Rarely do I find time to re-read books, but these 85 pages zoom by so fast, I’ve re-read this little book multiple times—and honestly, I wouldn’t mind reading it again.
Before picking up this book of Christian comics from PaperbackSwap, I’d never heard of Adam4d.com—probably because I never read comics online. The same went for TheOdd1sOut.com and TheOatmeal.com, though now that I think of it, maybe I would enjoy reading some comics online…or at least following them on Instagram. Eh, I’ll save that for another day. I’ve got enough distractions going on already.
And that brings me to my first favorite comic in this collection: “Don’t Waste Your internet” (21-25). The comics in this book aren’t necessarily “ha-ha,” laugh-out-loud comics, though some are pretty funny. They’re more poignant declarations of the stupidity that abounds in our modern churches. “Don’t Waste Your Internet” describes that vast world of knowledge available at our fingertips that makes ours the most potentially-blessed generation in history, and yet we tend to waste it completely on distractions and inanity. The artist/elephant leaves us with a challenge, “What are you doing with it, Christian?” And it’s a sobering question, because the answer will generally be, “Not enough.”
The humor in this book shares a lane with that March-17th favorite, Lutheran Satire, which you should check out if you’ve never seen it. Even us non-Lutherans enjoy catching their videos from time to time and learning some history along the way.
This book is also slightly prophetic, as we see in “Coming Church Trends” (38-39). Adam4d is reading the times, and he suggests that the pendulum’s bound to swing away from the coolness of Reformed Theology and skinny jeans to the apathy of Arminianism and JNCOs. While the majority of us likely hope the pendulum just stops dead in the middle, we know it won’t, so we need to prepare for the worst. And oh, we rue the day!
My overall favorite comic in the bunch is “Good News: We Are Not David” (61-67; photo), in which the author attacks the poor exegetical trend of over-allegorizing the Bible and placing ourselves at the center of each story. “Like David, God will enable us to slay the giants in our lives!” we’re often told by the Joel Osteens of the world. In reality, David is a type of Christ, for it was Jesus who defeated the “giant” of sin and provided victory for the people (us). He writes:
If we try to make ourselves into the hero of the story, we set ourselves up for epic, frequent, egregious disappointment. (64)
I’ve spoken at length of this failure elsewhere (see for example my review of The Miracle of the Scarlet Thread), so I won’t belabor the point. I’ll simply say that this comic attacks the problem from another, humorous angle, and I loved it.
Adam4d quotes John Piper in the final pages to note that repeating the same old truths in new, creative ways can help both the creator and the reader understand these truths better. That’s what happens with this short book. I really enjoyed it.
©2024 E.T.
Elliot's Blog 