SASKATOON, SK—A cartoon depicting Jesus engaging in a sex act with a character labelled “capitalist piglet” is causing controversy on the University of Saskatchewan campus and beyond.
The university’s student newspaper The Sheaf published the cartoon one week after its editors declared they would not offend Muslims by printing cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
Editor-in-chief Will Robbins resigned after receiving many complaints and watching contributing writers quit in protest. He told the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix that layout staff had been directed not to print the cartoon but it went to press anyway because of an “editorial oversight and mistake.”
The Sheaf’s board of directors accepted Robbins’ resignation days after it was tendered. In a news release the board said the cartoon “is not consistent with The Sheaf’s objectives,” but “the decisions to accept Robbins resignation was based primarily on his failure to carry out his duties diligently.”
The university and its student union have since issued statements acknowledging that printing the article was a mistake. The newspaper’s editorial staff also published a retraction of the cartoon apologizing to students in the following issue.
That issue also featured 24 letters to the editor on the topic.
“If Jesus loves you, he probably does so enough to take a joke. After all, he did die for us,” wrote Jeff MacDonald, the artist who drew the cartoon. In another letter, a student told the editors to “get ready to go straight to hell for blaspheming the son of God!”
Many Christian students took their concerns to on-campus ministries.
“Students called and asked what they should do about it. Some just wanted to talk to get their feelings off their chest,” says Brent Trickett, Campus Crusade for Christ’s staff director at the university. “Many students were very hurt and offended by the cartoon.”
Nathan Miller, student president of the campus chapter of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, says Christian students should be thoughtful in their responses and mindful of others’ needs.
“Currently on campus some of those who are most in need of love and compassion are those who are associated with The Sheaf and its production.”
Other ministries from across Saskatoon are struggling with how to react.
“In my first viewing of the cartoon, my reaction was one of disgust. I can’t think of any softer, nicer way of putting it than that,” says Len Bachiu, Church of the Nazarene pastor and district director for the Canadian Bible Society.
“There probably ought to be some sort of disciplinary action. If the university is satisfied that it won’t happen again, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to extend some grace, but you can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”
The Catholic Civil Rights League issued a news release saying the cartoon’s publication was “too typical of the double standard that prevails in most media when it comes to insulting and demeaning depictions of Chr
