Merkuri said:
It was so rediculous, I could've sworn it was satire until I realized there was no punchline. Then I saw the little "come back to Christ!" note at the bottom and gaped. I couldn't believe anyone nowadays could be THAT misinformed.
Hmm. I wouldn't have thought people could be so ignorant either, but then this happened to me:
I'm sitting in my boss' office at work, having poked my head in on my way out the door. This was a day or two after the school shooting in Montreal, which had really disturbed him--he has kids that age--and we'd been talking on and off about it all day. He went off on this tirade against "those weird goth kids", as the shooter had been a goth.
Now, to really get the irony here, allow me to put this in context for you: my boss is from a small rural community in Newfoundland, where he was married with two kids and very active in the church, until his mid-30's, when he came out as a closeted gay man. He left the church, left his wife, and moved across country to Toronto because it was more tolerant. "Live and let live" is a catch phrase I hear him use on an almost daily basis.
So when I quote this back to him, he screws up his face and says that he lives in fear of one his kids turning into "one of them".
"Scariest moment of my life was when my son asked for Dungeons & Dragons on his last birthday," he says. "We told him no way, he's not allowed to play it or hang out with anyone who does. Next thing we knew, he'd be bringing a sword to school and hacking people's heads off!"
My eyes kinda bug out of my head for a second, and then I start laughing, really hard. As he looks at me in confusion, I zip open my laptop bag, and pull out my copy of the PHB--I was on my way to DM a game at a friend's place right after work.
You never saw a man go so pale so fast. He stammered out an apology, and then made small talk with me about the game for a few minutes before I went home...but he's clearly been very nervous around me ever since...
So yeah, it's not just a comic strip: the attitude is still very much out there.