this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2023
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The objective of the image is probably to say that religion saves a man from evil/breaking the law. Nothing else.
Ask a person with a larceny conviction under their belt which is more plausible: the existence of God or that they could ever get a job servicing ATMs with their record.
Then ask them if they're more likely to be hired for any job by a left-wing atheist or right-wing Christian.
Exactly, the last 2 panels wouldn't have happened. Freaking fluff piece..
Seriously. Getting any job with a criminal record is an incredible feat, but a bank letting someone who once robbed ATMs work as an ATM technician is so impossible it may as well be fantasy.
It's like Chick-Tracts with better art and somehow worse reasoning.
Pros: unlike Jack Chick, this guy also has moral comics with messages like "pushing religion on people is hurtful and bad", "judging people is a full-on sin", and "televangelists and their ilk are basically evil"
Cons: slightly creepy, young-earth creationist, nowhere near as much accidental comedy value as Chick Tracts
You can call it misplaced, unfunny, or naïve but I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it. Plenty of people in prison use religion as a means of self-improvement and then wrench themselves back onto the straight path after their release.
(I feel that if I don't say "an equal number of people use religion as a justification for evil deeds" someone will mention it. Religion doesn't make you a good person in itself. It's your actions that decide that and religion is a means to that.)
and this comic is directly contradicting that. the implication is very much that finding religion saved that man. so, choose.
It can save people. I'm saying it doesn't always do that and occasionally it works the other way around. It is not a binary "yes" or "no".
But if we have the opportunity to trade a robber for an evangelist, then I'll take that trade any day. Robbers actively hurt society as their dayjob. Evangelists at most just talk and vote annoyingly (depending on your political views)
Basically my interpretation as well. There's also a bible verse in the bottom right corner. If you look it up it talks about one's face being changed when they find God, which is why his former partner in crime doesn't recognize him. I think the comic is also trying to explain the "changing your face" thing is metaphorical. His face didn't change, his attitude and life did.