Liz Rosema grew up in a nice Protestant cult and only set her face on fire that one time. She draws cartoons and sticks them on the internet here.
30 Comments
OrganizeInternet+27
OMG we go to the same church! Love me some Sunday crosswords and coffee. I wouldn’t mind Queen of Heaven joining too 🙂
I always enjoy your work — the facial expressions, how the words grow or shrink or twist… Thank you!!
daisymerolling+45
brb, crying I FEEL THIS SO MUCH I’m trying not to be a lapsed Catholic but man…college is tough.
AlmondTort+28
Many hugs. I am a practicing bi Catholic, and it is ROUGH.
nicole_44+3
OMG HI! *solidarity hugs*
sausagedog+39
Every time one of your comics go up, I start reading it thinking “oh, this is interesting/relatable” and finish it blinking back tears. These are so good.
blizzard+23
Thank you so much. I am so glad I had the chance to write these for the Toast and I’m so happy when people identify with them!
celtadri+13
Oh, I love this one.
suzynjackson+45
One time (at band camp – no, actually, on the bus), this girl tried to recruit me into a bible study group, and I started going on about how I think the bible is such an incredible work of *literature* and she shut up and left me alone.
Yes, I was the girl who wanted to turn my (Canadian, Anglican) confirmation class into a comparative religion class, because how could I confirm before I knew what my choices were?
And yet, I find great comfort in my local (Maryland) incredibly diverse and welcoming Episcopalian church. I bring all my theater training to the lesson readings (I prefer King James, but we rarely get it), and once a (lady) Bishop complimented me.
suzynjackson+32
Oh, oh! I just remembered another detail from that confirmation class!! We were supposed to come up with a list of adjectives to describe Jesus. Everyone had “loving, giving” – my contribution was “demanding.” The class leader seemed a bit taken aback, until I pointed out that he required his followers to *give away all their possessions.* He couldn’t deny it!
meat lord+25
As an atheist queer with a very thorny and yet….oddly appreciative… relationship with religion and spirituality, this speaks to me. Thanks.
(Especially timely as I’m trying to have an actual dialogue about queer stuff with an old friend who’s turned out to be alarmingly devout.)
notebook-keeper+6
oh I love this one and relate to so much of it! I grew up Catholic, somehow got into an evangelical group for a few years in college, and am now nothing really.
RudyRed+16
I was raised Episcopalian, and I do draw a certain amount of comfort from its rituals (and those of Catholicism), even though I definitely don’t believe in Jesus Christ. It’s an interesting conundrum.
Fancy_Pants+29
True desire of a woman’s heart…something something PRINCESS in a CASTLE (!?!?)
ughhhhhhhhhhhhh
whollyword+35
I know, right? I am a bi cis woman who varies between 1920s Alice B. Toklas and Back-country Hiker. The true desire of my heart is to live an integrated life and figure out how to use my skills toward a better world. Maybe I’ll wake up some day and realize I’ve been deluding myself into thinking I want to be useful, and what I really want is a tiara. I would be pretty surprised.
The church I grew up in spent much more time on “In Christ there is no east or west, no Jew or gentile, no male or female” than on texts about rigid gender roles– my mom is a pastor and has a sort of 1970s soft butch thing going on, and can’t read texts on female submission without making performative barfing noises. I think this probably made it easier for me to find a place within church as a person whose own aesthetic and presentation have changed over time.
Fancy_Pants+16
Ohhh *soft sigh of contentment*, your church sounds lovely. It’s nice to be reminded that those kinds of spaces exist.
“The true desire of my heart is to live an integrated life and figure out how to use my skills toward a better world.” Yup, that’s it right there (especially with some backcountry hiking thrown into the mix).
shucksmahoney+4
This is lovely!
Fancy_Pants+27
I had to comment on the princess thing first, but man oh man am I with you on prayer/worship being uncomfortably performative in some circles. I was in my early teens when I realized that I just don’t have the specific personality type required to belong to a certain type of church.
And then much later on I realized that it didn’t mean that something was wrong with me.
Mary+3
I started retreating from Catholicism way back in the late 60s when we had to “pass the peace” by greeting our pew neighbors. Too too much eye contact and smiling. Now I’m the pianist at a liberal Protestant church and I get to play a hymn while everyone else has to interact.
ladyknight27+18
Thank you for sharing this. It helps to see that other people struggle with the same things (the “prayer always felt performative” line really resonated with me).
LindaHyphen+17
“Prayer always felt performative” got to me, too. I grew up in a more liberal church, but I went to a Christian music camp (that turned out to be evangelical), and I lived with my evangelical aunt-in-law for awhile, and she took me to her Titus 2 women meetings, and that style of praying really unnerves me. I used to wonder why anyone would like the rote Catholic prayers, but in contrast to the performative evangelical ones, I see the appeal.
JGlows+8
Some of the Catholic prayers are pretty amazing, much better than most of the extemporaneous garbage a lot of Protestants come up with. The Breastplate of St. Patrick? Veni Sancte Spiritus? Those prayers actually believe in the power they are invoking. They sound like summoning spells. I love them.
iiiiimnotsorryy+24
I did actually manage to talk myself into believing that my deepest desire was the whole princess/castle thing. And thus, logically, the fact that no princes wanted to actually storm my castle meant that I was not only deeply unlovable but actually an UNWOMAN and… Well, let’s just say that took some getting over.
Unrelated:
whollyword+8
Yeah, I had a fight with my father years ago about how our denomination took power differentials- and how they affect consent- so seriously that a pastor who dated someone in their congregation would lose their job. (I like that we take this seriously! It is a check against one particularly damaging abuse of power.) “So why,” I asked him, “do you think a 14-year-old can be said to have consented to God? There really isn’t a bigger power differential than that.”
He told me I was being ahistorical.
I told him I thought being a human trumped being a historicist. I told him that I didn’t really believe he thought God was small and petty enough to be explained or constrained by the societies in which God acts.
It was a deeply unsatisfying conversation, because my father is more committed to practicing a particular method of biblical scholarship than he is to listening to the concerns of humans who are in the room with him. Had he said, “Yeah, there have been times I also felt let down by church / God, despite how important these things are to me,” we would probably be a lot closer than we are.
In some ways I am grateful to have had two parents who are (very different) ordained ministers, so I could experience both being alienated *and* welcomed within the same faith tradition. But it also made me feel like there might be some situations in which my father might not have my back- he has never been as good at differentiating between his pastoral role and his parental one as my mom is- and that was painful.
whereszoenow+8
I’m still a Christian (Evangelical even…) but oh my goodness thank you for this. So very very real.
threeforgirls+5
I appreciate this so so so so so much, having grown up in a Catholic cult where performative worship/prayer was expected (and demanded/forced at times) and highly gendered and–yeah, all of your comic, basically. It’s amazing what sticks with you; there are plenty of odd moments where I find myself saying a Hail Mary or the St. Michael prayer, despite being an atheist now.
jennycieplak+11
WOAH. I have never heard the princess/castle thing in relation to religion. It reminds me of the South Park episode where Cartman was trying to become a Christian pop singer and just took regular love songs and added Jesus into them.
Also, I am piling in on the love for that last picture. I always feel like Mary is very relatable. Aside – I went to Catholic U, and it’s right where the Basilica in DC is, and the Basilica is actually decorated with all of these different chapels where Mary is depicted by different cultures. I think it’s really beautiful and shows her as being open to everybody.
champagnewastoblame
WOAH. I have never heard the princess/castle thing in relation to religion. It reminds me of the South Park episode where Cartman was trying to become a Christian pop singer and just took regular love songs and added Jesus into them.
Also, I am piling in on the love for that last picture. I always feel like Mary is very relatable. Aside – I went to Catholic U, and it's right where the Basilica in DC is, and the Basilica is actually decorated with all of these different chapels where Mary is depicted by different cultures. I think it's really beautiful and shows her as being open to everybody.
JGlows+10
I LOVE THIS AND I LOVE YOU!!!!
I guess I am a fucked up lady from the standpoint of these gender clowns because they want me to be some helpless princess and I’m reeeeaally more of a Deborah, in that I am pissed and Judgy and get shit done, and a Phoebe in that I am gonna be a deacon and get shit done. But why bother with examining the ways in which women actually in the text subvert gender roles and get shit done when you can superimpose some essentialist bullshit and erase what actually makes the stories worth examining? The wimmenz might get the idea that God wants them to live up to their full potential, and we can’t have that!! BLARRRRGH END RANT.
Rhi
This is utterly fantastic and I want to give it to everyone I had to go to church with as a child.
OMG we go to the same church! Love me some Sunday crosswords and coffee. I wouldn’t mind Queen of Heaven joining too 🙂
I always enjoy your work — the facial expressions, how the words grow or shrink or twist… Thank you!!
brb, crying
I FEEL THIS SO MUCH
I’m trying not to be a lapsed Catholic but man…college is tough.
Many hugs. I am a practicing bi Catholic, and it is ROUGH.
OMG HI! *solidarity hugs*
Every time one of your comics go up, I start reading it thinking “oh, this is interesting/relatable” and finish it blinking back tears. These are so good.
Thank you so much.
I am so glad I had the chance to write these for the Toast and I’m so happy when people identify with them!
Oh, I love this one.
One time (at band camp – no, actually, on the bus), this girl tried to recruit me into a bible study group, and I started going on about how I think the bible is such an incredible work of *literature* and she shut up and left me alone.
Yes, I was the girl who wanted to turn my (Canadian, Anglican) confirmation class into a comparative religion class, because how could I confirm before I knew what my choices were?
And yet, I find great comfort in my local (Maryland) incredibly diverse and welcoming Episcopalian church. I bring all my theater training to the lesson readings (I prefer King James, but we rarely get it), and once a (lady) Bishop complimented me.
Oh, oh! I just remembered another detail from that confirmation class!! We were supposed to come up with a list of adjectives to describe Jesus. Everyone had “loving, giving” – my contribution was “demanding.” The class leader seemed a bit taken aback, until I pointed out that he required his followers to *give away all their possessions.* He couldn’t deny it!
As an atheist queer with a very thorny and yet….oddly appreciative… relationship with religion and spirituality, this speaks to me. Thanks.
(Especially timely as I’m trying to have an actual dialogue about queer stuff with an old friend who’s turned out to be alarmingly devout.)
oh I love this one and relate to so much of it! I grew up Catholic, somehow got into an evangelical group for a few years in college, and am now nothing really.
I was raised Episcopalian, and I do draw a certain amount of comfort from its rituals (and those of Catholicism), even though I definitely don’t believe in Jesus Christ. It’s an interesting conundrum.
True desire of a woman’s heart…something something PRINCESS in a CASTLE (!?!?)
ughhhhhhhhhhhhh
I know, right? I am a bi cis woman who varies between 1920s Alice B. Toklas and Back-country Hiker. The true desire of my heart is to live an integrated life and figure out how to use my skills toward a better world. Maybe I’ll wake up some day and realize I’ve been deluding myself into thinking I want to be useful, and what I really want is a tiara. I would be pretty surprised.
The church I grew up in spent much more time on “In Christ there is no east or west, no Jew or gentile, no male or female” than on texts about rigid gender roles– my mom is a pastor and has a sort of 1970s soft butch thing going on, and can’t read texts on female submission without making performative barfing noises. I think this probably made it easier for me to find a place within church as a person whose own aesthetic and presentation have changed over time.
Ohhh *soft sigh of contentment*, your church sounds lovely. It’s nice to be reminded that those kinds of spaces exist.
“The true desire of my heart is to live an integrated life and figure out how to use my skills toward a better world.” Yup, that’s it right there (especially with some backcountry hiking thrown into the mix).
This is lovely!
I had to comment on the princess thing first, but man oh man am I with you on prayer/worship being uncomfortably performative in some circles. I was in my early teens when I realized that I just don’t have the specific personality type required to belong to a certain type of church.
And then much later on I realized that it didn’t mean that something was wrong with me.
I started retreating from Catholicism way back in the late 60s when we had to “pass the peace” by greeting our pew neighbors. Too too much eye contact and smiling. Now I’m the pianist at a liberal Protestant church and I get to play a hymn while everyone else has to interact.
Thank you for sharing this. It helps to see that other people struggle with the same things (the “prayer always felt performative” line really resonated with me).
“Prayer always felt performative” got to me, too. I grew up in a more liberal church, but I went to a Christian music camp (that turned out to be evangelical), and I lived with my evangelical aunt-in-law for awhile, and she took me to her Titus 2 women meetings, and that style of praying really unnerves me. I used to wonder why anyone would like the rote Catholic prayers, but in contrast to the performative evangelical ones, I see the appeal.
Some of the Catholic prayers are pretty amazing, much better than most of the extemporaneous garbage a lot of Protestants come up with. The Breastplate of St. Patrick? Veni Sancte Spiritus? Those prayers actually believe in the power they are invoking. They sound like summoning spells. I love them.
I did actually manage to talk myself into believing that my deepest desire was the whole princess/castle thing. And thus, logically, the fact that no princes wanted to actually storm my castle meant that I was not only deeply unlovable but actually an UNWOMAN and… Well, let’s just say that took some getting over.
Unrelated:
Yeah, I had a fight with my father years ago about how our denomination took power differentials- and how they affect consent- so seriously that a pastor who dated someone in their congregation would lose their job. (I like that we take this seriously! It is a check against one particularly damaging abuse of power.) “So why,”
I asked him, “do you think a 14-year-old can be said to have consented to God? There really isn’t a bigger power differential than that.”
He told me I was being ahistorical.
I told him I thought being a human trumped being a historicist. I told him that I didn’t really believe he thought God was small and petty enough to be explained or constrained by the societies in which God acts.
It was a deeply unsatisfying conversation, because my father is more committed to practicing a particular method of biblical scholarship than he is to listening to the concerns of humans who are in the room with him. Had he said, “Yeah, there have been times I also felt let down by church / God, despite how important these things are to me,” we would probably be a lot closer than we are.
In some ways I am grateful to have had two parents who are (very different) ordained ministers, so I could experience both being alienated *and* welcomed within the same faith tradition. But it also made me feel like there might be some situations in which my father might not have my back- he has never been as good at differentiating between his pastoral role and his parental one as my mom is- and that was painful.
I’m still a Christian (Evangelical even…) but oh my goodness thank you for this. So very very real.
I appreciate this so so so so so much, having grown up in a Catholic cult where performative worship/prayer was expected (and demanded/forced at times) and highly gendered and–yeah, all of your comic, basically. It’s amazing what sticks with you; there are plenty of odd moments where I find myself saying a Hail Mary or the St. Michael prayer, despite being an atheist now.
WOAH. I have never heard the princess/castle thing in relation to religion. It reminds me of the South Park episode where Cartman was trying to become a Christian pop singer and just took regular love songs and added Jesus into them.
Also, I am piling in on the love for that last picture. I always feel like Mary is very relatable. Aside – I went to Catholic U, and it’s right where the Basilica in DC is, and the Basilica is actually decorated with all of these different chapels where Mary is depicted by different cultures. I think it’s really beautiful and shows her as being open to everybody.
WOAH. I have never heard the princess/castle thing in relation to religion. It reminds me of the South Park episode where Cartman was trying to become a Christian pop singer and just took regular love songs and added Jesus into them.
Also, I am piling in on the love for that last picture. I always feel like Mary is very relatable. Aside – I went to Catholic U, and it's right where the Basilica in DC is, and the Basilica is actually decorated with all of these different chapels where Mary is depicted by different cultures. I think it's really beautiful and shows her as being open to everybody.
I LOVE THIS AND I LOVE YOU!!!!
I guess I am a fucked up lady from the standpoint of these gender clowns because they want me to be some helpless princess and I’m reeeeaally more of a Deborah, in that I am pissed and Judgy and get shit done, and a Phoebe in that I am gonna be a deacon and get shit done. But why bother with examining the ways in which women actually in the text subvert gender roles and get shit done when you can superimpose some essentialist bullshit and erase what actually makes the stories worth examining? The wimmenz might get the idea that God wants them to live up to their full potential, and we can’t have that!! BLARRRRGH END RANT.
This is utterly fantastic and I want to give it to everyone I had to go to church with as a child.
Not that they would understand.
This is amazing, thank you.