LNH/META: Self-Righteous Preacher

martinphipps2 at yahoo.com martinphipps2 at yahoo.com
Fri Jun 2 09:10:54 PDT 2006


Tom Russell wrote:
> >From an exchange in CUTE ANNA CRYPT LOOTER # 6--
>
> >  Self-Righteous Preacher went over to
> > speak to Master Blaster.  "You never
> > said you were Catholic," he said.
> >  "You didn't ask."
> >  "Why don't you ever attend my services?"
>
> -- it's implied that Self-Righteous Preacher is, himself, Catholic.
> I've always seen him more on the American Religious Right-- that whole
> Protestant/Southern Baptist/Tent Revival tradition which, at times, can
> be down-right distrustful of the Catholic Church (though not as much
> recently).  And, you know, he is Self-Righteous Preacher, not
> Self-Righteous Deacon or Self-Righteous Father.
>
> Are there any other stories I might be missing where SRP's denomination
> is specified or implied?  Basically, the story I have in mind has him
> meeting either the Pope or an Archangel (both of which I think have
> equal comic potential), and the question of Catholic/Protestant is the
> one that would tip it one way or the other.

I can clear this up right now. :)

Having wrote the above exchange myself, I don't see how it implies that
SRP is Catholic.  After all, most of the members of the LNH would not
be Catholic but SRP would expect them to come to his services too.  I
imagine he is regularly disappointed that nobody (as far as I know) in
the LNH wants to attend his services.

Now, I suppose it could be argued that if Master Blaster is Catholic
then he would NOT want to attend SRP if they were protestant services
and that Master Blaster could, in fact, attend Catholic services
elsewhere in Net.ropolis if that were what he wanted to do.  Presumably
SRP knows (or assumes) that Master Blaster isn't attending any church
services.  (He could, for example, have seen Master Blaster hanging
around LNH HQ on a Sunday.)  So SRP's point is that, if Master Blaster
wanted to, he could attend his services.  SRP would say it was good for
his soul.

Now, mind you, now that you mention it, I have heard highly religious
Protestant people (ironically) speak unfavorably about Catholics.  What
isn't clear is what SRP's own opinion is.  Is a Catholic no better than
a heathen to him?  Perhaps.  But what would be the point of denouncing
Master Blaster's Catholicism when, up to this point, he had regarded
Master Blaster as a God-less heathen?  He may simply feel that he has
something to work with, that Master Blaster may yet be saved.  And, of
course, by this point Master Blaster is married with a baby so there
might be some concern as to how the baby is raised.

By the same token, I don't mean to imply that Master Blaster is deeply
religious.  On the other hand, his religious background would set him
apart from Sarcastic Lad who, of course, would be a devout atheist.
Catholic guilt is part of one's Catholic upbringing and has nothing to
do with whether or not you actually believe in God.  Thus, I find it
plausible that Master Blaster would marry a pregnant Sister
State-the-Obvious.  Remember, Master Blaster is based on a real-life
poster on rec.arts.comics: he's not a sex automaton.  He should be
expected to behave like a real person would.  Sarcastic Lad, on the
other hand, doesn't behave like a real person but rather he behaves the
way Gary St. Lawrence wrote him.  This is not a criticism of Gary St.
Lawrence's writing, just an observation that there is not a lot of
depth to that character.

Anyway, the upshot is that SRP probably isn't Catholic (as you point
out).  In fact, given that wReam created him, I would guess that he
(like wReam) is a Mormon.  (Hence wReam's joke about Late Night Lad
injecting himself with caffeine as if it were an illicit drug.)  SRP
was, as you already guessed, created based on wReam's own reaction to
the Woody scandal.  SRP is, therefore, effectively yet another of
wReam's WCs.  (There was an early Ultimate Ninja story in which
Ultimate Ninja assumed the role of Deductive Logic Man to solve a
mystery but then wReam listed Deductive Logic Man as a separate
character in the roster.)

So, no, it doesn't look as though SRP is Catholic.  But he could still
meet the Pope.  The two men would probably find a lot of common ground.
 I don't know if it would make a good story though.  Doesn't a good
story need conflict?  Maybe it'd be a good idea to make SRP a Catholic
hating Protestant after all. :)

Martin




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