An Ill Wind

Here's a local issue cartoon — or at least it was when I drew it. Since then, I've seen the story reported on international media and late-night chat show monologues. By the time you read this, it'll probably have its own page on Wikipedia.

Samantha Kuffel, 31, was one of the on-air meteorologists at Milwaukee's CBS affiliate, WDJT-58. But right-wing professional umbrage-takers raised a ruckus after she posted on Instagram about Elon Musk's Nazi salute from the podium bearing the presidential seal at Donald Trump's inauguration festivities. 

Was it? Neo-nazis think so. Judge for yourself.

It cost her her job.

"Meteorologist Sam Kuffel is no longer employed at CBS58," said the staff memo from news director Jessie Garcia that was obtained by the Journal Sentinel. "A search for a replacement is underway."

A spokeswoman for Weigel Broadcasting Co. confirmed via email late Wednesday that Kuffel was no longer with Channel 58. But the spokeswoman said she couldn't comment further because this was a personnel issue.

On Tuesday, conservative radio host Dan O'Donnell sharply criticized Kuffel for her two Instagram posts, accusing her of "spreading the lie that Elon Musk was giving a Nazi salute" during the presidential inauguration. He labeled her posts "vulgar."

Was she fired for daring to speak up against the rising tide of fascism in this country? Did Channel 58 worry that viewers wouldn't be able to trust her impartiality when it comes to what percentage chance there is of precipitation or how to calculate wind chill?

Kuffel gave management every excuse to let her go. The Guardian quotes the employment-terminating unexpurgated Instagram posts:

“Dude Nazi saluted twice. Twice. During the inauguration. You fuck with this and this man, I don’t fuck with you. Full stop.”

In her second post, Kuffel appeared to post a screenshot of a scene from the FX sitcom It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia in which Rob McElhenney’s character Mac says: “Screw that old bitch. He’s a Nazi.”

Don't go looking for Kuffel's Instagram account now; it's been deactivated.

Those of us in the media, if we want to hang onto our jobs, have to be judicious in how we speak in public. I can cuss a blue streak at my computer; but on-line, restraint is the rule. Quoting other people is one thing; but in cartoons and here on the blog, 

Bad language or abuse
I never ever use
Whatever the emergency.
Though "Bother it!" I may
Occasionally say,
I never use a big, big "D."

No, never.

Well, hardly ever.

Finally, Sam — can I call you that? You local TV news people try so hard to be our friends I feel that I know you — Anyway, Sam, you have to keep in mind at all times that Trump and his MAGA minions are thin-skinned, easily butt-hurt snowflakes. 

Think what happened to you was unfair? Why, they even took offense at Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde and demanded that the New Jersey-born cleric be deported for closing her sermon with this:

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. 

"There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. 

"I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. 

"May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen”

Not an F-word, or even a big, big D, in her whole sermon.

Q Toon: Walk Together

Last week, the Anglican Communion -- the church that broke off from Roman Catholicism so that Henry VIII could divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn -- voted to punish its American outlet, the Episcopalian Church. "Global South" Anglicans, particularly those in former British colonies in Africa, have been eager to expel the Episcopalian Church for its acceptance of marriage equality for same-sex couples (and for allowing an openly gay man to serve as bishop).

Nigeria alone has more Anglicans than the U.S., Canada and Great Britain combined. When Anglican leaders from the global South insisted on punishing the U.S. church for same-sex marriage, they had the votes to get most of what they wanted. A joint statement said U.S. church's policy on same-sex marriage represented a fundamental departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of the Anglican provinces.

The punishment, shutting the American church out of doctrinal meetings of the Anglican Communion for the next three years, was not enough for the Ugandan Primate, Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, who stalked out of the meeting. Ntagali had been pushing for a stronger resolution calling upon the American and Canadian churches to "voluntarily withdraw from the meeting and other Anglican Communion activities until they repented of their decisions that have torn the fabric of the Anglican Communion at its deepest level."

After the vote, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, issued a statement attempting to mitigate the schism.  “It’s a constant source of deep sadness that people are persecuted for their sexuality," he wrote. "I want to take this opportunity personally to say how sorry I am for the hurt and pain, in the past and present, that the church has caused and the love that we at times completely failed to show, and still do, in many parts of the world including in this country.”

As for the still divided church, Welby hopes that the primates will continue to "walk together," a phrase taken from Amos 3:3: "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (KJV)

The feelings of LGBT Christians aside, Giles Fraser in The Guardian takes a look at the bright side:

For three years the American church will be banned from various doctrinal and ecumenical meetings of the communion. Given that such meetings are about as interesting at watching paint dry, one might conclude that the Americans have been rewarded rather than punished.

Speaking of Gay Bishops

If the election of The Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin as bishop of the Southern California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America hasn't made the front page of your RSS feed, perhaps it's because we've been there before.

Here's a cartoon about what it was like ten years ago when the Episcopalians crossed that threshold:

Conservative Episcopalians had conniption fits (they're called Episconniptions) over Robinson's election, and several U.S. churches went so far as to break away and join the Nigerian Anglican Church.

The bishop received death threats, and was pointedly not invited to the 2008 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion. (This cartoon, however, was drawn three years earlier.)

He was invited to deliver an invocation at President Obama's first inaugural. If you didn't notice, it may be because he was omitted from the live broadcast on HBO and NPR and from the Presidential Inauguration Committee's official live blog.

Bishop V. Gene Robinson retired in January.

As for the Lutheran Church, before Bishop Erwin's election, The Rev. Eva Brunne was elected as Bishop of the Diocese of Stockholm, Sweden, in 2009. And of course, the Catholic Church had gay bishops long before Protestants got all worked up about theirs -- but I wasn't cartooning way back then.