How Johnny Hart the cartoonist became a Christian

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Johnny Hart, cartoonist (February 18, 1931 to April 7, 2007)
Johnny Hart, cartoonist author of the cartoon strip, BC. and co creator of the Wizrd of ID.
His syndicated cartoon are seen in at least 1300 newspapers,

This is from an interview with Johnny Hart in July 1997: "When I was a kid, my mom and dad were C&E Christians -- they didn't go to church except on Christmas and Easter. But they made sure I went to Sunday school. I was fascinated by the stories in the Bible, without actually having read them. But I always believed in Jesus--that he died and was resurrected, and that he is in heaven."

Years later, we moved to this property -- about 150 acres outside of Nineveh, New York--God sent me to Nineveh. The property has a 30-acre lake on it--it's like a Shangri-la. The woods are full of rhododendrons and all kinds of flowers--a beautiful place. There was no television out here. There were some local channels, but we were used to having the whole schmear -- HBO, ESPN and all that good stuff. We got along without them for a while. Finally, my wife and I bought a satellite TV system. A father-and-son team came out to install it -- and it turned out they were born-again Christians.

We had several TV sets, so every room I went into, these guys would have Christian TV on. I'd go into one room and see D. James Kennedy. I'd go into another room and see the PTL Club or another preacher. I began to sit and watch and listen, and pretty soon I got hooked on it. I began to read the Bible, to realize it was the Word of God, to find out that Jesus died to take away our sins, to learn about salvation and grace and all this fantastic stuff.

Once I got all that down in my heart, then all of the wonder, the doubt, the fear and the unknowing just dissolved into understanding and peace. I know why I'm here and what I'm doing and where I'm going andxx who's going to get me.

So I prayed for my wife, Bobby, to want to go to church. One Sunday morning she came popping into the room and said, "You wanna go to church?"

We went to a Presbyterian church over in Nineveh, New York - a little country church with a membership of about 80. But the kicker is, it has 55 kids--a thriving youth group. It's a good, caring church, and nice people. We became members, and elders, and now we teach Sunday school--we do the whole thing."

His Palm Sunday 1996 strip featuring the famous character Wiley sitting against a tree, tablet in hand, writing a poem entitled “The Suffering Prince.” Here’s the poem:

Picture yourself tied to a tree,
condemned of the sins of eternity.
Then picture a spear, parting the air,
seeking your heart to cut your despair.
Suddenly—a knight, in armor of white,
stands in the gap betwixt you and its flight,
And shedding his ‘armor of God’ for you—
bears the lance that runs him through.
His heart has been pierced that yours may beat,
and the blood of his corpse washes your feet.
Picture yourself in raiment white,
cleansed by the blood of the lifeless knight.
Never to mourn,
the prince who was downed,
For he is not lost! It is you who are found.