Geoff Brown, the editor of the Chicago Tribune comics pages, finds more and more questionable material in the cartoons he screens. "I have seen… a decided tilt toward the outrageous—risqué images and language, name-calling disguised as political satire, oodles of toilet humor and several attempts to slip in a certain curse word and a certain racial epithet" (Bill Eichenberger, "Filtering the Funnies," The Columbus Dispatch, April 4, 2006).

Such humor is inappropriate and especially influential in a negative way for young children who are often drawn to the comics because of the pictures and bright colors. But they aren't the only ones impacted negatively.

In the daily business of guarding our minds, everyone is at risk from all directions, including the cartoon page. The Bible warns against empty laughter and coarse jesting (Ecclesiastes 7:4-6; Ephesians 5:4), and screening the comics in order to avoid inappropriate humor is simply the action we must take to avoid degrading our values and attitudes.