Book review: Naked Pastor 101

Posted on Monday, August 22, 2011 in Book Reviews | 0 comments

by David Hayward

★★★★

This is David’s first collection of cartoons, 101 of them, and I hope many more follow. Cartoons just work! They help us laugh at ourselves, and then they help us think outside the box.  In a cartoon, serious topics can hide behind lighthearted drawings.

And David’s work is funny. LOL funny. As the Naked Pastor, he bares his soul (not his body, sorry) about problems in the Church … often, problems that result from rigid rules or non-acceptance or unfounded assumptions about the nature of God. Most are annotated with a bit of the thought process that went into their creation.

This book is in no way disrespectful to the Church. David  is an insider; he has completed masters in Theological Studies and in Ministry and Religion, and has been pastor of several churches over 25 years. That’s plenty of time for cartoonistic opinions to form, right? David admits that for this book he has purposefully chosen favorites among his less controversial drawings; rants against church vision and mission statements, and cartoons addressing the gay issue, have been omitted, so we may be drinking “Hayward light” at this time. Next time, David, lay it on us straight. We can take it.