The cover of the April 17 New Yorker shows a crucified Easter Bunny on an IRS tax form. According to the artist, Art Spiegelman, the drawing was meant to show how conservatives view tax cuts as an “article of faith.”
Responding to the cover illustration is Dr. William A. Donohue, president of the
Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights:
“For the New Yorker to lambaste conservatives for treating tax cuts as a sacred entity is one thing, but it is quite another to play fast and loose with Christian symbols. The placement of a crucified Easter Bunny on an IRS tax form is insulting to Christians, and it is particularly outrageous that this should occur at the start of Holy Week. The New Yorker could have engaged in legitimate criticism of those pundits who treat tax cuts reverentially without simultaneously offending Christians. That it chose not to do so shows not merely poor taste, it shows flat disregard for the sensibilities of Christians.
“We are confident that even those who are not believers will join with the Catholic League in denouncing this cheap shot. The cover of the New Yorker might well be popular with the trendy types, but it will surely be regarded as a low-class version of Mad magazine by everyone else.”
The Catholic League is the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization. It defends the right of Catholics-lay and clergy alike–to participate in American society without defamation or discrimination.
