BY BRIAN McNEILL

Media General News Service

The comics page of the University of Virginia's student newspaper has sparked yet another tempest, this time with themes of God, Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.

In yesterday's issue of the Cavalier Daily, the cartoon "TCB" featured a crucified Jesus performing stand-up comedy.

"And what's the deal with these crosses? Was there a sale on T's at the letter store?" Christ asks in the cartoon. "This whole situation makes me cross! Oh yeah, am I right? Am I right?"

The unseen crowd heckles the Christian savior, who is speaking into a microphone labeled "Open Mic Night." The crowd says "Boo" and "Go back to Bethlehem."

The comic strip drew angry responses from campus Christians, who called it offensive -- particularly with Easter around the corner.

"The crucifixion is one of the most sacred elements of Christian belief," U.Va. student Patrick Gallivan wrote in a letter to the editor. "To mock the three hours of suffering Jesus endured on the cross is a terrible thing. While not all believe this, the Christian people that do are sure to feel deeply upset by the disrespect shown to Jesus Christ in this comic."

Today's "TCB" cartoon drew similar complaints. It depicts God and the Virgin Mary in a post-coital quarrel. In it, a shirtless God, smoking a cigarette and wearing sunglasses, utters a profanity, though three letters have been replaced with asterisks.

"A lot of stuff on the comics page is crude, but nothing that's just purely offensive," Gallivan said in an interview. "This stuff -- why is it in the comics? Why do they feel the need to attack the Christian faith?"

The authors of the two cartoons, U.Va. students Eric Kilanski and Kellen Eilerts, did not return requests for comment yesterday.

Another U.Va. student, Alex Cortes, a freshman studying American politics, said he was offended by the two cartoons and that he believes they represent a double standard in which it is OK to mock Christians but not other faiths.

"You can bash Christians all you want, but if you did the same thing to Muslims, it'd be the end of the world," he said.

Christianity isn't the only religion targeted in today's Cavalier Daily. Another of today's comics takes an apparent dig at the anger of many Muslims over what are considered inappropriate representations of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

The strip purports to give instructions about how to draw the prophet, but the final panel contains only words noting that the panel is censored because it would have contained the completed drawing.

Cortes said several Christian student organizations will hold a protest Monday against the Cavalier Daily.

The newspaper has offended many with its cartoons during the past two years. Last semester, a cartoon that depicted nearly naked Ethiopians fighting each other for food drew a sit-in of nearly 200 students who called the comic strip racist.

The author of that strip, Grant Woolard, previously had contributed cartoons that offended Christians, such as one that showed Christ crucified on a Cartesian coordinate plane. In the wake of the "food fight" strip, Woolard was forced to resign. He did not return a request for comment on the latest controversy.

After last semester's cartoon dust-up, the newspaper's editors promised to do a better job of scrutinizing cartoons for blatantly offensive content.

Elizabeth Mills, editor in chief of the Cavalier Daily, said yesterday that she knew the two "TCB" strips would offend people, but she felt they were in line with the paper's comics policy.

"I did anticipate that this would offend people because it offended me," she said. "Even though I might not have liked it on a personal level, I felt it didn't violate our stated policy."

The Cavalier Daily's comics policy was enacted in April 2006 after Woolard's comic strip "Quirksmith" drew national attention from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, as well as the Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor."

The policy requires every comic strip published to meet three criteria: "First, does the author truthfully depict a verifiable historical or contemporary situation? If not . . . does the author make a serious, intentional point, the censoring of which would constitute viewpoint discrimination? Also, does the author criticize or make light of a group of people for any reason other than their own opinions or actions?"

Mills, a third-year English and classics major, added that she believes that Cavalier Daily cartoons should be censored only in the rarest of cases, particularly when it comes to questions of taste.

As of yesterday evening, the strips remained on the Cavalier Daily Web site, http://cavalierdaily.com.

Jeff C. South, a professor in Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Mass Communications, said newspaper editors should ask themselves a barrage of questions when faced with a potentially offensive article or comic strip: Does it inform or provoke? Is it tasteful? Does it have any socially redeeming value? Is it simply a "piece of flame bait," in online jargon? Is it just going to irk readers? Is it worth the trouble?

"I wonder whether, in this case, the editors asked those questions," he said.

The Catholic League also weighed in yesterday on the latest comics.

"It's clear that there's a double standard at play in the offices of the Cavalier Daily," President Bill Donohue said in a statement. "Tell the paper's editor to afford Christians the same consideration shown to blacks, Muslims and homosexuals."

Brian McNeill is a staff writer for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.