When John Wesley came to America with a mission to convert the Native Americans, it was his own heart that was converted for a MYT (Modest Young Thang) in his white congregation.  Sophy Hopkey was only 18-years-old when the 32-year-old Rev. Wesley took notice of her.  John would tutor Miss Hopkey in the Bible and occasionally accidentally kiss her before they parted way.  It’s not his fault, I mean, Sophy found out that John had a thing for the extra-modest women in white, so she started wearing white dresses to get his attention. They hinted at marriage, even though Sophy was engaged to a man who was in jail for forgery, and may have threatened to kill Sophy if she ever loved another man.  But John was a holy man, and he started to wonder if Safe Sanctuaries policies applied to even him.  So he did what any man who is afraid of relationships would do: he cast lots to consult God’s will.  (Casting lots is like a holier version of dismembering daisies to find out whether she-loves-me or she-loves-me-not).  Even though Sophy had made it pretty clear that she would never be in love again if John didn’t marry her, John’s Holy 8-ball told him “Think of it no more,” and John gave Sophy the classic Christian break-up line, “I really like you but I feel like I’m just supposed to, I dunno, focus on God right now, or something.”

So Sophy did what any scorned teenager would do when their Senior Pastor denied their love.  She quickly got engaged to someone she knew Wesley would hate, the “irreligious” (Wesley’s summation) and poorly named William Williamson.  And then she asked John Wesley to perform their wedding ceremony.  It’s possible she was making a desperate attempt to bring out the cavalier side of Wesley, to have him reconsider dumping her for Jesus and save her from a life of misery with Billy Billiambuns.  But Wesley refused, and the next time he saw her, she was coming up to receive Holy Communion from her pastor and ex-lover with her new husband by her side.

That’s when John Wesley, the man of reason, the hero of the faith who was all about that grace, refused to give the body and blood of Christ to Sophy and her new husband.  By doing so, he was publicly proclaiming that Sophy and William were unrepentant sinners unworthy to receive the death and new life of Christ.  He was sued for pastoral misconduct and when given the chance to face his lawsuit, he did what any man of principle would do…he fled the country and return to his home in England.  In the end, John learned a valuable lesson from all this.  “Oh how fallen! Oh how changed!” he mourned of himself.  No wait.  He said those things about Sophy, accusing her of duplicity and possibly prostitution.

I’m currently working on re-formatting all my old comics to try and make a compilation book for print.  I’m hoping to write new content, update some of the artwork to make it more consistent from start to finish, and even do some new art exclusive to the book. This week’s comic is an example of what I’m doing.  If you’ve never read the Bad Romance series I did about John and Sophy, you can read the first one starting at this link.  I’ll start posting completely new comics again in two weeks.  Until then, I hope you enjoy a few reformatted favorites of mine.