Dean Gordon Johnson was serious. "Bethel Seminary students who relieve their study with laughter usually end up as the most satisfied pastors."

I listened to that freshman orientation talk ten years ago hoping Dean Johnson was correct. I liked to laugh. As far as I was concerned, the perfect way to end a tedious day of study was a good practical joke in some corner of the library. I was relieved to know Dean Johnson also thought that humor and religion mix.

Apparently the readers of LEADERSHIP share that bias. Hardly a day goes by without our getting a letter or reader survey commending our cartoons. This one came in recently from Maureen Rufe, an evangelist with Diatheke Ministries:

"Do you have any idea what your cartoons are doing to me? They're giving me a wonderful sense of humor. Many adorn the walls of my counseling room, and I give them to depressed counselees-they're smiling in no time. Humor is a wonderful medicine prescribed by God to keep us from taking ourselves too seriously." ...