And here we go, the retroactive-ish acknowledgement of Joyce’s religious status in Roomies!, which wasn’t really brought up often, if ever.  And that was mostly on purpose.  I didn’t want to touch that stuff.  But, years later, increasingly, I did.

The way this was played out in this continuity, you had some longtime readers who didn’t even realize Joyce was Christian, making this strip something of an infobomb.   And in Dumbing of Age, when I actively characterized her as such, some saw it as a departure.  Christianity (specifically the evangelical kind) was the default, which means it’s not really brought up except in contrast.   As your characters diversify, you start seeing those contrasts more and more.