Jack Chick is a mysterious, reclusive artist who has dominated the “scare you silly” genre of gospel tracts. These tracts have been popular because, theoretically, people tend to read them for the illustrated stories and then end up saved as a result.
In reality, the main purpose of these tracts is to keep fundy children lying awake at night on the lookout for demons that might be sneaking into their room to make make them gay or (worse yet) tempt them to play Dungeons & Dragons games.
There are many life lessons to be learned from Chick Tracts. Hurricane Katrina was caused by America not supporting Israel. Stories about the Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause make kids not believe in Jesus. Halloween candy contains deadly razor blades and poison placed by witches to want to make kids into human sacrifices.
How could the scores of check-out clerks, gas station attendants, and waitresses who receive these little gems possibly avoid being saved after reading such tales?
Oh, wow. I needed a good belly-laugh this morning.
Why don’t you go fight something that is actually WORTH fighting against instead of hurting the very cause of Christ. Yeah, so he is not perfect. That’s why men didn’t write the Bible. SO instead of criticizing, why not post tracts you DO approve of?
Oh yeah, cuz you’re a HATER.
“Men didn’t write the Bible.” Hilarious! And who do you think wrote all of it down? Why do you think the authors’ names are the names of many of the books?
It’s interesting that when one looks up your blog and searches “love your enemies” that “no results” is the result.
also what couldn’t make a jack chick tract complete without a 1, conspiracy about the vatican 2, gay terrorism 3,prejudice against muslims 4, and what i thought was really messed up, the guy who was honest and nice still goes to hell and the bastard who gets “saved” at the last minute still goes to heaven
You mean like The Prodigal Son and his Older Brother?
The Prodigal’s older brother was a bastard. And we have no idea what happened.
I’ve thought for years the story of the prodigal son is a commentary regarding how the religious elite (represented by the older brother) view the poor, evils saps unworthy of the Father’s love.
@DrJ: The parable’s economy is amazing. In a short story, with so little extraneous information, we have the entire landscape of the disobedient human heart. The drama in focussing on the well-understood rebellion of the younger son and the Father’s exuberant grace in receiving him, only to have the rest of the story in such a short space is enough to have left the crowd gasping. I especially like that the parable ends on the suspension of a question, exactly like Jonah’s story.
Our fuzzy understanding of this story comes in part from cultural misunderstanding; to this day, the drama of the rebellious younger son plays out all over the Middle Eastern world (and in other places too), including the scenes of reconciliation. The shocking parts of the story are that the FATHER waits, watches, and welcomes, without concern for His respect or place, and that the older brother, just as a happy resolution approaches, rebels and refuses his own place in the Father’s house and heart – because he (and in his mind, the Father) is too good for that.
I identify with the story of the Prodigal Son. I *was* that Prodigal. I went my own merry way and ended up in a real mess. But the Loving Father came out to meet me, the Prodigal. I have experience His Love and His Forgiveness and His Restoration. But before I strayed I would have been very like The Elder Brother.
If you’re really lucky you get a glimpse of Fang the Dog and/or some comical demon sneaking around.
No points for Faceless God & someone doing a header into the Lake of Fire, that’s a given. 🙄
When traveling I used to raid the tract-racks for chick tracks. Nothing like comics depicting various and sundry lurid and verbotten activities to titillate a kid! I recently received one of the more embarassing ones at work from a customer. I commend their willingness to hand out the tract, but I quickly threw it away lest an unbeliever see it. That’s not a good commentary on the genre.
Hey, I used to love these as a kid. At least it was something entertaining to read during the sermon. LOL!
Yes, Chick tracts. Sadly, even though I was never IFB, one of our churches certainly had fundy leanings and gave these out at their Halloween judgment houses. It traumatized me for quite some time in my childhood.
I think it’s quite ironic how fundies talk spout off everything regarding modesty and the whole “if a woman was sexually assaulted ’cause she wore too-tight pants, it’s all her fault” way of thinking, and yet they’re perfectly fine with 4-letter words being replaced with !@#*& and company and having people standing before God on Judgment Day in the nude. Something’s not quite right here.
I would like to thank Jack Chick for opening my eyes to just how ridiculous some of the fundy ideas were.
“Halloween candy contains deadly razor blades and poison placed by witches to want to make kids into human sacrifices.”
Hey, how did you know what I did Halloween night?
There are only about two cases on record of children being poisoned by Halloween candy, and in both cases the poisoners were members of the victims’ own families who used Halloween as a cover.
Halloween is actually one of the safest nights of the year.
Who can ever forget the Chick tract, THE GAY BLADE? In all my life, I have yet to see any gay person who looked/acted like the one with the limp wrist, sappy facial expression, etc. Or, wait, okay, I HAVE seen people on occasion who look pretty drippy, but it never occurred to me that a slouch posture, sad expression, or limp hand denoted homosexuality. Why can’t *I* be as discerning as a Chick tract???
OK for one thing, Christians that give the tracts along with candy on Halloween night are not “judging”. They are using the occassion to witness and introduce the gospel possibly for the first time to those children and their families. Instead of hiding in their houses and pretending they are not at home because they are “against” Halloween, like some Christians do, or go to “Autumn celebration” or something like that at their church, where they fellowship with other Christians and the unsaved children and families are ignored. Would Jesus do any of those things? No he wouldn’t, that’s why he was accussed of being a winebibber and a glutton by the Pharisees, because he socialized with those people and didn’t ignore them like the Pharisees. The Pharisees felt like he should’ve been hanging with them, instead of with “publicans and sinners”. As far as the tracts themselves, yea they can get a little wild and graphic, but with what children are allowed to watch today on Nick and Disney which is posed as being “safe” they are no worse. Besides that, “and by fear of the Lord men depart from evil” Prov. 16:6b, sometimes that’s what it takes, but if the person gets saved then praise the Lord for it! I first read a Chick tract when I was in grade school long ago, and the picture of hell on the last page did scare me, and for the first time I knew how God felt about and how he judged it. The church I was attending never mentioned it. That picture stuck with me to my adult years, and I encountered Chick tracts and the comic books again as an adult, and got saved as a result, so hey if it gets the job done, then praise the Lord for Jack Chick! I do, if you don’t!
That explains alot. Thank you Mr. Chick and dad. So you two are the reason I feared standing next to my bed. I was always scared something would grab me from under my bed, that’s why I would take a flying leap, couldn’t get close you know. The more I realize, the more I hate those religios bastards.
I’m leaving this in reply to SLW’s comment. First of all I’m a little confused as to were the halloween tirade came from because from what I can see no one in the comments said Christians are “judging” when giving out tracks on said holiday. The only time Halloween was mentioned was in reference to the hidden blades and poison within the Halloween candy. Correct me if I’m wrong maybe I missed something.
The second thing I wanted to address was your comment on Chick Tracks as a whole. You make a valid point. As much as I dislike/loath Chick Tracks, it’s hard to get around the fact that God does use them. I used to know someone who was also saved through reading Chick Tracts. When you think about it, it’s a testament of God Himself in that He can use anything He wants for His glory (just a side note, this is the same type of argument that people use to advocate CCM. They have been personally blessed by it so how can it be wrong? This argument is never valid to the fundamentalist however in this circumstance!).
But just because God uses something does not make it right or even safe. The difference between what kids watch on TV and the graphic content of these tracks is that they are claiming to represent Christianity and Christ, and this is where I take a serious issue with them. Jack Chick uses sweeping racial, and cultural stereotypes, gives a terribly false view of Christians and unbelievers (unbelievers are drunk, dirty, Satan worshippers, but when they become saved they immediately comb their hair, take a bath, and put on a suit and tie/skirt or dress), he also skews facts and makes up statistics about even general reality (which is lying any way you look at it) in order to represent what Jack Chick claims to be truth. Ultimately his depiction of truth undermines that very truth.
I also take issue with Jack Chicks strange obsession with demons, Satan and the occult which is at best titillating and sensationalist if not completely unhealthy. Don’t get me wrong I believe in the existence of Satan and I believe he is more than active in this world but Jack Chick’s fixation on this topic strikes me as a little worrying.
Also one needs to consider the target audience of these tracts. I would suggest that these are not for the unchurched, but for children from fundamentalist families. Some people like yourself read these as children and it has a profound effect on them, but I would suggest to you that the majority of the time this has a negative effect rather than a positive one. You only have to read the above comments to know that these tracts did more to scare away people from the church than attract them to Christ. These tracts solely rely on scare tactics to get their message across. While concern about where one spends eternity is healthy it should not be the one motivation in becoming a Christian. Brokeness over our sin should be motivated from seeing who Christ is, and comparing Him to ourselves. Grace the most beautiful and profound element of the gospel is rarely the focus, if not completely absent from the typical Chick Tract.
I guess what I’m trying to say is praise God for your salvation and that He used these products in your life in a positive way, but I would also suggest that when giving out tracts at Halloween, best leave the Chick Tracts out of it.
Ugh. I loath Chick Tracts with a burning passion! Whenever I find them strategically left in public places, I make sure they find their way to the nearest circular file.
Oh and hey, did you know that if you go to the Chick Publications website, they have phone apps?!?! Scaring the living daylites out of people wherever you go has never been so easy!
This should be proof enough that Jack Chick is evil. End of story.
http://wtffundiefamilies.tumblr.com/post/152548911210/chick-tracts-lisa