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Passing out religious tracts.

Ralph

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Probably a silly question....but I'll ask anyway.

When christian fundamentalists refer to "passing out religious tracts", does this specifically refer to Chick Tracts or do they have a wider array of annoying literature?

In other words--are "Chick tracts" to born again christians what "The Watchtower" is to jehovah's witnesses?
 
I know that Chick's views are considered extreme even by a lot of fundamentalists. I seriously doubt his tracts are distributed by ALL born again Christians who distribute tracts.

On the other hand, I've never heard a fundy talking about distributing tracts, so I don't know which ones are doing this.
 
Ralph said:
Probably a silly question....but I'll ask anyway.

When christian fundamentalists refer to "passing out religious tracts", does this specifically refer to Chick Tracts or do they have a wider array of annoying literature?

In other words--are "Chick tracts" to born again christians what "The Watchtower" is to jehovah's witnesses?
Click to expand...

not silly ?, says me!
there is a WIDE variety of stuff out there - and most of the "tracts" are pretty extreme within Xtianity in general. But since only fundies distribute tracts, they are right in line with their beliefs. You'll never see a Catholic or Episcopal/Anglican with tracts, so they aren't made for those belief systems.

aggle-rithm said:
I know that Chick's views are considered extreme even by a lot of fundamentalists.
Click to expand...

Chick is the guy at the extremist end of the extremist set of fundies/evangelicals. Most mainstream Xtians just laugh at Chick's garbage, and yes, even most fundies think he's off the deep end.
 
Ralph said:
Probably a silly question....but I'll ask anyway.

When christian fundamentalists refer to "passing out religious tracts", does this specifically refer to Chick Tracts or do they have a wider array of annoying literature?

In other words--are "Chick tracts" to born again christians what "The Watchtower" is to jehovah's witnesses?
Click to expand...
The Freedon From Religion Foundation has what they call anti tracts. The FFRF is good about things like that.
 
They appear to have a wide range of buttfodder apart from the Chick comics
(where I am anyway). I get religious junk-mail posted in my mail box regularly.
The latest was some nonsense entitled "Evolution or creation - which is the truth?"
(ooh, let me guess) and another about some Christian thing (I usually stop reading
immediately as soon as I see the words "Christ", "God", etc in them) and at the
end an ad' for a special meeting where one can go and (pay to) be "anointed with
holy oil" ("wear old clothes", it says).

We also have an "evangelist" on the metro train who verbally assaults passengers
wittering on about Jesus Christ. Personally I think I prefer the accordion players
who play at you with menaces until you give them money to go away. Sorry, drifting OT...

[posting from my brand new Linux box, yay!]
 
Down in south Florida there was a local church that had tracts that looked like folded $20 bills on the outside. They "accidentally" drop them all around parking lots.

When you unfolded them you got any number of explianations on why you need to repent and be saved.
 
One of Ray ComfortWP's claims to fame is as a writer of tracts. His Living Water ministry includes "Way of the Master", which publishes tracts along with videos and books.
 
aggle-rithm said:
I know that Chick's views are considered extreme even by a lot of fundamentalists. I seriously doubt his tracts are distributed by ALL born again Christians who distribute tracts.

On the other hand, I've never heard a fundy talking about distributing tracts, so I don't know which ones are doing this.
Click to expand...


This seems to be a fairly common activity from what I've seen. Despite the "salvation through faith not works" principle---going out & converting unbelievers seems to be something you are "expected " to do if you want to be saved.

What prompted my question here was a rather amusing post on RR--the guy had one of these "Warrior for god/jesus/ or whomever" avatars and started a thread about going out
on a mission to save some souls.

What he planned on doing was to go out late at night (AFTER dark)...and put tracts in mailboxes with a card that had RR's web address on it.

Several posters suggested to him this was illegal & not a good idea.

He became very indignant about this...stating "since when do man's laws take precedence over god's laws".

Of course this kind of thinking is what leads to abortion clinic bombings,honor killings, and burning witches at the stake but that's another issue.

He went on about how important is was to save some souls and so what if it was against the law.

What struck me was did the guy really believe that he was going to convert people to jesus by simply spreading around some literature?

I spent 4 years in commission only sales and learned the hard way that you don't get results by leaving stuff laying around & wait for people to call you. You have to actually go out---and talk to people which includes a lot of unpleasant rejection at times.

I suspect this applies to saving heathens as much it applies to selling mutual funds.

At any rate--it also struck me as funny that this guy fancies himself a "warrior".....ready to strap on armor,grab a sword, and literally go out and battle demons from hell.......but doesn't have the courage to hang around the mall & pass out religious tracts.

He's just going to sneak them into mailboxes at night and run away real fast.

Sounds just like some of the keyboard commandos & "Real Cyber Warriors" you see here at times.

Personally--if I was jesus--I think It'd take me about 20 minutes to get about 99.9% of the worlds population converted over.......but that's just me.
 
Ralph said:
Probably a silly question....but I'll ask anyway.

When christian fundamentalists refer to "passing out religious tracts", does this specifically refer to Chick Tracts or do they have a wider array of annoying literature?

In other words--are "Chick tracts" to born again christians what "The Watchtower" is to jehovah's witnesses?
Click to expand...
I don't know why you think they are irritating? I love the different ways people write tracts to share the truth. I get my tracts from several places like Christian Books.com and such. I try to get them out consistently hoping the Lord can use them to help some receive him. Chick tracts are not ones I have ever passed out though.
 
There are Jehovah Witnesses at the entrance of the subway near where I live. They're not even trying to hand out their tracks, they just stand or sit there (there's even one who brought a little chair with her) and watch people pass. The guy who hands out the daily paper has more enthusiasm.

It's almost vexing.
 
kurious_kathy said:
I don't know why you think they are irritating? I love the different ways people write tracts to share the truth. I get my tracts from several places like Christian Books.com and such. I try to get them out consistently hoping the Lord can use them to help some receive him. Chick tracts are not ones I have ever passed out though.
Click to expand...

It's amusing thinking about how you would react to having someone place an atheist tract in your hand and ask you to read it, perhaps a couple of times a day. I imagine your love and tolerance might start running a little thin after about a week.

Or perhaps not.
 
shadron said:
One of Ray ComfortWP's claims to fame is as a writer of tracts. His Living Water ministry includes "Way of the Master", which publishes tracts along with videos and books.
Click to expand...
"Way of the Master" sounds like a trolling tract for a master baiter.*












or a Kung Fu movie:)
 
Pardalis said:
There are Jehovah Witnesses at the entrance of the subway near where I live. They're not even trying to hand out their tracks, they just stand or sit there (there's even one who brought a little chair with her) and watch people pass. The guy who hands out the daily paper has more enthusiasm.

It's almost vexing.
Click to expand...
Maybe they misunderstood their name and are just hanging there winessing what is going on around them. Figuring they will pass it on to jehovah some time in the future.
:confused:
 
I've seen a few Chick Tracts distributed in New York City.

I've also seen racks of other types of tracts in some resturants, every now and then.
Especially Chinese take-out places. I guess they like to provide reading material while you wait for your food.
 
There are as many types of tracts as there are believers. Chick is simply the most prolific (and outrageous) of those producing them. They work well for some folks, simply because they can be produced cheaply, en masse, and distributed by anyone with a willingness to hand them out.

The downside is what happened to a friend of mine years ago. He gave a Chick tract to a co-worker who was Jewish. (I still want to know what tract it was.) The co-worker complained, and my friend was fired. I came to realize that the employer did the right thing, simply because a work environment is not the place for that sort of thing.
 
I'll ad my opinion to the rest. Most religious tracts are simple pamphlets containing the religions basic views on a variety of subjects. I have several from as far away as Japan, although that one is not Christian and is something of a mixture of monotheistic and native Japanese religious systems. In fact I have a collection of several Islamic tracts as well as some from more obscure religions.

Chick tracts are actually rare to find being given out by most people, and honestly the last time I saw them out in the wild was at a gas station in the backwoods town I spent a good part of my life stuck in.

So for the most part, no handing out tracts generally doesn't refer to Chick tracts; although I wish I could find more since I actually collect them as a sick and twisted hobby.
 
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As a Mormon missionary the primary means to gain converts is through "tracting". In Mormon parlance that means going door to door. We didn't always hand out literature AKA tracts but we often did.
 
shadron said:
It's amusing thinking about how you would react to having someone place an atheist tract in your hand and ask you to read it, perhaps a couple of times a day. I imagine your love and tolerance might start running a little thin after about a week.

Or perhaps not.
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How about the pamplets handed out in Vegas for strip joints and topless bars?

In the end it's marketing. Crass but in many countries a protected, and annoying, form of speech.
 
Y'know, this whole tract thing sounds like a lucritive way to reach lots of people with your message, even if most of them ignore it.

I wonder if I should write and publish my own tracts, about the Great Prophet Zarquon, the only force known that could, possibly (depending on your dimensional configuration), relieve me of my immortality.
 
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