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Merged Chick Tracts

Fnord said:
Yes.

Which is why benevolence is such a pain.
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It is only a thread on Chick tracts, so I think a brief derail is not really that inappropriate.

If justice calls for executing murderous 17 year olds, does it also call for executing murderous 16 year olds? Where would you put the age cutoff?
 
Ladewig said:
It is only a thread on Chick tracts, so I think a brief derail is not really that inappropriate.

If justice calls for executing murderous 17 year olds, does it also call for executing murderous 16 year olds? Where would you put the age cutoff?
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Birth.

Before then, a person's life may be terminated on the mere suspicion of being a threat to his or her own mother's life.
 
Cainkane1 said:
Ok as something to believe in Mr. chicks are patently absurd but are they any different from any other religious myth? I mean I enjoyed reading mythology as a kid and I didn't believe in the Greek, Roman, or Norse Gods so why not enjoy Chickys mythology the same way?

I find the art work good and some of the stories are amusing. I can't quit reading him.


http://www.chick.com/images/homepg_7_1_1a1.jpg

See for yourself.
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Cainkane1, I have spent many hours pouring over these little tracts. I agree that there is a lot of entertainment to be had by reading Jack Chick's works, although it may not be in the way it was originally intended.

Regards, Canis
 
Fnord said:
Birth.

Before then, a person's life may be terminated on the mere suspicion of being a threat to his or her own mother's life.
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Ha, ha. Yes, JREFers do like their little jokes. They are a quintessential part of the forum.

On the other hand, I was serious. Does justice demand that murderous 16 year olds are executed?
 
Cainkane1 said:
so why not enjoy Chickys mythology the same way?
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The bigotry gets in the way of me enjoying them. When he devotes entire tracts to explaining why Catholics are not Christians and therefore cannot go to Heaven, I just cannot stomach it.
 
Ladewig said:
Ha, ha. Yes, JREFers do like their little jokes. They are a quintessential part of the forum.

On the other hand, I was serious. Does justice demand that murderous 16 year olds are executed?
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Yes, for conservatives, life begins at conception, ends at birth, and then begins anew in the vegetative state.
 
Mark6 said:
Why is it uncomfortable? It is blatantly obvious that Jack Chick gets off on the "hell and damnation thing". Realizing that is no more uncomfortable to me than realizing that some people get off on overt sadism.
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The kicker though is that they claim to be humble, simple, gentle christians.
 
I've been dissapointed in chick tracts ever since I read Dark Dungeons.
No matter how hard I try, those spells just never work.
And that while the rituals are so simple, usually just the roll of a dice

Life isn't fair
 
As far as general Christian mythology goes Chick tracts are lacking. He recycles the same handful of bible verses and Christian concepts over and over and a lot of his opinions/interpretations are not held by the wide majority of Christians. Some of his stuff is wholly original too. He has one about Islam that is really bizarre and appears to be purely the product of his twisted imagination.

Anyway Chick tracts are great as Christian porn. They're like "Michelle Remembers," "Satan's High Priest" or "He Came to Set the Captives Free." Very light on actual Christianity with a brief condemnation of sin followed by all the lurid and grotesque details of said sin so you really, really, REALLY understand what a good Christian shouldn't do.

The one with the sweating Sodomites is especially good.
 
caniswalensis said:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0273/0273_01.asp
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Tracts such as this one are a fascinating insight into the mind of the author. In order to quickly convey how wicked the men of Sodom are, he draws them with dangling earrings, false eyelashes, and beehive hairdos (wtf?).

One much less notable flaw has to do with continuity. Between the fourth and fifth panels, the Christian's hair jumps from a part on the left to a part on the right (and again near the last panels).
 
Ladewig said:
Tracts such as this one are a fascinating insight into the mind of the author. In order to quickly convey how wicked the men of Sodom are, he draws them with dangling earrings, false eyelashes, and beehive hairdos (wtf?).

One much less notable flaw has to do with continuity. Between the fourth and fifth panels, the Christian's hair jumps from a part on the left to a part on the right (and again near the last panels).
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Ladewig I believe you enjoy the tracts despite yourself. To me Jack Chick is a prime example of a not so nice guy with a problem skillfully putting his ideas to comics. He is very old and when he passes into the eternal dirtnap and the dreamless sleep there will after a fashion be a loss.

He's a classic example of what not ot be.
 
Cainkane1 said:
Ladewig I believe you enjoy the tracts despite yourself. To me Jack Chick is a prime example of a not so nice guy with a problem skillfully putting his ideas to comics. He is very old and when he passes into the eternal dirtnap and the dreamless sleep there will after a fashion be a loss.

He's a classic example of what not ot be.
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Perhaps. I will not call it a guilty pleasure. Perhaps a like/hate relationship. I find parts fascinating, but really cannot get past the bigotry, the ignorance, the pettiness (the way the atheist professor is drawn), and the simplemindedness.

I am also annoyed by the very concept. "If you're too afraid to talk to neighbors and co-workers about the most important thing in the history of mankind, even though Jesus gave very specific and unequivocal instructions that you do just that, then just anonymously leave these on their windshields and in the lunchroom."
 
caniswalensis said:
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0094/0094_01.asp
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Chick tracts aren't just plain funny, to me. I'm always bothered by the worldview and attitude portrayed through his works. In most of his tracts, he depicts every non-Christian (Chick-Christian, that is) as a completely evil, malevolent, violent and ugly creature. In chick tracts homosexuals protest violently against Christians, hippies beat each other up, atheists form inquisitions to hunt Christians and liberals organize mass executions.

The scary thing is that this probably truly is how Jack Chick sees the world. He believes Christians are a persecuted minority, always on the verge of being wiped out, only protected by a God that will eventually kill all the evildoers. Yet sometimes the Christians do God's job for him.

Christians in the tracts are generally portrayed as well-spoken, kind individuals. Yet every now and then a darker side peeks out. In another tract where a revolution shakes the world, the liberal-communist-terrorist-atheists are able to take over all of America because overly strict gun laws rendered the good Americans helpless. He seldom says it, but apparently Chick would not mind sending these evil atheists to their eternal torment a bit earlier.

The outright insane undertones present in almost all tracts combined with a strange charm make them a disturbing thing. At their best, they're a very compelling argument against Christianity. At their worst, they are a paranoid schitzophrenic's delusion capable of moving to new minds.
 
Mirrorglass said:
Chick tracts aren't just plain funny, to me. I'm always bothered by the worldview and attitude portrayed through his works. In most of his tracts, he depicts every non-Christian (Chick-Christian, that is) as a completely evil, malevolent, violent and ugly creature. In chick tracts homosexuals protest violently against Christians, hippies beat each other up, atheists form inquisitions to hunt Christians and liberals organize mass executions.

The scary thing is that this probably truly is how Jack Chick sees the world. He believes Christians are a persecuted minority, always on the verge of being wiped out, only protected by a God that will eventually kill all the evildoers. Yet sometimes the Christians do God's job for him.

Christians in the tracts are generally portrayed as well-spoken, kind individuals. Yet every now and then a darker side peeks out. In another tract where a revolution shakes the world, the liberal-communist-terrorist-atheists are able to take over all of America because overly strict gun laws rendered the good Americans helpless. He seldom says it, but apparently Chick would not mind sending these evil atheists to their eternal torment a bit earlier.

The outright insane undertones present in almost all tracts combined with a strange charm make them a disturbing thing. At their best, they're a very compelling argument against Christianity. At their worst, they are a paranoid schitzophrenic's delusion capable of moving to new minds.
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If it makes you feel better, I don't think many people take these things seriously, though maybe I'm being optimistic.

There's this guy who I see here in Boston pretty regularly. I've seen him ever since I was a little kid. He goes in the bigger subway stops, and outside of events like concerts and baseball games. He travels too! I've seen him up at Hampton Beach, and in Providence, RI for a concert.

He has this big sign that he wears around his neck that show people burning in flames, and all he does is pass out Chick tracks. He doesn't even talk, he's eerily silent, he just passes out these cartoons with the most serious look on his face.

I've never seen anyone take this guy seriously, ever. People either ignore him or mock him or look at him pityingly. As he's been around for so long that I've talked about him with plenty of other Christians. No one's ever thought he was anything but a crazy person, and no one ever did anything but laugh at the ridiculousness of these cartoons.

When I was young, and a very devout Christian, me and my friends also used to collect Chick tracks and would pass them around: good for a laugh.

I agree that this guy has an extremely disturbing world view...but really, at the end of the day, is he anything more than a crazy guy who can draw well?

I mean, does this guy actually have any real influence? I would think that the only people who would take these things seriously are other crazy people, so that he's essentially only preaching to the choir. I can't imagine a person who doesn't ALREADY think like that being convinced by the likes of Jack Chick.
 
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Schrodinger's Cat said:
I mean, does this guy actually have any real influence? I would frankly think that the only people who would take these things seriously are other crazy people, so that he's essentially only preaching to the choir. I can't imagine a person who doesn't ALREADY think like that being convinced by the likes of Jack Chick.
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I had met people who were IMO unprofessional opinion sane and articulate, yet espoused precisely Jack Chick view of the world. I found them very scary.

That was before I ever heard of Jack Chick cartoons. I agree that they probably never converted anyone, but the fact that such worldview actually exists (and not limited to unwashed crazies) is terrifying to me.
 
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