Let's Fly Away-- 1 Day Early! Jan. '13 Chick Tract!

[BrainGlutton]

This is interesting:

Chick publishes small tracts in comic book style as well as full size comic books. Most of his full size comic books are part of the Crusader series. The smaller tracts are sold cheaply in bulk for you to leave everywhere you go in phone booths, tables, laundromats, school lockers, car windshields, etc. (to non-fundamentalists this is known as littering). The larger comics featured a heavy dose of sensationalist Satanic Panic and demonic possession themes until around 1980 when Chick discovered King James Only and anti-Catholicism and published several more Crusader comics blaming the Catholic Church for everything from Communism, Satanism and human sacrifice to the American Civil War, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy and finally the Holocaust (which was somehow also the fault of the evolutionists).

Chick began publishing tracts in the mid-1960s. His early tracts were published by Rusthoi Publications and were in a larger format than his current tracts. Several of his early titles: *Why No Revival?, The Beast, The Last Generation, *have been extensively revised from their original versions, mostly to incorporate Chick’s anti-Catholicism into the later editions.

In addition to adding anti-Catholic content, Chick has a long history of revising his tracts either to add more recent events or to bowdlerize the more controversial tracts. Support Your Local Jew was reissued as Jeopardy and then as Love the Jewish People. That Crazy Guy, originally about gonorrhea, was changed to make it about herpes, then changed again to AIDS. Escape!, a circa-1970 tract about overpopulation and environmentalism which suggests that the only solution of pollution is…drumroll please…The Rapture, was later reissued as The Great Escape and updated to include AIDS and the first Gulf War. The Bull, about a convict who finds Christ in prison, originally depicted him using foul language even after he got saved. This has been removed from the current version, but it hasn’t been bowdlerized enough to stop him from saying things like “now shut up or I’ll break your legs” while preaching. *Dark Dungeons * had a controversial claim that the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were “satanic” removed from later editions. Dark Dungeons has also been changed to remove a reference to Acts 2:38; Chick apparently finally discovering that verse is a dog whistle for Jesus-only baptism theology considered heresy by evangelicals. Spellbound? originally had 8-track tapes on the cover, later changed to cassettes, then to compact discs on the current version.

Chick writes all of his tracts, although some draw heavily from other like-minded sources. Chick also drew some, particularly the older tracts, but many have been drawn by others. Fred Carter is the usual other artist — you can spot Carter’s work by the realism in contrast to Chick’s cartoony style, and by the blatant homo-erotica in just about every one of Carter’s tracts.

<snip>

What do you mean I have to research passages in the King James Version of the Bible?

If that is not bad enough Chick flubs researching passages in the KJV of the Bible itself.

In Are Roman Catholics Christians? (1985) claims that the Roman Catholic church is the Whore of Babylon which is awkward when you get to Revelation 18:20–Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. If that is not enough Revelation 18:24 reiterates–*And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. *

As Catholic Answers correctly points out, the prophets predate Jesus and the apostles were the 12 original followers of Jesus and therefore the Whore of Babylon is a representation of something that had existed up to the first century, i.e. before the Roman Catholic Church formally existed and therefore cannot be the Roman Catholic Church.[21]

Chick also likes to claim that good works are not the way into Heaven; he fails to explain those passages (like Psalm 62:12, Jeremiah 17:10, Matthew 16:27, Matthew 25:41-46, Luke 10:26-28, James 2:17, and Revelation 20:12-13) which state that good works are required for salvation. It gets really bizarre when Chick points out one part of the Bible and ignores the adjacent passages that totally undermine the very point he is raising. For example, in The Chaplain Chick refers to Matthew 25:41 while ignoring Matthew 25:42-46 showing that good works are a requirement.

This lack of crosschecking research gets really bizarre when you compare tracts. Take Flight 144 (1998) and Somebody Goofed (2002) for example. In Flight 144 Chick has a character state “The Bible says that good works can’t save anyone” but in Somebody Goofed Chick has a reference that simply says “**Rev 20:12-15”. Well here is the King James version of that reference, with some boldface added for emphasis:

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:12-15)

So Chick provides a reference to a passage that disproves a claim made by an earlier tract and the really ludicrous part is that both tracts are still in print.

[Baker]

In 1989, just before the Internet became ubiquitous, I bought a book titled High Weirdness by Mail. The book was a compilation of all kinds of fringe groups. UFO believers, hate groups, political oddballs, Flat-Earthers, you name it, they’re all in there.

It became my first acquaintance with Chick because in the “Groups You Love to Hate” section Chick is listed. I think the three comic panels shown are from The Last Generation. Is that the one where a young boy is telling his grandfather how the kid is going to turn him in for witnessing to him about Jesus?

Anyway, here’s an excerpt from the summary:

If the Devil has been looking for something to make Jesus look bad, this is it. Chick depicts, with all too revealing glee, the eternal suffering that awaits Jews, Catholics, unbaptized babies, people who cuss, and and anyone else slightly less consumed with hate and fear than he is.

I wrote to the author a couple of years later, because his book pre-dated the picketing of Fred Phelps and the WBC. The author wrote back to me after learning about Fred and said even he was surprised by the level of hate and bigotry shown by the WBC.

If any of the groups are still around twenty-five years lateer, they’re probably on the net now.

[Find_Friends]

@For You

“Supreme Justice Mahoney”? So the great perpetrator of evil persecution of christians is an Irish guy? Is that a subtle swipe at catholicism?

According to the review I cited upthread, IT SURELY IS! The original green cover version from 1972 showed “Supreme Conciliar” JABLONSKI and the reviewer claimed that Chick was anticipating a takeover involving Masonic elements, including lots of Jewish folks.

By 1992, the date of the original release of the blue version, Chick had been directly challenging the Roman Catholic Church, or at least its leadership, for about 11 years. Back in 1972, everything was centered on Communists, and then Masons. Chick didn’t have a favorable opinion of Catholicism, but he didn’t start calling it the Whore of Babylon until strongly influenced by Alberto Rivera. He considered it a “backslidden church” at the time, if his statements can be trusted. After his change he regretted such a mild view, and considered himself to be suckered by sneaky Jesuit conspirators, as many others had been, to accept such a propaganda phrase.

The only time he seemed to slam Catholicism was in an early tract about exorcism, The Thing. A priest failed in an exorcism with his holy water slashed back in his face and a blessed medal bent in half without visible hands. The true exorcist only had to command the demon to leave.

Nevertheless JtC seemed to be okay with the idea that there were many “True Christians” in RCC ranks. One special tract, aimed at his fellow evangelicals, specifically decried “Churchianity” by showing members of different denominations fighting over a new convert. While both were Protestants, there was no note to the effect that the RCC should be excluded from a more broadminded approach than the one he was ridiculing.

[Malthus]

I sometimes wonder if the majority audience for these tracts are those reading them for humour value. Certainly, people reading them in that way are among his most devoted fans - recalling differences in text from bygone tracts and details of publication in a way that would do collectors of baseball cards proud.

[BrainGlutton]

@Trans Fat Og

By 1992, the date of the original release of the blue version, Chick had been directly challenging the Roman Catholic Church, or at least its leadership, for about 11 years. Back in 1972, everything was centered on Communists, and then Masons. Chick didn’t have a favorable opinion of Catholicism, but he didn’t start calling it the Whore of Babylon until strongly influenced by Alberto Rivera.

Ah, yes, Alberto Rivera!

Alberto Rivera (Born September 19, 1935 in Spain – Died June 20, 1997 in Oklahoma) was a Spanish-American fundamentalist Christian evangelist significant in the extreme anti-Catholic wing of Protestantism.

Claims

He also claimed to have been a former Catholic priest himself, until he learned of the Vatican’s plans for world domination. The story goes like this: Alberto Rivera attended Catholic seminary, where the Jesuits trained him to infiltrate Protestant churches to destroy them. He also learned the Vatican was responsible for, among other things, the Nazis, Communism, Freemasonry, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, and the Holocaust, that nuns who got pregnant secretly sacrificed their newborns to Mary, and other similarly bizarre claims. Upon learning these things he denounced the Catholic Church, and was forcibly placed in a mental institution by the Jesuits for doing so. Near death from abuse in the mental facility, he escaped from Spain to London to rescue his sister from a convent, also near death from self-flagellation (supposedly practiced in the nunnery), and they fled to the United States.

The reality

In reality, his claims to have been a Catholic priest and his other claims have been thoroughly disproven. Indeed, those who checked out his claims found instead that he had a long history of swindling, was wanted in Spain on those charges, and had collected money for a Spanish college while in the U.S. which never received the money. Nonetheless, in the U.S. he started a “ministry” called the Antichrist Information Center to expose the Catholic Church. His sister was not a nun, but was working in London as a live-in maid. He also blamed the Vatican for things that happened after he allegedly left the Catholic Church, such as the Jonestown mass suicide. He eventually hooked up with Jack Chick, who created several comic books based on his claims (Alberto, Double Cross, The Godfathers, The Force, Four Horsemen, and The Prophet).[1] Chick continues to promote Rivera’s story as true. [2]

Alberto Rivera was also a King James Only advocate, and claimed all other Bible translations were created by the Jesuits to deceive Protestants or were translated from manuscripts corrupted by the Vatican. He (along with John Todd, who claimed modern translations were funded by the Illuminati) appear to be the sources of Jack Chick’s own conversion to King James Onlyism.

[BrainGlutton]

@Baker

If any of the groups are still around twenty-five years lateer, they’re probably on the net now.

Indeed they are. And so is Stang’s own Church of the SubGenius itself.

[Annie-Xmas]

I finally understand Tom Cruise’s jumping on Oprah’s couch!

[BrainGlutton]

@Annie-Xmas

I finally understand Tom Cruise’s jumping on Oprah’s couch!

Anticipating the Scientology Rapture?