Filed under: Christianity | Tags: Baptists, Christianity, conservative christianity, jack chick, religion
My friend Erin posted a link on her blog to a new tract by Jack Chick. For those of you haven’t heard about Mr. Chick, he is a master of the scare-’em-till-they’re-saved art form. This is a link to his biography: http://www.chick.com/information/authors/chick.asp
I’d never read his bio before. I’ve seen his tracts, of course; he posts them online and sometimes I just need a good laugh. But I read the bio tonight, and it was more sad than amusing. He didn’t like teenagers because they were rebellious. Now, I am a teenager. My idea of rebellion is confined to voting Democrat and laughing at Southern Baptists. Does that mean my soul isn’t good enough for Mr. Chick? Apparently it wasn’t, but Jesus (aka JEE-ZUS!) changed his heart. Now we are all treated to Chick Lit. Here’s an example of his latest tract: http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1044/1044_01.asp?wpc=1044_01.asp&wpp=b. It’s about the end times, the favorite subject of red-faced revivalists everywhere. I don’t like reading about the end times. First of all, he and his cronies are basing their interepretation of the end times on a book that is completely metaphorical. Wormwood? The Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse? Come on. Are we Christians or are we pimply-faced adolescent boys? It makes no sense to base one’s beliefs on a book that reads like Stephen King on acid. The gore and shock factor of Revelations attracts nuts like Chick, and scares the hell out of his victims. Don’t even get me started on the portrayal of Muslims in that tract. It makes me sick. Why blame the Muslims for everything? The history of Christianity is just as bloody as the history of Islam. We’re our own worst enemies, in case you haven’t noticed.
His ‘Statement of Faith’ is equally nauseating. King James groupie? Check. Faith over good works? Check check. Who cares if you help the poor or befriend those nasty teenagers? You’ve said The Magic Words, so you’re good. The rest of his tracts are just as bad. Catholics Are Teh Evilz? Check. Jesus as Gringo? Check. However, I must say that the ones concerning The End Times are the worst. It stuns me to think that people like Chick read so much into the Bible. They’re preaching things that aren’t even there, and then they turn around and point the finger at Catholics and other faiths for doing the exact same thing. This isn’t Christianity. It’s paranoia. It’s hysteria. It’s just sick.
