about Jack Chick

When I was in middle school somebody brought in a ton of Chick Tracts, and I started reading them voraciously. I knew I didn't agree with the message but I couldn't stop reading them. I think it was partly the art, which sometimes had demons and witches. It was also my introduction to conspiracy theories.

Jack Chick was a missionary who used tiny comics as his medium. He very seriously believed that anyone not following his brand of Christianity was doomed to Hell, and it shows in his comics. Almost every one is about someone being misled down the wrong path and either finding salvation or going to Hell at the end. 

When I say anyone not following HIS brand of Christianity, I mean Jack thought Catholics and Mormons were going to Hell. I grew up after the moral majority movement brought all Christians together under right-wing politics in the 80s, so the idea that different sects thought of each other as heretics was new to me. Overall it was an eye-opener to how judgmental some Christians can be--not only does this guy hate Halloween and rock music, he even finds reasons to hate other Christians!

The "evidence" used in these comics to vilify other people was often straight up conspiracy theory. Catholics were loyal to the Pope, and would betray America if ordered to by their false idol. Freemasons actually worship pagan symbols. 

My favorite is proof that Allah was the name of a Middle-Eastern moon god, so the entire Muslim faith is built on a lie. Of course "Allah" could have been used as "the god" in reference to any god, so this is like saying that the Christian God is false because Poseidon was called a sea-god. Also, the audacity to say an entire belief structure is wrong because you found a semantic issue is such arrogance.

Gamers know about Jack Chick because of his Darkest Dungeons comic, where Dungeons & Dragons prepares children for real magic and one player commits suicide after her character dies in game. The idea was adapted as a movie a few years ago, as a joke but also for real. They made the movie with full cooperation from Jack Chick's company and stuck to the spirit of the comic, because its so ridiculous it ridicules itself. 

I'm not posting many links because I don't like the message of these tracts, and its easy to find them yourself if you want. The smug judgmentalism of these things is turning my stomach just from looking up the few pictures I've used. And sadly lots of people buy all this conspiracy nonsense. Its why people had book-burnings for Harry Potter books to protect children from the hidden satanic messages. Its why InfoWars is popular, and why Trump's base believes any accusation he throws out. If you're going to claim moral superiority, it helps to paint yourself as being persecuted. And if you're a majority (white straight Christians in America), you have to invent shadowy forces to persecute you.

Anyway--Jack Chick is dead. He made a bunch of judgmental propaganda and I read a lot when I was young.