Chick tract

This Was Your Life! is a Chick tract that was translated in over 100 languages and is described by Chick Publications as its most popular title^[1]

Chick tracts are short evangelical gospel tracts created and published by American publisher and religious cartoonist Jack Chick.

Although many of Chick's tracts express views that are generally accepted within Christian theology, several tracts have expressed controversial viewpoints. Most notably, Chick tracts were known for expressing strongly anti-Catholic views, which are expressed in 20 of his tracts, as well as his criticisms of other religions including Mormonism.

Chick Publications

Chick Publications produces and markets the Chick tracts, along with other comic books, books, and posters.^[2] Chick Publications has its headquarters in Rancho Cucamonga^[3] and has an Ontario, California mailing address.

The company estimates it has printed over 800 million tracts during its first 50 years of business. On its website they note that "Our ministry is primarily publishing the gospel tracts of Jack T. Chick, but we do occasionally publish a manuscript in book form."^[4] They state that if the content "educates Christians in one of the areas for which we have a tract, we would love to see it" and cite several examples; the online store lists nearly a dozen book categories.^[4]

Most of Chick's tracts, and several excerpts from his full-length comics, can be read without charge at the Chick website. While many older tracts are out-of-print, Chick Publications will perform a special printing run of most of the out-of-print tracts upon a request of at least 10,000 copies.

Over time, several of Chick's tracts have undergone variations in art and text, which have in some circles come to be collected by fans.

As of January 2015, Chick Publications had produced over 250 different titles, about 100 of which are still in print, and are available in over 100 languages.^[5]

Style and themes

The tracts themselves are approximately three inches high by five inches wide in dimension, and approximately twenty pages in length.^[6] The material is written in comic book format, with the front panel featuring the title of the tract and the inside back panel devoted to a standard sinner's prayer. The back panel features contact info for Chick Publications, but Chick Publications allows churches and ministries to customize the back panel as part of a special order.

The storyline commonly features at least one Christian person and one or more "non-Christians". Depending on the storyline the "non-Christian" may be 1) a stereotypical "wicked person" (such as a criminal; an example being the eponymous character of the tract Bad Bob!),^[7] 2) a member of a "false religion" (as Chick defines such; an example being the Mormon missionaries from The Visitors),^[8] and/or 3) a "moral person" depending on "good works" to gain eventual entrance to Heaven (as opposed to salvation through Jesus Christ; an example is the marshal in Gun Slinger).^[9] In these storylines, the Christian attempts to convert the non-Christian to Christianity (and may also feature a contrast where another character, often the "moral person", does not), with the convert receiving entry into heaven, while the person rejecting the message is condemned to hell. The endings may feature a recycled scene in which Jesus Christ (portrayed as a giant, glowing, faceless figure sitting on a throne) condemns or welcomes a character, an angel taking the believer to Heaven, and/or the non-believer meeting demons upon his/her arrival to Hell.

Several tracts include a spiritual warfare theme underlying the action (or occasionally as the main storyline itself). In these themes, the presence and actions of angels and demons manipulating or attempting to manipulate a situation is shown to the reader, but the actions are unnoticed by the human characters in the tract. The Assignment,^[10] a tract telling about the upcoming death of the main character, is an example of the use of spiritual warfare as both the main storyline and also underlying the actions of the human characters.

In some tracts (especially within the now out-of-print Bible Stories series) the entire tract may be devoted to a retelling of a Biblical story, or a framing device may be used where a regular storyline incorporates such a retelling. Tracts dealing with "false religions" may be told from a pure narrative standpoint (an example is Are Roman Catholics Christians?).^[11]

The comics were often drawn simplistically, with dialog and thought bubbles present during conversation. Profanity is often used in the words of demons and non-Christians, obscured completely by random punctuation marks (grawlixes).

Chick tracts end with a suggested prayer for the reader to pray to accept Jesus Christ. In most of these tracts it is a standard sinner's prayer for salvation. In the tracts dealing with "false religions", the prayer includes a clause to reject these religions. Included with the prayer are directions for converting to Christianity, which is also repeated on the inside back panel along with steps to take should the reader convert to Christianity.^[12]

Strips, Toons, and Bluesies, written by Douglas Bevan Dowd and Todd Hignite, stated that "it's safe to assume Chick saw at least some" Tijuana bibles since the books and, according to Dowd and Hignite, Chick tracts were "strikingly similar" to Tijuana bibles; like Tijuana bibles the tracts mostly targeted youth of lower socioeconomic classes and "were loaded with stereotypes". The book stated that Chick tracts contained "way-out, wild" portrayals of recreational drug usage and portrayed "the sexual revolution". In addition the comics included supernatural elements, occult rituals, torture, and cannibalism.^[13]

"False religions"

Numerous Chick tracts have storylines presenting a conflict between Christianity (as Chick defines it) and other religions, including other Abrahamic religions. Virtually every major world religion has at least one Chick tract devoted to it.

With the growth and spread of Islam worldwide, Chick addressed it in such tracts as Allah Had No Son^[14] and Camel's in the Tent.^[15]

Chick addressed certain Christian groups that have been labeled as "cults", such as Mormonism (The Visitors),^[8] as well as other groups or movements with which he disagrees, such as Freemasonry (That's Baphomet?).^[16]

Anti-Catholicism

However, of all the major religious groups, no one group has been the subject of more of Chick's tracts and other writings than Catholicism.

No fewer than 20 Chick tracts have Catholicism as their subject or as a major theme, including Are Roman Catholics Christians?^[17] (arguing that they are not), The Death Cookie^[18] (a polemic against the Catholic Eucharist), and Why is Mary Crying?^[19] (arguing that Mary does not support the veneration Catholicism gives her).^[20]

Chick also expounded his anti-Catholic views in several comics and other books. Most notably, he defended the controversial Alberto Rivera in at least one book^[21][22] and in an entire series of six full-length comics.^[23] Chick also asserted that the Catholic Church, in a grand conspiracy, created Islam, Communism, Nazism, and Freemasonry.^[24]

In The New Anti-Catholicism,^[25] religious historian Philip Jenkins describes Chick tracts as promulgating "bizarre allegations of Catholic conspiracy and sexual hypocrisy" to perpetuate "anti-papal and anti-Catholic mythologies". Michael Ian Borer, a sociology professor of Furman University at the time, described Chick's strong anti-Catholic themes in a 2007 American Sociological Association presentation^[26] and in a peer reviewed article the next year in Religion and American Culture.^[27]

Catholic Answers web published a response to the claims of Chick Publications against Roman Catholics and a criticism of Chick Tracts in general called The Nightmare World of Jack T. Chick,^[28] detailing the inaccuracies, factual errors, and how a "typical tactic in Chick tracts is to portray Catholics as being unpleasant or revolting in various ways".

Anti-homosexuality

Chick tracts are unequivocal and explicit in their opposition to homosexuality, and repeatedly employ two anti-homosexual themes:

• the belief that God hates homosexuality and considers it to be sinful, and
• the true nature of homosexuality is revealed in the Christian fundamentalist interpretation of the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah story.

According to Cynthia Burack, Chick's earliest anti-homosexuality tract, The Gay Blade^[29] (originally written in 1972, revised in 1984 and now out-of-print except by special order), borrowed several of its frames from a 1971 Life magazine photo-essay on the Gay Liberation movement, but with the images altered to make the gay men look more dissolute or stereotypically feminized.^[30]

Anti-evolution

Chick published several anti-evolution tracts, but Big Daddy?^[31] remains "the most widely distributed anti-evolution booklet in history."^[32]

Critics point out that the Big Daddy? tract mainly uses Kent Hovind as a reference, despite the fact that Hovind has no degrees from accredited institutions in the relevant fields, that the thesis referred to is considered to be of very poor quality, and that his claims are at odds with the published statements of experts in the field.^{[33][34][35][36]}

In fact, Big Daddy is presented in the 2007 book Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters as a "typical of the genre" example of just how "misleading and dishonest" creationist presentations are. The examples of the "deceptive and misleading" distortions, misrepresentation, and fabrications presented in that work regarding Big Daddy are "Nebraska Man" (the misinterpretation of which was corrected after only a year and its existence was debated from the beginning^[37]), "New Guinea Man" (which is actually Homo sapiens), and the implication "Cro-Magnon" man was viewed as different from Homo sapiens.^[38]

King James Only

Chick was an ardent proponent of the King James Only movement. One entire section of his website ^[39] is devoted specifically to the topic of "Bible Versions" and includes "frequently asked questions" (the response to which in some cases is provided by KJV-Only theologian David Daniels), as well as tracts, books and DVD's available from Chick Publications on this subject.

In addition, Chick also wrote a full-length comic, Sabotage^[40] (the comic is part of Chick's Crusaders^[41] series of comics) dealing with this particular subject. Sabotage is described by theologian James R. White (an opponent of the KJV-Only movement) as "a classic rendering of King James Only propaganda", wherein the protagonist loses his faith, and becomes a "drugged-out hippie" on being told that "the Word of God is found only in the original manuscripts, and they've all been lost", only to have his faith restored by a King James Only advocate.^[42]

Furthermore, the inside back panel of each Chick tract includes a recommendation to new converts to "[r]ead your Bible (KJV) every day to get to know Christ better."

Views on Satanism and Satanic influence

A page from "The Nervous Witch", a Chick tract depicting the purportedly occult dangers of the Harry Potter series.

The concept of malign influences lead to the theme of spiritual warfare being frequently portrayed in the tracts. Chick considered all forms of witchcraft to be demonic, regardless of whether it was "white witchcraft" (i.e. purportedly using such gifts for good) or "black witchcraft" (i.e. purportedly using such gifts for evil). Gladys^[43] is an example of one of Chick's tracts on this issue. Consistent with his views on demonic influence, Chick also considered Halloween to be "the devil's holiday" and opposed Christians celebrating it, with one notable exception – Chick did not oppose Christians engaging in the traditional Halloween custom of passing out candy to neighborhood children, considering it to be an opportunity to present the Gospel message via his tracts.^[44]

Based on Chick's views on Satanism and Satanic influence, Catholic Answers states that "Chick portrays a world full of paranoia and conspiracy where nothing is what it seems and nearly everything is a Satanic plot to lead people to hell."^{[45][46][47][48]}

The tracts' claims about conspiracies are based in large part on the testimony of people who claim to have been members of these groups before converting to Evangelical Christianity, most prominently Alberto Rivera and William Schnoebelen. Many of Chick's critics consider these sources to be frauds or fantasists.^[36] One such case was "The Prophet"^[49] where the fantastic tale related by Rivera of how the papacy helped start Islam turned out to have no basis in reality.^[46]

Parodies and popular culture

In film

• A live-action film Dark Dungeons, based on the Chick tract of the same name that warns against the supposed evil influence of Dungeons and Dragons, was released in August 2014. Producer JR Ralls was given the rights to the tract for free after contacting Chick.^[50]

In print

Some cartoonists have published parodies that mimic Chick tracts' familiar layout and narrative conventions. Examples include:

• "Headshop or Deadshop?" from the National Lampoon in the early 1970's. One of the first parodies to appear.
• "Devil Doll?" by Daniel Clowes, Antlers of the Damned'^[51] by Adam Thrasher, Jesus Delivers! by Jim Woodring and David Lasky, Demonic Deviltry by "Dr. Robert Ramos" (actually Justin Achilli of White Wolf Game Studios), Ploy to the World? by Chrissy Spallone, and A Patriarchy's Nightmare by Keith Mayerson.

• Issue #2 of Daniel K. Raeburn's zine The Imp, which consists of a lengthy essay on Jack T. Chick's work and a concordance of terms and concepts used in his comics, has dimensions and covers that imitate a Chick tract.
• Two parodies by Jack C. Trick, LLC and published by Trick Publications titled Chemical Salvation? (2006)^[52] and ADAM & EVIL?! (2007)^[53] tell the history of LSD and MDMA. The LSD Trick tract, which was released on Albert Hofmann's 100th birthday and was partially reprinted in a recent biography of the inventor of LSD,^[54] also appeared in a Japanese translation.^[55]
• The Religious Experience of Philip K. Dick by cartoonist Robert Crumb, published in "Weirdo" magazine in 1986, parodies the style of a Chick tract comic sequence.
• A parody entitled "The Collector" was drawn by cartoonist Hal Robins and included in chapter 13 of "The Art of Jack T. Chick" by Kurt Kuersteiner (2004, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.).
• The first edition of the Season 1 Blu-ray of animated comedy show Rick and Morty came with a print version of "The Good Morty," a parody of Chick's work which also appears in Season 1 Episode 10 titled "Close Encounters of the Rick Kind." The comic is written by Justin Roiland & Ryan Ridley and illustrated by Erica Hayes.^[56]

Criticism

The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated Chick Publications as an active hate group.^[57] The group was listed due to its strong anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim, and anti-homosexual rhetoric.^[58] Chick's views on homosexuality have angered gay activists since his first tract on the subject in 1972. ("The Gay Blade" tract warned of a gay agenda to push for same sex marriage and urged homosexuals to repent so they could make it into heaven.)

Chick's critics (such as talk.origins, Hindu American Foundation, and Catholic Answers) have accused him of misrepresentation.

The Hindu American Foundation put out an electronic PDF paper called "Hyperlink to Hinduphobia: Online Hatred, Extremism and Bigotry Against Hindus"^[59] which contains a section on Chick's site; the paper ends with the statement "Chick Publications promotes hatred not just against Hindus, but also towards Muslims, Catholics, and others as is evidenced by the following titles of their tracts: “Last Rites – When this Catholic dies, he learns that his church couldn't save him”;^[60] “The Little Bride – Protect children against being recruited as Muslims. Li'l Susy explains that only Jesus can save them”;^[61] and “Allah Had No Son – The Allah of Islam is not the God of creation" (in both these anti-Islamic tracts Allah is revealed to be a pagan moon god).^[62]

The content of That Crazy Guy!^[63] was changed after the rise of the AIDS crisis (the tract was originally about herpes).^[64] Also, the ending to The Poor Little Witch^[65] (in which a little girl is murdered by Satanists after forsaking Occultism and converting to Fundamentalist Christianity) was changed because the urban myth, which states that "every year in the U.S. at least 40,000 people... are murdered in witchcraft ceremonies" (about twice the entire reported homicide rate for the USA), turned out to be false and was removed from the tract.^[66] Chick Publications depict Paganism and Neo-Paganism as a form of Satanism, a position Neo-Pagans and other observers strongly dispute.

The Chick Publications website is blocked in Singapore.^[67] In December 2008, a Singaporean couple was charged with sedition for distributing the Chick tracts The Little Bride and Who Is Allah?, said to "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between Christians and Muslims in Singapore".^[68][69]

In October 2011, the Northview Baptist Church in Hillsboro, Ohio gave out copies of the Chick tract Mean Momma^[70] along with candy at Halloween.^[71] The church received complaints from parishioners, and its pastor apologized for issuing the tracts, saying that, "Our church does not endorse this type of extreme methodology that was represented in this particular tract, and we can assure you that we will not let this happen again... our church is a loving church that loves souls and wants to do all we can in our community to help as well as spread and share the Gospel message of Christ."^[72]

In 2014, the Chick tract Unforgiven^[73] was distributed by Bible Baptist Church in Garden City, Virginia and drew outrage from the area's Muslim community. The tract tells the story of an African-American man who, while in prison, is coerced into joining the Islamic faith and changes his name to Muhammad. Upon his release he threatens his Christian grandmother. Hussain Al-Shiblawi, a local man, told WDBJ-TV that he gets pamphlets from the church every Sunday and that they are typically inspirational, but that this one was different. “It basically indicated that the people are violent, the religion itself is violent, and the facts in here are not true,” he said. “It shows him trying to kill his mother saying, ‘If you weren’t my grandma, I’d kill you where you stand, Allahu Akbar.’” In one scene, the grandmother begs Lamont to return to the Christian faith, telling him he’ll “die in [his] sins” and be unforgiven by God if he doesn’t. But the young man isn’t swayed by her pleas. “I choose Muhammad! And I hate your Jesus, your Bible and you!,” he screams. “Get out of my house you infidel!” Bible Baptist Church said the church did not write the tract and simply distributed it.^[74]

References

Sources

• Bivins, Jason (2008). Religion of Fear : the Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534081-5. 
• Prothero, Donald R. (2013) Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters ( Columbia University Press)

Further reading

• Fowler, Robert (2001). The World of Chick?. San Francisco: Last Gasp. ISBN 0-86719-512-6. 
• Kuersteiner, Kurt (2004). The Art of Jack Chick. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-7643-1892-6. 
• 'Jesus was Not a Weak Fairy: Chick Tracts and the Visual Culture of Evangelical Fear', chapter in Bivins, Jason (2008). Religion of Fear : the Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 41–88. ISBN 978-0-19-534081-5. 
• Colonel V. Doner Christian Jihad: Neo-Fundamentalists and the Polarization of America (Samizdat Creative, May 23, 2012)

External links

• Chick Publications official website
• The Jack Chick Museum of Fine Art
• God's Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack T. Chick, —Documentary film on Chick and Chick comics.
• "The Nightmare World of Jack Chick," Catholic Answers
• Critical Muslim view at www.bismikaallahuma.org
• Critical view by Freemasons