Super Moderator florduh Posted March 10, 2008 Super Moderator Share Posted March 10, 2008 With the current discussions of tracts printed to look like money and the god-themed e-mails, I was curious if these methods of evangelizing have ever actually "led someone to the Lord." I always, even as a Christian, thought they were pretty lame. Now they make me laugh. Sometimes I even feel embarrassed for their authors and distributors. Did you, or anyone you've ever heard of, become a Christian because of exposure to these evangelistic tools? - Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 They about make me puke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eejay Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 None that I know of. I bet we had more the ten thousand of those things in the house when my mom went fundy. Yeah, she passed them around at nursing homes, slip them into catholic churches (whom she didn't believe in anymore), mail specific ones anonymously to various relatives who needed saving (like they didn't know where they were coming from). That was a huge project for her. What a waste of my Dad's money. Doubt it ever did anything but piss people off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upstarter Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 I can remember there were always vague testimonies at revivals about people who had come to the lord because they were "at rock bottom" and at that moment they received a tract and it "touched their heart". GAG. But I don't think I can honestly say I know of anyone personally who became a xtian from reading a tract. Especially anything as horrible and lame as a Chick tract. As for now... those things just piss me off! There is certainly no way that one day I'm going to get a smarmy Gawd email and say, Oh yeah, I'm so sorry I left Jesus, what was a I thinking. Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Every time I go out to eat with my parents at a restaurant they must say grace and then my mother pulls out this tract "God's Simple Plan of Salvation" that she must leave for the poor waiter/waiteress. This lousy tract has been in existence for at least 40 years and none of the wording has never changed. Its all cherry picked Paul "Roman's Road" garbage. It would never "save" or have a positive effect on anyone in their right mind. Now when I last visited them I notice the tract has a picture and address of the Church they attend. Its nothing but an advertisment to lure people into the trap of Baptist indoctrination. It is repulsive and simply embarassing. No doubt the waitstaff just throws it in the garbage after extracting the tip (yes, at least they do leave a real tip). I always look for an opportunity to remove it myself but have never been able to. I might add that the church has a new million plus dollar building, supported by a bunch of Suckers!! I let my mother send me xtian literature for 10 plus years. Finally I got tired of it and told her to stop it. Happy to say it worked. I repeat-- it is simply embarrassing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted March 10, 2008 Author Super Moderator Share Posted March 10, 2008 My thoughts for the rationale behind this cheesy kind of evangelizing is that it is like praying for the ill. Those who pray feel like they are doing something (while of course having no real effect on the target of the prayer). Sending the e-mails or distributing tracts probably gives that same sense of satisfaction that they are doing something, while in reality, it's just an easy way for them to believe they are fulfilling "The Great Commission." - Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
par4dcourse Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 I've found them to be most useful. I keep a few in the bathroom, just in case the butt ribbon runs out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm_christ Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 there are alot of sites that offer free tracts, i recently ordered around 60+ of various ones. not sure what ill do with them once i get them, but its money out of their hand to print them. p.s anytime you get handed the check tract, just write void across it, and hand it back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazy-tiger Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 Tracts/emails like that work on people I know... When I say "work" I mean, made them realise just how fucking insane the people who come out with them really are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexyLady Posted March 10, 2008 Share Posted March 10, 2008 I've never met anyone that those worked on, and even when I was a kid and still into Christianity I thought they were pretty dumb. My dad used to leave them all over the place, and I hated it. I've also had them handed to me a couple of times through the drive through window when I was working fast food, and I used them to get a laugh before I threw them away. Most of them are pretty insane and just... yeah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKR Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 It'd be interesting to see some research on this topic. Done by non-christians, of course. I wouldn't be surprised if they work on a lot of people. I think most people that end up christians (other than by being brainwashed children) become so due to their desperate desire for something more. Most christians have not read the entire bible, and they are absolutely terrible at skeptical thinking. I don't know any christian who is one because they were simply searching for the truth, regardless of how it made them feel. How many christians have really asked themselves tough questions about their religion, and been open to alternatives to their religion? Almost none. Christianity is filled with less then half-assed attempts to witness to people, and their religion is growing like a weed on steroids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShackledNoMore Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 Well, it worked for me--sort of. It certainly wasn't the tract by itself, that was just a minor tool in the assault. I was only 12, and a very gullible, naive, authority-figure-believing-even-when-they-were-handing-me-platters-of-bullshit 12. We'd been taken to the new church, we'd been worked on, and my mother was converting. And when I said "the prayer" I had the stupid tract in my hand. But it wasn't the deciding factor, the same would have happened without it, and by itself it wouldn't have gotten me "saved." And, were it not for the follow up by my family and god's other soldiers, I would have long forgotten that I made the gesture of praying that prayer from the tract in my living room that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandermac Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 I get spammed with so many religious email forwards and they make me sick. Does anyone know of any atheist forwards I can spam back with? I mean I've tried to be nice but that doesn't work. Before I block them I would like to fill their box with godless spam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Captain Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 They scared the hell out of me when I was six years old.....(not literally, no pun intended ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Captain Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 They scared the hell out of me(not literally, no pun intended ) when I was six years old.....and thats about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gradstu09 Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 I don't know why, maybe it was the area and culture I grew up in, but it took me until I was over 20 to get tracted. I still treasure my one and only Chick tract! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted March 11, 2008 Share Posted March 11, 2008 Even as a Christian, I thought they were bigoted and stupid. I was converted at birth, so they wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabula Rasa Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 With the current discussions of tracts printed to look like money and the god-themed e-mails, I was curious if these methods of evangelizing have ever actually "led someone to the Lord." I always, even as a Christian, thought they were pretty lame. Now they make me laugh. Sometimes I even feel embarrassed for their authors and distributors. Did you, or anyone you've ever heard of, become a Christian because of exposure to these evangelistic tools? - Chris You know, I hope I never meet Jack Chick, because it's going to take every last drop of my willpower to keep from punching him in the face! That hateful motherfucker's horribly drawn evil little tracts scared the shit out of me when I was a kid! They made me doubt my salvation more times than I can count, and I'll always hate that bastard for that. Now I know that there was nothing to be saved from. I'll say it again:if there's an afterlife, I'm gonna team up with Robert Ingersoll and beat the fuck out of John(Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God) Edwards, and then me and Rob can go administer an ass beating to Chick too.(Though, I've got a feeling we may have to get in line, probably a lot of folks who want to have a fist to face talk with both those fuckers.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trev Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Tracts always made me totally cringe, even when I was a Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Internet Jesus Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 I projectile puke bloody nicotine in the direction of any whackfucks who send me that garbage and block ALL who do. EVEN IF BY ACCIDENT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gobbler Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Gee, I thought Chick was an artistic genius! When I was a young fundy we had a local pizza joint owned and operated by a christian. Best and only pizza in town. He always had the latest and greatest Chick tracts and sometimes the full-size Chick comic books. Since he took out the jukebox with all the satan-inspired rock music the only thing to do while munching down on pizza was read those tracts. I found them quite entertaining and spooky at the same time. Years later I got into those "Alberto" series put out by Chick. The ex-priest turned conspiracy monger. I really got into those. Yet I don't think I've personally heard of anyone getting "saved" because of these tracts and comics. I'm sure you can find testimonies of conversions on the Chick website. But c'mon, if a poorly written, grossly drawn tract convicts you to get saved then you were probably headed in that direction already! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knitterman Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 I projectile puke bloody nicotine in the direction of any whackfucks who send me that garbage and block ALL who do. EVEN IF BY ACCIDENT. hahaha.... About a month ago, one of my customers emailed me a question about one of my products, and there was an attachment on the email. Since I use TheBat! for email, and see all email as text only (no HTML, no graphics), everything shows as an attachment and I ignore it. Then she wrote back and "apologized" for the attachment, which she said was meant for her son. The attachment was a preachy thing (one of those nasty "forward" type things), because she wanted her son to get saved, and it was accidentally attached to her email to me. I wrote back saying no apology was needed, because I don't open attachments as a rule unless the plaintext email explains what it is. She wrote me yet again. This is her last email: I don't want to seem "preachy" but would you look at the attached file I sent in error if you're not a Christian? If it could make a difference in your life, I would be so glad that I was able to reach out "by accident." I answered: Well, thank you kindly, but I am not a Christian any more. I don't generally discuss religious matters even with my closest family. Christians, of course, don't believe in "accidents", everything is "for a reason", and "the holy spirit must have known you needed that." So it probably burst her bubble that I wouldn't read it or discuss it. Being in an industry flooded with religious folk, and my need to earn an income, I have to be careful how I handle my religious customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizened Sage Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 xandermac, To spam xtians, you might make an e-mail with the essense of Dan Barker's "Why Jesus" in it. It's a scathing indictment of Jesus immorality in the form of bible quotes. http://ffrf.org/nontracts/jesus.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MesaGman Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 I like Jack Chick comics they're sooo funny. It amuses me to see what kind of condesending world the X-tians live in. They still think Chinese people wear Mao hats, and that all non believers are grotesque silly nosed looking egg shaped balding men (middle aged). While Uncle Bob. (a slim, handsome man with a smart looking mostach and his daugther "Little Suzie". (resembles a Gnome character from WoW) look "normal". Jack Chick depicts Aborginals as drunks with "scent lines" wafting from their bodies, teachers as psychotic skinny elders with grotestque jowels, Jews with the "6" shaped nose, and Latinos are rats like men with wiskers and tatoos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 I met one guy who swears he was saved by a Chick tract. He'd been a somewhat devout Catholic, I guess. But he was a totally insane KJV-only psychopath who believed that only hardcore fundamentalists were saved and that all non-KJV translations were of the devil. That guy was such an asshole; the kind that all other Christians despise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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