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Goodbye Jesus

Thoughts on Jack Chick?


ShotoManhattan

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I'm sure most of you have read a Chick Tract before that came from your church or from family or friends. I was introduced to him by a Fundamentalist Christian and I just was flabbergasted at how anyone could truly believe what he writes. Pretty much, he wrote mortality comics about saying specific words to accept Jesus, that the King James Version Bible is the only correct translation and everything other religion is Satanic or a Jew/Jesuit invention. It's as if the Bible was taken literally word for words. He also tended up to hang out with people who claimed to be parts of other "bad" religions, but were found to be frauds playing on people's prejudices.

 

The one fraud that stuck out was Alberto Rivera who claimed he was part of a Jesuit conspiracy and Islam was created by the Catholic Church. It was later found he wanted by the police for writing and was also a terrible man to his family. I think honestly the guy was abused by Jesuits as a child and used his story to comfort himself about what really happened.

 

The things put in the Tracts just don't add up logically like saying the Catholic Church created Judaism, Islam, Communism, Nazism, the KKK and even Freemasons or the Catholic Church is Satanic. I mean seriously? Read a book and do some research on Catholicism for crying out loud. The Freemasons are against the Catholic Church because they are to be descended from the remnants of the Knights Templar.

 

I know there have been bad people in the Catholic Church, various bad things happened and the child sex abuse scandal hurt their image, but it seems with every interfaith forum I've been on, it's always Fundamentalists trashing Catholics while putting their version of Christianity and their Christians on a pedestal without acknowledging the wrongs that their people have done like some pastors in the American South saying slavery and segregation was A-OK. It hit home for me when I had more faith.

 

I thought mostly he was hilarious and a horrible person, Encyclopedia Dramatica said he died and went to hell.

 

Any views on Chick or funny stories?

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I'm going to go ahead and embarrass myself here.  I was binge-reading Chick Tracts when I fell down the rabbit hole.  I don't know exactly what happened, but it triggered my psychosis which led to many years of religious mania, paranoia, anxiety, and depression.  I contemplated suicide.  I contemplated homicide.  I had no self-worth.  It took years to deprogram myself and regain my so-called sanity.  Looking back I should have been institutionalized; in that instance it may have saved me years of wasted time and emotional Hell.  It still took what I now know was a dangerous cocktail if psychiatric medication to even begin to stabilize me.

 

What really kills me though it that I knew it was bullshit.  I'm a tabletop pen-and-paper gamer and have read his Dark Dungeons tract more than once.  It was probably one of the funniest depictions of my hobby I'd ever read.  Funny and wrong on every level.  I mean every level.  And I still fell for it.  In the end I gave them all away and try not to think about it too much.

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I remember the tracks. My favorite as a kid was the story about a "witch" who was going to be sacrificed by her coven and two attractive body builder type guys rescued her from sacrificial satanic death. Then, preached to her the word and she accepted Jesus. Ta dah!!! saved....and cue Disney ending. I remember liking this track in particular because it had so many "forbidden" themes like witch craft, satanism, and "scary" stuff in general that a good christian girl was not allowed to ask or know about, but somehow my stupid parents thought the tracks were ok because Jesus. I think my brother still has some of the old tracks from the 70's. I don't know if they are Chick tracks. But the ones we read were crazy. I think there was even a track about exorcism....something to do with a priest trying to help a boy or girl who was demon possessed. The demon inside the child was not afraid of the priest, but when the two good looking body builder dudes (maybe Jack...or whoever wrote the track, had some unresolved homosexual desires???? I mean these guys were super cute and wore tight clothing so their bulging muscles were unavoidable) came to help, the demon was scared and left the child.  Weird shit and my brother and I could not read the tracks fast enough and my parents chose to remain clueless.

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Check out this gem I found on an atheist website.......ridiculous. They discontinued printing this particular one because people were not having it. Too over the top and grotesque.

 

image.png

 

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2 hours ago, 1989 said:

I'm going to go ahead and embarrass myself here.  I was binge-reading Chick Tracts when I fell down the rabbit hole.  I don't know exactly what happened, but it triggered my psychosis which led to many years of religious mania, paranoia, anxiety, and depression.  I contemplated suicide.  I contemplated homicide.  I had no self-worth.  It took years to deprogram myself and regain my so-called sanity.  Looking back I should have been institutionalized; in that instance it may have saved me years of wasted time and emotional Hell.  It still took what I now know was a dangerous cocktail if psychiatric medication to even begin to stabilize me.

 

What really kills me though it that I knew it was bullshit.  I'm a tabletop pen-and-paper gamer and have read his Dark Dungeons tract more than once.  It was probably one of the funniest depictions of my hobby I'd ever read.  Funny and wrong on every level.  I mean every level.  And I still fell for it.  In the end I gave them all away and try not to think about it too much.

 

Sounds like these tracts really gave you hell, sorry to hear you had to go through it all. I know how stressors can affect people. I only came across some of these tracts way back in the day before I got into Christianity. If unnerved me for a few seconds and then I threw it away and did some heathen stuff. I think the one I came across was some WWII one where guys were dying on the battlefield and going to hell, something like that. If there is any consolation, I am sure everyone has something tied to their religion they would rather not think about. I personally had to deal with intrusive thoughts that lead to years of depression and anxiety. It was not until I started my way out did these thoughts really temper down to where they are almost nonexistent (I only started my journey out of fundamentalism about six months ago or so).

 

You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Fear is a powerful motivator, especially the kind of fear and paranoia way down in the human psyche these tracts speak to.

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Found one I remember....I can't seem to find the tracks with the two good looking guys who are strong for Jesus, but must have mixed up several different tracks.  Anyhoo, I remember this one...


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1905sampler.jpg

 

NON-STOCKED TITLE

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This is the only picture I can find of the comic/tract that I remember with the two attractive men heroes in tight clothing. If I remember correctly, this guy had a partner that looked a lot like a buff Ken doll.....anyone know about this series or remember these stories? Don't think they are chick tracts, but have no idea where or who they came from...

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/01/71/92/0171921cdfb72acd995b8d009e56c9e6.jpg

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I never knew they had little references to these things "that happened" in similar fashion in the real world. Did you ever follow up on these claims? I read somewhere recently that one of Chick's sources was totally bogus and was exposed as an utter fraud. I would like to see the sources he used and to read the original claims myself. Especially of someone being bitten by the supernatural in front of doctors and such.

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14 minutes ago, TinMan said:

I never knew they had little references to these things "that happened" in similar fashion in the real world. Did you ever follow up on these claims? I read somewhere recently that one of Chick's sources was totally bogus and was exposed as an utter fraud. I would like to see the sources he used and to read the original claims myself. Especially of someone being bitten by the supernatural in front of doctors and such.

No, I never followed up on the claims....I was maybe 7 or 8....I think when I read these tracts. Now that I think about it.....my brother and I were obsessed with the satanic/witchcraft topic tracts. We asked many questions and now that I think back, all of a sudden the "cool" tracts disappeared and my brother and I lost interest after a while.

As far as Chick's sources being bogus would not surprise me. Maybe christian comics are like christian music? The "artists" could not make it in the real world, so go find some gullible christians and rake in the cash...

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This one upset me a lot as a kid. I remember wondering why the girl who brought god's message didn't help the little boy??? She went for help but was too late? Oh well, at least the little boy went to heaven....... I just found out this particular tract was meant to target black audiences.... Sometimes I fucking hate christians....

 

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Chicken tracts. Oh boy. Chicken tracts.

 

They're almost totally unknown here in the Vaterland. Fortunately. I've looked at some online and they seem like an idiocy test to me. If you don't want to burn them all after reading halfway through one, you're a braindead moron. Even other christians should feel ashamed at how unbefuckinglievably dumb they are. That people are really, actually, trying to use them to find new victims converts speaks volumes about the US brand of christianity.

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14 hours ago, TinMan said:

Check out this gem I found on an atheist website.......ridiculous. They discontinued printing this particular one because people were not having it. Too over the top and grotesque.

 

image.png

 

I remember hearing this one got banned after some outcry.

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I didn't read a whole lot of Chick Tracts but I still think the meme made out of one of them is funny 

 

image.png.5c8e749b6788576d6864e4263fc1ffd9.png

This one. 

e94.png

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This one was the original spoof tho

24b.jpg

 

Even though this one was my fav

image.png

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Oh, I love me a good "Chick Tract"! Great cartoony fun! When I first saw one, I actually thought that it was a parody. Waited fer the punch line, and then found that there wasn't one. But I enjoyed the art and the silly stories. Really over the top, and highly entertaining. Jack Chick was apparently an earnest man, out to save the world by his doodles. And he provided me with mirth and merriment, and that can't be too bad!   

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"They hated Jesus because he told them the truth?" Good ol' Jack and the truth got on like burrs and a flannelette singlet!
"An Engineer told me before he died,
An' I'll never know if the bastard lied!" ...

Casey

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On 2/26/2018 at 6:58 AM, Tsathoggua9 said:

Oh, I love me a good "Chick Tract"! Great cartoony fun! When I first saw one, I actually thought that it was a parody. Waited fer the punch line, and then found that there wasn't one. But I enjoyed the art and the silly stories. Really over the top, and highly entertaining. Jack Chick was apparently an earnest man, out to save the world by his doodles. And he provided me with mirth and merriment, and that can't be too bad!   

 

Hah!

 

That way my reaction too.

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There was another tract I remember that was just bad to read and I wanted to punch someone in the face after reading it. It was one where an old missionary couple were doing missions in Africa for decades and were taking a flight home along with a recently paroled criminal sitting next to them on the plane. The couple believed in works to be saved while the criminal just said specific words to accept Jesus. The plane crashes into the sea and everyone dies. The criminal gets to go to heaven while the missionary couple gets chastised by the faceless God and sent to Hell all because they didn't say a specific phrase despite spreading the Word of Christ in Africa for some time.

 

 

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3 hours ago, ShotoManhattan said:

The criminal gets to go to heaven while the missionary couple gets chastised by the faceless God and sent to Hell all because they didn't say a specific phrase despite spreading the Word of Christ in Africa for some time.

 

The words you were looking for are "magic spell" :pureevil:

 

Yeah one more of the many reasons why one could easily assume Chicken is really an atheist on a deep cover mission to destroy the cult from within. If so, however, someone seriously underestimated the idiocy and doublethink of the cultists.

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On 2/23/2018 at 11:46 PM, TinMan said:

 

Sounds like these tracts really gave you hell, sorry to hear you had to go through it all. I know how stressors can affect people. I only came across some of these tracts way back in the day before I got into Christianity. If unnerved me for a few seconds and then I threw it away and did some heathen stuff. I think the one I came across was some WWII one where guys were dying on the battlefield and going to hell, something like that. If there is any consolation, I am sure everyone has something tied to their religion they would rather not think about. I personally had to deal with intrusive thoughts that lead to years of depression and anxiety. It was not until I started my way out did these thoughts really temper down to where they are almost nonexistent (I only started my journey out of fundamentalism about six months ago or so).

 

You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Fear is a powerful motivator, especially the kind of fear and paranoia way down in the human psyche these tracts speak to.

 

I probably should have chimed in earlier, but I was at a loss for words.  Just wanted to say thank you.

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We've all been sucked in and damaged by our own beliefs. I don't know that anyone here could criticise you for what happened to you, @1989.

 

Does anyone know what that banned comic is implying? Just that they were beating the child or something worse?

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@austere I think the implication is the father was molesting the girl. The mother in the comic mentions "it" happened to her when she was a child by her uncle.

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On 06/03/2018 at 4:05 AM, TinMan said:

@austere I think the implication is the father was molesting the girl. The mother in the comic mentions "it" happened to her when she was a child by her uncle.

Oh, wow, I see it now. Don't know how I missed that. Holy shit.

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16 hours ago, austere said:

Oh, wow, I see it now. Don't know how I missed that. Holy shit.

It's pretty much why that comic was removed from stores.

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On 2/23/2018 at 8:42 PM, 1989 said:

What really kills me though it that I knew it was bullshit.  I'm a tabletop pen-and-paper gamer and have read his Dark Dungeons tract more than once.  It was probably one of the funniest depictions of my hobby I'd ever read.  Funny and wrong on every level.  I mean every level.  And I still fell for it.  In the end I gave them all away and try not to think about it too much.

 

They made a movie of the Dark Dungeons one.

 

 

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