Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

I've been collecting that guy's crap for years. I love the photo-realistic drawing style, mixed with the utterly unrealistic take on the world.
When I was four, I found "This WAS your Life" by him lying on the ground. It scared me, and I begged my parents to take me to church the next day.
They did, and I was so damn bored I never went back. Episcopalians.
 

Public school teachers are the very devil.

But not NEARLY as bad as us university professors, who are all out to brainwash our students into turning the U.S. into a new Soviet state.
 

What a neat comic. Next year I think Ill get some and include them in my Great Pumkin cards. I couldn't help but notice that the non-christian little girl was named Buffey (as in the Vampire Slayer).
 

I agree that Chick publications are over the top, but they work. And they work often enough that he has been encouraged to keep writing and distributing them for lo these many years.

Rich makes his case. One of those tracts scared him into begging to go to church. Perhaps if his parents had taken him to a non-boring church, he would be Christian today. How many devout Christians exist today as a result of "Hell and Damnation" preaching that literally scared the Hell out of them?

Fear of Hell was a contributing factor in my own conversion.

Rich, that style is far from photo-realism, if you want to see photo realism go to http://leftfieldperspectives.blogspot.com/2005/08/arts.html. I put some examples of photo-realism in my post of that day. You'll be impressed. I was.
 

Dang it didn't paste in it's entirety. It's in my blog, in my August 11th post.

Wait a minute. When you were FOUR? You're telling me that you could not only read but could comprehend what you read at the age of 4? LOL, My mother tells me I wasn't even talking yet when I was 4.
 

LOL, And look at me now! Now, I can't shut up!
 

Yup. My mom claims I was reading Shakespeare at four. She's wrong: there's a difference between holding a book in your hands and reading it.
Yeah, I noticed that the quality of the new ones have not-so-great art in them. His clumsy, poorly disguised hatred is still intact, tho'.
Sure-I never joined a church, but that didn't stop me from learning everything I could about every religion I ever heard of. I feel pretty damn good about that.
And I suppose we could sit here all day talking about what it might mean that I lost all fear of hell as a young boy, but I don't feel like it.
 

Yeah there are so much material for bloggin' in those Chick crab booklets. I collect them for fun just to see how what they can come up with next. It's great entertainment, but sadly some believe in 'em
 

Mark, you are the only person I've ever heard with anything good to say about Jack Chick OR scare tactics used as a vehicle for the Gospel.

Even most of the people I've known who USED such tactics denied that they were doing so. But you just embrace it as an acceptable mode of evangelism?

In. Cred. I. Ble.

Holy Joe (so to speak)! Emotion, which is about the only thing tickled by all that dang fire and brimstone, usually wears off.

If anyone's lasting relationship with God starts under such preaching, I'd say it happened in spite of the preaching not because of it.

But ... spiritual truth is stronger than human bluster. And spiritual truth is stronger than scary comic books. Sadly, though, I'll bet more hearts are hardened by that crap than made ready for the truth.

--ER
 

Mark Maness,

As a fellow Christian, I am concerned about your endorsement of Jack Chick on this page.

I think the world at-large would be a lot better off hearing what it is we are for – sharing the love of Christ, for example – than constantly being bombarded with our opposition statements.

I also believe that it is God who determines who gets saved, not you or me or Jack Chick.

So let’s just spread the Good News, and let God determine who gets tossed into the Lake of Fire.

But Mark, those are just some theological points, and you’re probably thinking that theology never saved anyone. I have to agree. It’s Jesus who does that.

Here, I believe is the most troubling issue about Chick for those of us who are believers: Do you really think that the Kingdom of God is built on a foundation of lies? Do you believe it’s OK to spread a few falsehoods if we ultimately proclaim Christ?

Here’s are some statements made in Jack Chick publications:

--the Vatican plans to exterminate the Jews and set up the seat of the papacy in the Temple of Jerusalem, where the pope will reign as God, literally fulfilling the prophecies concerning the "man of sin" in 2 Thess 2:3-4;
-- the Vatican financed the Moslem-Jewish wars in the 10th century;
-- the Jesuits assassinated Abraham Lincoln;
-- Communist founders Marx and Engels were coached and directed by Jesuit agents;
-- the Jesuits also trained Trotsky, Lenin, and Josef Stalin;
-- Adolf Hitler was a pawn of the Catholics, while his book Mein Kampf was really written by a Jesuit priest;
-- the Vatican was behind World War I and II, and the Russian revolution of 1917;
-- the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazis, and the Masons are all secretly being directed by Jesuit agents;

Mark, I am not Roman Catholic, but if you believe, as the Bible says, that all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, you must acknowledge that they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jack Chick is running a campaign of hate against our brothers, and I am sure you know what it says in 1st John about he who says he loves God, yet hates his brother.

Chick has had his chances to repent from such statements over the years, and I would certainly forgive him if he did. But he adamantly stands by them, as you can see by his Web site.

Additionally, Cornerstone and Christianity Today have verified fraudulent stories in Jack Chick comics.

In “The Devil’s Night,” Chick emphasizes pagan ties to Halloween without discussing its strong Christian connections.

Once again, the truth is acrificed so that Chick can inspire fear.

I submit that the truth is nothing to fear. The Bible says it sets us free.

Grace and peace to you and yours,
Anon.
 

Oh, for Christ's sake! (literally) All I said was that many people were converted back in the days when preachers preached Hellfire and damnation.

Go find a copy of "Sinners in the Hands of an angry God" By Jonothan Edwards.

Don't make the mistake of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Just because Jack Chick has made some outrageous claims in his pamplets, it doesn't mean there is NO truth in ANY of them.

I stand by what I said. If something scares people into church, then however it happened, no matter how flawed the theology, it had the right effect.

God works in mysterious ways. Do you deny that? Can you deny that? Truthfully?

I myself was converted partly because of such a message. Can I say it was the message or the speaker or maybe I was in the right place at the right time for God to work a miracle in my life? Who knows?

Go here and read about it. http://leftfieldperspectives.blogspot.com/2005/09/testimony.html

Tell me again that because Jack Chick has SOME ridiculous theories that ALL his messages should be discounted.

Now go back and read what I said. If Rich had gone to an unboring church because a Chick pamplet scared him, he might well be a Christian today.

An I saying that SOMETIMES the end justifies the means? Yes.
 

Sure, God uses all kinds of vessels to reach the ignorant. But once we know better, we'e expected to use some judgment. I think that's a Proverb. It ought to be, anyway.

Hellfire and damnation sermonizing, likewise, is best when preached to the ignorant -- those already living in fear, as a way to provide a bridge to God's grace and the peace that passes all understanding.

But you make huge assumptions that all, or even most, of the people who get scared into church get scared ultimately to Jesus.

You say it worked for you. If so, then you probably got scared into a church, then heard the Gospel. I don't think they are the same. The Gospel is "good news," not scary news!

To people who can actually read and think, all Jack Chick's crap does is give them something else to deride about Christianity.

Oh, and don't look now, but Jonathan Edwards' sermon, while famous, is just as bad. He was preaching from Deuteronomy for one thing:

"The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow."

Jesus! So to speak. Where the hell, so to speak, is the good news in that?

And, no, the end does NOT justify the means if the means is a prevarication -- whether it's a scare tactic in the name of Jesus or, well, the runup to a war in the name of George W. Bush.

And there, I believe I have stumbled on the truth. Mark, you so cling to your president and his tattered reputation as an honest man that you've come to believe just what you said:

"Am I saying that SOMETIMES the end justifies the means? Yes."

--ER
 

Mark,
I had a chance to go and read your testimony, as you asked, and it was great. I thought it was a wonderful example of the transforming nature of the Gospel, and I appreciate you putting it out there.

I guess, though, that if the ends justify the means, the church should not have waited on you all those years. They should have sent a couple guys to rough you up a little bit, given you the flying toe hold, forcefully carried you down the aisle and submerged your head in the baptismal font until you gurgled up a confession of Jesus.

Do you think you would be a committed believer today if that had happened? Do you believe that’s the kind of relationship God is looking for with his children?

It’s justifiable, right, under you way of thinking, to ensure that the Gospel message is proclaimed? Ends justify the means?

Thing is, Jack Chick never saved single soul. Neither have you or me. That work is done by the Holy Spirit. That’s why we don’t have to stay up all night worrying whether someone is saved. Jesus saves, and we can do NOTHING to save ourselves.

And I really must say again that I believe it is our duty and obligation to condemn hatred and lying – most especially if it comes from someone who claims to be speaking for God.

Since you were kind enough to share your testimony, I want to share a brief version of mine:

I grew up in a church that preached judgment and hellfire. So much so that, even though I had a conversion experience at the age of 10, I feared the thoughts that came into my mind. I became convinced, based on a verse I read in the bible, that my sin was unpardonable.

I just could never seem to measure up to the other righteous Christians I knew, and I believed I was already condemned anyway. So, over the years, I just gave up. It was too difficult to try anymore.

I, like you, drifted into a lot of things that I am not too proud of. But a few years ago, I became aware that God had never deserted me as I had feared.

Today, I’m not the same man my wife married (and that’s a good thing). Like you, the Gospel changed me. So yes, of course, I do believe the Lord works in mysterious ways. Truthfully.

But let’s say, hypothetically of course, that there was a certain blogger named, oh, I don’t know, Mitch Radner.

Let’s say Mitch got himself a Chick tract as a young pup and was scared into church, but he didn’t like it, they bored him to tears because it was a Southern Baptist church and they don’t dance or speak in tongues or anything.

So he never goes back.

Let’s say Mitch over the year becomes well educated about religion. But all he knows about Christians is from the Chick tracts and discussions on the blogs. Maybe, based on that, he doesn’t want to join up. Not sure I blame him.

But what if Mitch discovered that God isn’t exactly who he’s been made out to be?

_17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. – John 3:17

What if he came to believe that God disdains judgmentalism in its many forms and truly wants us all to live together peacefully and respecting one another?

_34Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. – Acts 10:34-35.

_If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. –Romans 12:18

And what if Mitch found out that God cares about his big problems and little problems, even when no one else does?

_7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. – 1st Peter 5:7

What if he understood that God would never give up on him, never leave him, no matter how many times he failed – or even if he didn’t feel “religious” at all?

_38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39.

Maybe Mitch finds out that God has been given a bad rap, and that he wants to know the true God, the one of justice and peace and mercy.

_The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. – Proverbs 29:7.

What if one day Mitch decides that God has little interest in all these debates over doctrine, who’s right, who’s wrong, etc. but just wants people to follow him and reach out to each other?

_28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g]There is no commandment greater than these."
32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. Mark 12-28-34.

Now that’s mysterious, huh?
Peace,
Anon.