I should probably save this for another time when I’ve got more time to write all that I have to say about Jack Chick and his world famous “Chick tracts,” (see his site, Chick Publications) but I can’t wait to at least show you the trailer for a documentary about Jack Chick and his comic books and comic book-style tracts. As it relates to me, Jack Chick is one of the instrumental causes of my dropping out of Bible College. I didn’t do my homework because I was too busy devouring his comics purchased from a nearby Christian bookstore.
Anyway, the following trailer features mostly the ways Chick’s views are poked fun of in the film, but if you ever get a chance to watch the documentary itself, as I did on the Documentary Channel a few days ago, you would see how much the filmmakers and even some of the non-Christian interviewees have for his comics as works of art. They say his work is even featured in galleries across the country and I think they said it even has a presence at comic book conventions and other such forums in which such material is auctioned. Jack Chick is collectible. All you fundies out there better hold onto at least a few copies of his tracts in case you need to cash them in once the economy completely collapses!
The picture to the right was found on the site of Catholic lay apologist Jimmy Akin’s website. He found it on the church website of an Independent Fundamental Baptist church whose pastor (right) has a testimony similar to that of the “Bad Bob” featured in the Chick tract of the same name held by the author (aka, Jack Chick himself, left). If you want to read about this picture and the hand-drawn portrait of Jack Chick at the Catholic apologist’s website, click here, here, and here. They make for fascinating reading, and serve as a little background info to some things I may share in a future post when I’ve got more time.
Below is the trailer to God’s Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack T. Chick.
Oh yeah, there are a few bios you will want to read on Jack Chick and his associates at Wikipedia in conjunction with this video:
Wow, the Wikipedia links are scary. Those are the kind of people he borrowed from for those weird tales.
Come to think of it, I may have read a book by Rivera that was required reading at my college, it had the Jesuit conspiracy stuff and the assassination of Lincoln traced to Jesuits, too.
I’d love to see that documentary, sometime. I’ll have to find a way to see it.
Thanks, John.
If you can’t purchase it at the website provided at the end of the video I posted, or elsewhere online, then I guess, if you’ve got a DVR, you may be able to set it to watch for the next time it shows…again, if you’ve got the Documentary Channel in your cable or satellite package.
And yes, it really is mind-boggling the amount of deception and crime that was going on among Chick’s star sources. This alone makes his public anonymity more understandable, but unfortunately undermines his moral credibility. The appearance is such that he seems willing to profit from these false tales, while refusing to be accountable for the challenges to their integrity.
Independent Baptists who support Chick’s “ministry” (like that of Hyles during his life) have little room to criticize the TV preachers and their endless parade of scandals.
The cautionary tale from the experience of Chick’s promotion of these con-artists is the danger of making your decisions solely on “praying about it.” This seems to be Chick’s primary reason for standing behind these characters in the face of the mountain of evidence against them.
I just read the tale of the Catholic apologist guy meeting Jack Chick. Fascinating. Thanks for the link, bro.
That’s a great story, isn’t it? I don’t know if you listen to The Dividing Line with James White very often, but Jimmy Akin is one of the Catholic “pop” apologists White occaisionally finds reason to critique. I thought the name was familiar until I read that Akin worked with Catholic Answers.
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