Christianity lost one of its strangest figures last night. For those who don't recognize the name, Chick was responsible for those little Christian cartoon tracts you find in bus stops or public bathrooms. His most famous tract was probably This Was Your Life!, which told the story of a dead man going to meet Jesus, only to find his name was not in the book of life before being cast into hell. The last page of the tract was a tiny contract, which encouraged the reader to check a box indicating that he or she would, in fact, accept Jesus as their savior right then, a feature that would be included in all subsequent tracts.
Chick was the consummate paranoid conspiracy theorist, believing that pretty much every bad thing in history was part of a diabolical plan by the Catholic Church to lead people away from God and toward damnation. From neopaganism to Islamic terror to gay rights, pretty much everything was secretly an attack on true Christianity orchestrated by the Pope, who is ultimately the puppet of Satan.
I studied Chick tracts extensively in college, although it wasn't for a class. As a member of the speech team, I had a tradition of writing my rhet crit speech each year about an extreme religious group or figure (another year, I did a speech on the Genocide Awareness Project). I don't recall having the chance to speak directly to Chick when I was researching the project, but his company was kind enough to send me a sample box containing one of each of their tracts then in print, which was probably about fifty.
Anyway, the Chick Publications website (chick.com) isn't working at the moment, probably from the volume of people sending condolences to his widow, but when it cools down, if you're not familiar with his work, you should check it out. It's fascinating.
Edit - correction
Chick was the consummate paranoid conspiracy theorist, believing that pretty much every bad thing in history was part of a diabolical plan by the Catholic Church to lead people away from God and toward damnation. From neopaganism to Islamic terror to gay rights, pretty much everything was secretly an attack on true Christianity orchestrated by the Pope, who is ultimately the puppet of Satan.
I studied Chick tracts extensively in college, although it wasn't for a class. As a member of the speech team, I had a tradition of writing my rhet crit speech each year about an extreme religious group or figure (another year, I did a speech on the Genocide Awareness Project). I don't recall having the chance to speak directly to Chick when I was researching the project, but his company was kind enough to send me a sample box containing one of each of their tracts then in print, which was probably about fifty.
Anyway, the Chick Publications website (chick.com) isn't working at the moment, probably from the volume of people sending condolences to his widow, but when it cools down, if you're not familiar with his work, you should check it out. It's fascinating.
Edit - correction
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