I remember handing out those cartoon Chick Tracts when I was a Protestant. As uninformed as I was, I liked the simplicity and brashness of the little booklets. Now I know how crude and deceptive they were. Jack Chick just died and Jimmy Akin wrote a bit about it.
First Jimmy writes about Nine Things To Know About Jack Chick, and second he wrote of his meeting with Chick. You can read that story below. Jimmy wrote,
Anti-Catholic comic book writer/artist Jack Chick passed away on Sunday, October 23, 2016.
Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him.
As far as I know, I’m the only Catholic apologist ever to meet him.
Below is an account of that meeting, originally published in the March, 2004 issue of This Rock (now Catholic Answers Magazine).
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For decades the cartoon tracts of Jack T. Chick have fascinated and horrified. Their pages contain the most extreme, paranoid conspiracy theories imaginable. Among other things, Chick publications will tell you that:
- the Catholic Church keeps “the name of every Protestant church member in the world” in a “big computer” in the Vatican for use in future persecutions (see his tract My Name . . . In the Vatican? );
- through the Jesuits, the Vatican runs an extensive conspiracy that includes the Illuminati, the Council on Foreign Relations, international bankers, the Mafia, the Club of Rome, the Masons, and the New Age movement, among others (Four Horsemen);
- the Catholic conspiracy also includes creating venomously anti-Catholic movements such as Communism, the Ku Klux Klan, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, and Islam (The Big Betrayal, The Godfathers: Alberto Part Three, The Force: Alberto Part Four, The Prophet: Alberto Part Six).
Chick’s material is weirdly compelling. It is amateurish, lurid, ham-fisted, and viciously hateful at times. But it is intense, and something about that intensity makes people want to read it. His tracts generate a kind of bizarre fascination. Since he first began publishing them, Chick has distributed over half a billion, making him the most published comic book author in the world.
Yet little is known of him. The seventy-nine-year-old Chick is a recluse. His office does not give tours, he never allows his photo to be taken, and he never, ever gives interviews. Little is known about him beyond what is revealed in the biography on his web site, www.chick.com.
For the rest of Jimmy’s story, click here.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I guess that he knows better now!
For the life of me, I could never figure out why some enterprising Catholic never retaliated with 'Mic Tracts" … ;) It would have been an instant winner.
STEVE RAY HERE: A friend of mine has made tract and similar cartoon fashion for Catholics. Check here http://grottopress.org/collections/cartoon-tracts
Dear Steve,
I'd like to know what your take is on some of the alleged testimonials given by some of those who claim to be former priests, nuns, etc, left the Church and now on a traveling tour of spewing out slanderous allegations against the Catholic Church, writing slanderous books, etc? Surely you've come across some of these people yourself either through their books and/or met them in person or online? How do you deal with such people? Have any of them returned to the Church after hearing you speak to them? Have any other anti-Catholic Protestants came forward to thank you and/or apologize? I keep praying the likes of John Ankerberg, Jimmy Swaggart and others to also come clean like the Prodigal Son
Gina-Maria
STEVE RAY HERE: Gina, there are a lot of anti-Catholics and many of them are scams. Some of them are in it for the money and some just to prove they really are “real christians” now. It is like a boy changing competing clubs. When he leaves one club he has to really downplay and speak evil of the old club to convince the new club he is really “all in.”
Most of these people refuse to carry on a civil discussion. I have had a few and been involved in others. Unhappily, they tend to more want to argue than to learn.