Chick tract

Chick tracts are short evangelical gospel tracts, originally created and published by American publisher and religious cartoonist Jack T. Chick. Since his death, his company (Chick Publications) has continued to print tracts, including tracts by new writers.
Although many of Chick's tracts express views that are generally accepted within mainstream Christian theology, several tracts have expressed controversial viewpoints. Most notably, Chick tracts express strong anti-Catholic views, as well as criticisms of other faiths, including Judaism, Islam, and Mormonism.
Chick Publications.
Chick Publications produces and markets the Chick tracts, along with other comic books, books, and posters. Chick Publications has its headquarters in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and a mailing address in Ontario, California.
The company estimates it has printed over 800 million tracts during its first 50 years of business. On its website they note that "Our ministry is primarily publishing the gospel tracts of Jack T. Chick, but we do occasionally publish a manuscript in book form." They state that if the content "educates Christians in one of the areas for which we have a tract, we would love to see it" and cite several examples; the online store lists nearly a dozen book categories.
As of January 2015, Chick Publications had produced over 250 different titles, about 100 of which are still in print, and are available in over 100 languages. The company will print an "out-of-print" title but a minimum of 10,000 copies must be ordered.
Format and storylines.
The tracts themselves are approximately , and approximately twenty pages in length. The material is written in comic book format, with the front panel featuring the title of the tract and the inside back panel devoted to a standard sinner's prayer. The back cover of the tract contains a blank space for churches to stamp their name and address; Chick Publications is willing to print custom back covers, but at least 10,000 tracts must be ordered.
The storyline commonly features at least one Christian person and one or more "non-Christians". Depending on the storyline the "non-Christian" may be a stereotypical "wicked person" (such as a criminal; an example being the eponymous character of the tract "Bad Bob!"), a member of a "false religion" (as Chick defines such; an example being the Mormon missionaries from "The Visitors"), or a "moral person" depending on "good works" to gain eventual entrance to Heaven (as opposed to salvation through Jesus Christ; an example is the marshal in "Gun Slinger"). In these storylines, the Christian attempts to convert the non-Christian to Christianity (and may also feature a contrast where another character, often the "moral person", does not), with the convert receiving entry into Heaven, while the person rejecting the message is condemned to Hell. The endings may feature a recycled scene in which Jesus Christ (portrayed as a giant, glowing, faceless figure sitting on a throne) condemns or welcomes a character, an angel taking the believer to Heaven, or the non-believer meeting demons upon his or her arrival to Hell.
Themes.
Chick tracts end with a suggested prayer for the reader to pray to accept Jesus Christ. In most of these tracts it is a standard sinner's prayer for salvation. In the tracts dealing with "false religions", the prayer includes a clause to reject these religions. Included with the prayer are directions for converting to Christianity, which is also repeated on the inside back panel along with steps to take should the reader convert to Christianity.
"Strips, Toons, and Bluesies", written by Douglas Bevan Dowd and Todd Hignite, stated that "it's safe to assume Chick saw at least some" Tijuana bibles since the books and, according to Dowd and Hignite, Chick tracts were "strikingly similar" to Tijuana bibles; like Tijuana bibles the tracts mostly targeted youth of lower socioeconomic classes and "were loaded with stereotypes". The book stated that Chick tracts contained "way-out, wild" portrayals of recreational drug usage and portrayed "the sexual revolution". In addition the comics included supernatural elements, occult rituals, torture, and cannibalism.
Some Chick tracts have been updated and changed in subsequent releases. The content of "That Crazy Guy!" was changed after the rise of the AIDS crisis (the tract was originally about herpes). Also, the ending to "The Poor Little Witch" (in which a little girl is murdered by Satanists after forsaking occultism and converting to fundamentalist Christianity) was changed because the urban myth which states that "every year in the U.S. at least 40,000 people ... are murdered in witchcraft ceremonies" (about twice the entire reported homicide rate for the U.S.) turned out to be false and was removed from the tract.
Controversies.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated Chick Publications as an active hate group.
The group was listed due to its strong anti-Catholic, anti-Muslim, and anti-homosexual rhetoric.
Chick's critics (such as talk.origins, Hindu American Foundation, and Catholic Answers) have accused him of misrepresentation.
The Hindu American Foundation put out an electronic PDF paper called "Hyperlink to Hinduphobia: Online Hatred, Extremism and Bigotry Against Hindus" which contains a section on Chick's site; the paper ends with the statement "Chick Publications promotes hatred not just against Hindus, but also towards Muslims, Catholics, and others as is evidenced by the following titles of their tracts: 'Last Rites – When this Catholic dies, he learns that his church couldn't save him'; 'The Little Bride – Protect children against being recruited as Muslims. Li'l Susy explains that only Jesus can save them'; and 'Allah Had No Son – The Allah of Islam is not the God of creation.
The tracts' claims about conspiracies are based in large part on the testimony of people who claim to have been members of these groups before converting to Evangelical Christianity, most prominently Alberto Rivera and William Schnoebelen. Many of Chick's critics consider these sources to be frauds or fantasists. One such case was "The Prophet", a comic containing a fantastic tale related by Rivera of how the papacy helped start Islam that turned out to have no basis in reality.
Churches have been criticized for distributing Chick tracts. In October 2011, the Northview Baptist Church in Hillsboro, Ohio, gave out copies of the Chick tract "Mean Momma" along with candy at Halloween. The church received complaints from parishioners, and its pastor apologized for issuing the tracts, saying that, "Our church does not endorse this type of extreme methodology that was represented in this particular tract, and we can assure you that we will not let this happen again ... our church is a loving church that loves souls and wants to do all we can in our community to help as well as spread and share the Gospel message of Christ."
Chick tracts have also been subject to censorship and have been investigated for hate speech. For instance, UK Police investigated the distribution of Chick publications in Bristol, England in July 2020.
Anti-Catholicism.
Catholicism is a frequent target of Chick tracts and other writings. No fewer than 20 of the tracts are devoted to Catholicism, including "Are Roman Catholics Christians?" (arguing that they are not), "The Death Cookie" (a polemic against the Catholic Eucharist), and "Why Is Mary Crying?" (arguing that Mary does not support the veneration Catholicism gives her).
Elsewhere, Chick defended the controversial Alberto Rivera in at least one book and in an entire series of six full-length comics. Chick also asserted that the Catholic Church, in a grand conspiracy, created Islam, Communism, Nazism, and Freemasonry. In "The New Anti-Catholicism", religious historian Philip Jenkins describes Chick tracts as promulgating "bizarre allegations of Catholic conspiracy and sexual hypocrisy" to perpetuate "anti-papal and anti-Catholic mythologies". Michael Ian Borer, a sociology professor of Furman University at the time, described Chick's strong anti-Catholic themes in a 2007 American Sociological Association presentation and in a peer-reviewed article the next year in "Religion and American Culture".
"Catholic Answers" published a response to the claims of Chick Publications against Roman Catholics and a criticism of Chick tracts in general called "The Nightmare World of Jack T. Chick", detailing the inaccuracies, factual errors, and how a "typical tactic in Chick tracts is to portray Catholics as being unpleasant or revolting in various ways".
Anti-Islam.
Islam is also regularly targeted by Chick tracts, and more than ten tracts have been published on the subject. The most notable of these is "Allah Had No Son," first published in 1994. In this tract, a Muslim is converted to Christianity when he is told that Allah has origins as a pagan moon god. "Camels in the Tent" claims that Muslim immigration will lead to the establishment of Sharia law in the United States and the forceful conversion of non-Muslims to Islam.
Chick tracts' depiction of Islam has been frequently criticized. In December 2008, a Singaporean couple was charged with sedition for distributing the Chick tracts "The Little Bride" and "Who Is Allah?". The tracts were said to "promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between Christians and Muslims in Singapore". The Chick Publications website has consequently been blocked in Singapore.
In 2014, the Chick tract "Unforgiven" was distributed by Bible Baptist Church in Garden City, Roanoke, Virginia, and drew outrage from the area's Muslim community. The tract tells the story of an African-American man who, while in prison, is coerced into joining the Islamic faith and changes his name to Muhammad. Upon his release he threatens his Christian grandmother. Hussain Al-Shiblawi, a local man interviewed by WDBJ-TV, explained that while the pamphlets he received from the church every Sunday were usually inspirational, this tract upset him: "It basically indicated that the people are violent, the religion itself is violent, and the facts in here are not true." Bible Baptist Church said that they did not write the tract and simply distributed it.
Anti-homosexuality.
Chick tracts are unequivocal and explicit in their opposition to homosexuality, and repeatedly employ two anti-homosexual themes:
Chick's first tract on the subject, "The Gay Blade" was originally published in 1972. This tract warned of a gay agenda to push for same-sex marriage and urged homosexuals to repent so they could make it into heaven. "The Gay Blade" was revised in 1984 and is now out-of-print except by special order. According to Cynthia Burack, this tract borrowed several of its frames from a 1971 "Life" magazine photo-essay on the Gay Liberation movement, but with the images altered to make the gay men look more dissolute or stereotypically feminized.
Later tracts on homosexuality depict LGBT rights activists as aggressive and prone to violence. In "Doom Town", Chick claims that HIV-positive gay men plan to donate blood to protest lack of federal funding of AIDS research. In "Sin City", gay rights activists attack a pastor protesting a gay pride parade, beating him so badly he is subsequently hospitalized. Other tracts, such as "Home Alone" have pushed the beliefs that gay men convert otherwise heterosexual men into homosexuality and that gay and lesbian individuals are more promiscuous than heterosexual ones.
Chick's claims about homosexuality have angered gay activists. In 1974 the Iowa State University Christian Fellowship passed out copies of over twenty different Chick tracts, including copies of "The Gay Blade." Members of the Gay People's Liberation Alliance and the Women's Coalition protested the tracts' distribution, claiming that they provided an inaccurate representation of LGBT people.
Anti-evolution.
Chick published several anti-evolution tracts, but "Big Daddy?" (which also attempts to refute the existence of the strong nuclear force) remains "the most widely distributed anti-evolution booklet in history".
Critics point out that the "Big Daddy?" tract mainly uses Kent Hovind as a reference, despite the fact that Hovind has no degrees from accredited institutions in the relevant fields, that the thesis referred to is considered to be of very poor quality, and that his claims are at odds with the published statements of experts in the field.
"Big Daddy?" is presented in the 2007 book "Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters" as a "typical of the genre" example of just how "misleading and dishonest" creationist presentations are. The examples of the "deceptive and misleading" distortions, misrepresentation, and fabrications presented in that work regarding "Big Daddy?" are "Nebraska Man" (the misinterpretation of which was corrected after only a year and its existence was debated from the beginning), "New Guinea Man" (which is actually "Homo sapiens"), and the implication "Cro-Magnon" man was viewed as different from "Homo sapiens".
Views on Satanism and Satanic influence.
The concept of malign influences led to the theme of spiritual warfare being frequently portrayed in the tracts. Chick considered all forms of witchcraft to be demonic, regardless of whether it was "white witchcraft" (i.e. purportedly using such gifts for good) or "black witchcraft" (i.e. purportedly using such gifts for evil). Chick Publications depicts Paganism and Neo-Paganism as forms of Satanism, a position Neo-Pagans and other observers strongly dispute. "Gladys" is an example of one of Chick's tracts on this issue.
Consistent with his views on demonic influence, Chick also considered Halloween to be "the devil's holiday" and opposed Christians celebrating it, with one notable exception – Chick did not oppose Christians engaging in the traditional Halloween custom of passing out candy to neighborhood children, considering it to be an opportunity to present the Gospel message via his tracts.
Based on Chick's views on Satanism and Satanic influence, "Catholic Answers" states that "Chick portrays a world full of paranoia and conspiracy where nothing is what it seems and nearly everything is a Satanic plot to lead people to hell."
Parodies and popular culture.
In print.
Some cartoonists have published parodies that mimic Chick tracts' familiar layout and narrative conventions. Examples include: