|
        
|
#
?
Dec 23, 2019 17:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 11, 2024 01:46 |
|
|
Tract #52 -The Big Spender (1982) was re-released a few days ago. It's not a new tract, but it's been out of print for 35 years, so I'll take it.  Read it here: https://chick.com/products/tract?stk=0091 Gutter Phoenix posted:Tract #52 - The Big Spender (1982)
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2020 17:42
|
|
|
Hey, this might be the wrong thread to ask. Does anyone remember this preacher coming to their church/school: he was a Vietnam War vet who had a white phosphorus grenade go off in his hand and burned 99% of his body. He somehow lived and went coast to coast preaching about Jesus. I met him a few times when I was much younger, but I completely forgot his name and it’s been bugging me.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2020 13:27
|
|
Iron Prince posted:he was a Vietnam War vet who had a white phosphorus grenade go off in his hand and burned 99% of his body. Chris P.
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2020 13:37
|
|
|
Disgusting Coward posted:Chris P. that ain’t it
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2020 13:46
|
|
|
I thought about starting a thread on it, but I figure it is tangentially-related enough to this thread to justify mentioning it here. Wacko televangelist Jack van Impe has died, apparently: https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/01/19/jack-van-impe-an-apocalyptic-televangelist-has-died/
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2020 03:04
|
|
|
CaptainSarcastic posted:I thought about starting a thread on it, but I figure it is tangentially-related enough to this thread to justify mentioning it here. Wow, I didn't think he was still alive, although to be honest I haven't thought about him for a long time. 88 years old. Four fewer than Jack Chick, but still a pretty good run.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2020 04:32
|
|
|
Gutter Phoenix posted:Wow, I didn't think he was still alive, although to be honest I haven't thought about him for a long time. I used to watch them late on Sunday nights when I was in high school sometimes when I felt like a dose of grifter crazy was in order. I was aware he was alive due to something spurring me to search him up in the last year or so. He always struck me as a used car salesman type, but I strongly suspect Rexella is a lich.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2020 04:55
|
|
|
That just spurred me to look up Pastor Arnold Murray of the Shepard's Chapel. Apparently he died in 2014 at the age of 84. I actually liked watching Shepard's Chapel. Pastor Murray wasn't a grifter like most TV christians, he was just a devoted believer who knew the Bible extremely well, and used his show to explain the text (from a protestant christian viewpoint). It was pretty decent for religious programming. Pastor Gene Scott was another (mostly) non- grifter TV preacher. He didn't like Jerry Falwell or Jimmy Swaggert, so he can't have been all bad! His show was fun, but wasn't on as often as Shepard's Chapel. He died in 2005 at age 75.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2020 05:38
|
|
|
A copy of the super rare 1966 version of Somebody Goofed sold on ebay the other day:    It probably would have sold for more if it had been in better condition and hadn't been colored. They don't come up for auction very often, and usually sell in the $300-$400 range.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2020 16:43
|
|
|
 Tract #304 - Virtual Reality (2020)   You can read it here: https://www.chick.com/products/tract?stk=1178 Synopsis:  
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2020 22:35
|
|
|
The only way to escape Him, is to take the Blue Pill.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2020 06:30
|
|
|
Ok, I am confused. That guy had god like abilities before he put on a VR headset.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2020 02:50
|
|
|
Lowen SoDium posted:Ok, I am confused. That guy had god like abilities before he put on a VR headset. I think he was in a coma and dreaming he had godlike powers? It's an odd tract. Here is the whole thing for lazy people who didn't want to click on the link:      
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2020 16:41
|
|
|
Gutter Phoenix posted:I think he was in a coma and dreaming he had godlike powers? It's an odd tract. Here is the whole thing for lazy people who didn't want to click on the link: That is, um, very creative. I'll give them that.
|
|
#
?
Mar 7, 2020 07:29
|
|
|
Ah, I missed the comma part. Doesn't really make the strip make much more sense, but ok. It's like a really lame version of Inception.
|
|
#
?
Mar 8, 2020 03:14
|
|
|
 
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2020 18:26
|
|
|
Jehovah's Witnesses hand-delivered this letter to our mailbox today. I guess they gotta get creative while the Bay Area lockdown is in place!   I'm sold. Where do I sign up?!
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 02:18
|
|
|
Iron Prince posted:Hey, this might be the wrong thread to ask. Does anyone remember this preacher coming to their church/school: he was a Vietnam War vet who had a white phosphorus grenade go off in his hand and burned 99% of his body. He somehow lived and went coast to coast preaching about Jesus. Dave Roever. My Agriculture teacher played a VHS of this guy. Are you sure he was religious? All I remember is "Caaaan youuuu DIG IT???"
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 04:42
|
|
|
ThePopeOfFun posted:Dave Roever. My Agriculture teacher played a VHS of this guy. Are you sure he was religious? All I remember is "Caaaan youuuu DIG IT???" Holy crap, it just clicked in my head who you two were talking about!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eEuhaQsPiE
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 05:10
|
|
|
    
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2020 05:23
|
|
|
Satanic Panic was the funniest poo poo. The idea that actual adults thought edgy teens did magic spells is so insane to me.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 18:11
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:Satanic Panic was the funniest poo poo. The idea that actual adults thought edgy teens did magic spells is so insane to me.   
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 18:39
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:Satanic Panic was the funniest poo poo. The idea that actual adults thought edgy teens did magic spells is so insane to me. Sorry you missed out. As soon as I hit puberty I was tossing lightning bolts like there was no tomorrow FOR MY ETERNAL SOUL!!
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 18:39
|
|
|
The churches that I went to in the 80's and 90's fully 100% believed that Satanist were gathering in the woods, performing rituals, abducting children, and mutilating cows. If only they knew that it was more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4rIYxbR6Vs
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 18:47
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:Satanic Panic was the funniest poo poo. The idea that actual adults thought edgy teens did magic spells is so insane to me. Yeah, but this is the same generation of people who panicked about lipstick parties, bath salts, the knockout game, and Harry Potter telling your kids it is ok to be a dark magician or whatever; as a rule they are not super bright. If you want to send Boomers into a panic you don't say "there's lead in the water in Flint" because that is a visible, see it on the news thing that someone is doing something about. Tell them people are putting drugs on Halloween candy or 5G towers cause cancer. They can then put all their boomer energy into facebook posts and town meetings and letter writing campaigns or whatever poo poo they need to do to make a problem out of a fake conspiracy. It's why they love QAnon. That community has just grafted every single weirdo conspiracy theory ever on there and there's no end of fake poo poo to fear that you could disprove with ten seconds of just thinking logically.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 20:18
|
|
|
Lazyfire posted:Yeah, but this is the same generation of people who panicked about lipstick parties, bath salts, the knockout game, and Harry Potter telling your kids it is ok to be a dark magician or whatever; as a rule they are not super bright. If you want to send Boomers into a panic you don't say "there's lead in the water in Flint" because that is a visible, see it on the news thing that someone is doing something about. Tell them people are putting drugs on Halloween candy or 5G towers cause cancer. They can then put all their boomer energy into facebook posts and town meetings and letter writing campaigns or whatever poo poo they need to do to make a problem out of a fake conspiracy. It's loving amazing (and bewildering) to me that we live in an age with huge, highly visible, deeply damaging, and easily understandable conspiracies of various powerful entities, yet instead of learning about those, the conspiracy-minded folks would rather insist on creating bizarre theories that don't hold up to the slightest bit of research or critical thought. People are dumb.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 20:24
|
|
|
I was the edgy teen that did a really bad job at drawing the cover for Master of Puppets when I learned about perspective. I also drew the cover for Korn's first album based on a description from one of my idiot friends. My version was better, because it involved a spooky tree and a monster's shadow on the moon.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 20:30
|
|
|
Lazyfire posted:Tell them people are putting drugs on Halloween candy or 5G towers cause cancer.  (There are humans that believe this.)
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 20:35
|
|
|
Gutter Phoenix posted:It's loving amazing (and bewildering) to me that we live in an age with huge, highly visible, deeply damaging, and easily understandable conspiracies of various powerful entities, yet instead of learning about those, the conspiracy-minded folks would rather insist on creating bizarre theories that don't hold up to the slightest bit of research or critical thought. People are dumb. I think there are people who just cannot wrap their heads around the big and difficult questions and look for any rationalization there for why they don't have to care. Government spies on people? I don't commit crimes, so I have nothing to worry about. World is getting hotter? Not my problem, it's because the sun is getting hotter or the earth goes through phases. The best is when you get them with something they can't just deny and they say that you can't believe everything you read or that prisoners should be happy to have a job at a chicken plant because they could get the same job when they are out. Like, here's a huge problem that we need to address and that's just too difficult and stressful to even think about. At the same time these people will force family members to end their association with them over their ardent belief in Flat Earth, or they'll write to their congressman to demand a ban on some drink or food Dr. Oz told them is bad and endlessly tell you about it in kind.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 21:59
|
|
|
Iron Crowned posted:I was the edgy teen that did a really bad job at drawing the cover for Master of Puppets when I learned about perspective. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2020 22:55
|
|
|
Gutter Phoenix posted:Holy crap, it just clicked in my head who you two were talking about! He looks kind of like Justin McElroy. Lowen SoDium posted:The churches that I went to in the 80's and 90's fully 100% believed that Satanist were gathering in the woods, performing rituals, abducting children, and mutilating cows. Resplendent.
|
|
#
?
Apr 30, 2020 16:24
|
|
|
Gutter Phoenix posted:Holy crap, it just clicked in my head who you two were talking about! Holy poo poo, I knew it was worth keeping this thread bookmarked. Dave Roever, that’s absolutely him. How wild. He used to come by my school often when he was in Texas, and give his pitch to everyone. Really interesting story overall, dude really came within an inch of death. Shame he used that experience to hawk nonsense tracts, comics and tapes to school kids that I’m sure came with a hefty speaking fee.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2020 10:54
|
|
|
Iron Prince posted:Holy poo poo, I knew it was worth keeping this thread bookmarked. Dave Roever, that’s absolutely him. How wild. He used to come by my school often when he was in Texas, and give his pitch to everyone. Sometimes I think about letting this thread disappear into the archives, but things keep popping up to post here! I've thought about making a new one with all of the tracts that is easier to navigate, but like so many other things, I just never find the time.
|
|
#
?
May 1, 2020 15:57
|
|
|
Gutter Phoenix posted:Sometimes I think about letting this thread disappear into the archives, but things keep popping up to post here! I've thought about making a new one with all of the tracts that is easier to navigate, but like so many other things, I just never find the time. Accessible and logically-structured? That would be pretty much the opposite of Chick's theology, so I think the organic structure of the thread as it stands is actually a good thing.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2020 05:41
|
|
|
I think it'd be cool if someone were crazy enough to make a list of all of Phoenix's tract posts and a mod edited it into the OP, but that'd be a frankly unnecessary amount of work. Maybe if I get especially bored... Either way, I like how this thread continues as a living document of Weird American Christian Media in all its weird, sometimes outsider-art, and often grifter-y forms.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2020 06:08
|
|
|
Gutter Phoenix posted:Sometimes I think about letting this thread disappear into the archives, but things keep popping up to post here! I've thought about making a new one with all of the tracts that is easier to navigate, but like so many other things, I just never find the time. I appreciate all your effort. I’ve probably mentioned it before but I went to a Christian elementary and high school and poo poo like Chick Tracts and Dave Roever really bring back some insanity I forgot about. poo poo like the POWER TEAM:    Ripping phone books on stage..... FOR CHRIST
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2020 09:40
|
|
|
I'll type up the other one later but about 27? Years ago these two American football players came to my high school in Cape Town and did a very over the top sermon in our Anglican high school's compulsory chapel service. They were both buff, probably bald white dudes. They had found a Bible in their hotel room after a drunk night out, and found god etc. At this point of the sermon they then produced steel bars, tried to bend them, couldn't, prayed to Jesus for strength, then miraculously could bend the steel bars. Anyone heard of these weird grifters? I'd never seen anything like that before, it was just like the most crazy American tv show or something, come to life.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2020 10:03
|
|
|
I have a question that's been bothering me. So, obviously, to state the obvious, the view of the Catholic Church taken by Chick and other insane Protestants is very much divorced from history. While the Church's temporal power has waxed and waned over the centuries, even a cursory glance at history will show that it has more often than not been at the mercy, rather than the master, of secular kings and leaders. Thing is, though, those facts are easy to ignore, since said kings still paid lip service to the might and splendor of the Pope. Sure, the Pope needed Charlemagne more than Charlemagne needed the Pope, but Charlemagne still pretended that his authority as emperor derived from the approval of the Pope, rather than the force of his arms. What I'm wondering is how the gently caress do these people explain that the Catholic Church is clearly a hilariously dysfunctional organization. Like what's the explanation for the Great Western Schism/Avignon Papacy? Like I now these people are deranged idiots so their capacity for resolving cognitive dissonance is mighty indeed, but I'm curious what their stated explanation is. How do you reconcile 'the Catholic Church is this mighty and powerful conspiracy that is literally backed by Satan and his angels' with 'the Catholic Church is so hilariously inept and beholden to the same crippling bureaucratic forces as other real world entities that the one time they had two popes and they had a special synod called to resolve it, all they did was accidentally make a third pope.' It's easy to play up the Inquisition and the Church's crimes, but it seems a lot harder to downplay the fact it's clearly at least as inept as it is evil.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 16:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 11, 2024 01:46 |
|
|
redreader posted:At this point of the sermon they then produced steel bars, tried to bend them, couldn't, prayed to Jesus for strength, then miraculously could bend the steel bars. ...well holy poo poo did you try it?! That sounds radical as hell! quote:Stuff about Catholicism Well, there's...a ton to unpack there. I mean, a whole shitload. But to put it succinctly as I can, as basically as I can: On a religious level, if the Catholics are satanic, it's easy to see how they can be both powerful and manipulative forces of Satan, given that he's a wicked, powerful, and manipulative trickster trying to sway people's souls into his grasp. Having temporal authority on Earth via an institution like the Catholic church would grant him legitimacy to do that. For a Protestant like Chick, them swaying souls away from "true beliefs" with what he saw as "evil" practices accomplishes that. They can not be succesful because God is more powerful than Satan, and therefor can defeat him, even if Satan "win" your soul, his power is limited in the face of God. In otherwords, YOU can lose the battle, but he isn't winning the war. On a larger level, Governments needed the Catholic church for a few reasons. Financial backing. Moral support of the people (in a time when the people of your country may be a mix of Protestant and Catholic, or you're annexing a Catholic population, you need Papal authority due to the people getting pissed and what not). And, finally, and especially early on, the Pope, and Rome, were direct ties to the Roman empire. At Charlemagne's time especially, the idea of re-uniting the Roman Empire was not dead. Re-uniting your kingdom under the banner of "The Roman Empire" and perhaps most/all of Europe (sure why not) could only be done if you were a legitimate Emperor with the control of Rome and hailing yourself as the "Roman Emperor". No Papal authority, no Roman Emperor. After all, the Pope to this day still holds the title "Pontifex Maximus", which was passed from ancient Roman priests, to Roman emperors to the Bishop of Rome (probably by the Emperor Gratian). He is, quite literally, the leading spiritual head of the world, presuming you think the Roman Empire IS the world. Soo, you had to play nice with the Catholics. Theoretically. When you couldn't play nice with the Catholics, you grew more divided from them and got angry and told people they sucked, and culturally grew more distant and now not only were they dumb and smelled bad, but the religion was different than yours and had weird trappings that Satan probably made up, sure why not, we're not re-uniting with Rome anymore, have at it. Big Beef City fucked around with this message at 17:30 on May 3, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 17:01
|
|