Satanism Today - An Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular ...

46 Chick Publications
that multitudes of Chinese people had been won
to Communism through mass distribution of
cartoon booklets. Jack felt that God was leading
him to use the same technique to win multitudes
to the Lord Jesus Christ.” Other commentators,
however, have suggested that the immediate
model for the tracts were the so-called “two-byfours”
(referring to their dimensions in inches),
which were pornographic minicomics common in
the 1950s when Chick began his ministry.
Small and cheap, any evangelist could buy a
few hundred Chick tracts and leave them wherever
the casual passerby might pick them up—
laundromats, telephone booths, bus station
benches, etc. They were more common in years
past, and almost everyone older than Generation
X has come across them at one time or another.
Although many people who have seen them
are appalled by the tracts, the theology of Chick
Publications is squarely aligned with the mainstream
of fundamentalist Christianity. The comicbook
form of the message and the focus on the
enemies of “Real Christians” make Chick
Publications appear more offensive than other
ministries. Ultimately, however, the only point on
which Chick deviates from standard fundamentalism
is his targeting of Catholicism as being at the
very center of a vast Satanic conspiracy to destroy
Christianity (which does not mean that other
fundamentalists necessarily tend to look kindly
upon Catholicism). In addition to infiltrating
Christianity (in Chick’s mind, Catholicism equals
Christianity perverted by demonic paganism),
Catholics—especially the Jesuits—are behind
everything from Nazism to communism to Islam.
Chick Publications were dropped from the
shelves of many Christian bookstores after the
Alberto Series—virulently anti-Catholic comics
based on the “revelations” of a ex-Jesuit—came
out. Chick was, however, saved from going out of
business after Jimmy Swaggart began quoting his
periodical Battle Cry on the air. Sales of ministry
products subsequently rebounded enough to keep
Chick Publications in business. Although the
tracts are sometimes classed as hate literature
(they cannot, for example, legally be taken over
the border into Canada), American politicians are
unlikely ever to be involved in banning writings
that reflect the beliefs of a significant subpopulation
of the electorate.
Most of the tracts are characterized by a highly
negative attack—Chick might say an exposé—on
some feature of modern society seen as tainting
the pure milk of the Gospel. Like many other
ultraconservative Christians, the Chick worldview
is, to put it mildly, paranoid. Our world is under
constant, ongoing assault by demonic forces
determined to distract humanity from the only
thing that really matters, namely saving one’s own
soul and the souls of others from damnation.
Illicit sex, alcohol, recreational drugs, and the like
are tools of Satan designed to keep people from
hearing—or from seriously considering—the
Christian message. All tracts end with a call to
repent and accept Jesus as one’s personal savior.
Although non-Christian religions are Satanic,
Chick devotes relatively few tracts to attacks on
other religions. He is more concerned with
making his readers aware of how demons are
busily distracting them from embracing and
leading the true Christian life. Like other conservative
Christians, he is especially concerned about
occultism. All things occult are part of the siege on
humankind. (In one tract, Satan is delighted
because sales of astrology books are on the rise.)
Even things that trivialize the occult are part of a
demonic plot to make the dark side appear harmless
and attractive. Chick is especially alarmed by
Halloween, for example, and devotes at least three
tracts to warning readers that the holiday is
nothing more than bait for recruiting impressionable
young people into Satan’s legions. Chick goes
so far as to assert that Halloween actually began as
a Druid holiday during which child sacrifices took
place. Other ways in which American culture trivializes
the occult is via certain images presented
by the entertainment media. In the tract
“Bewitched” for instance, we learn that Satan’s
favorite TV show is Bewitched. After watching an
episode, the Prince of Darkness remarks, “Haw,
haw, delightful—so disarming—so innocent—yet
so effective.”
As one might anticipate, anything that tends to
cast doubt on fundamentalist doctrine is part of
the Satanic plot. Evil forces have already taken over
the chief institutions of American society, as