FT389 35becauseeven the mosttimidofChristians could
(andindeedshould)becomeanevangelist.
Theologicaltrainingwas not required, since
Chick had researched ‘thefacts’for them.Yet
whathetaught (and this isabsolutelykey to
understanding his impact)wasn’tjust thathe
wasspreading theGospel–literally, ‘thegood
news’.Therewas alsosomeverybadnewshe
wanted toshare –likethe fact that ourworldis
wrac kedwithdemonicevil an dmind-blowing
levels of conspiracy;much of it couldbetraced
backtoone source: Rome.
EXPOSING THE WHORE
Chick’ sworld is filledwithcorrupt andevil
groups, but almost all seem to thread backto
theVatican andthe Jesuitsinp articular.He
belie vedCatholicswerethe ‘whoreofBabylon’
as reve aled in the book of Revelation, and
so he producedawealth of tracts and comics
filled withadizzyin garray of anti-Catholic
accusations. Inatract calledThePoorPope,
forexample,heclaimedthat theJesuit shad
helped engineerthe American CivilWarand
arrangedtohave Lincolnassassinated. In the
TheFour Horsemanhe argued that theVatican
masterminded theFreemasons, the Illuminati,
the NewAge movementandthe Mafia. InThe
Storytellerhe claimed theJesuits organised
an assassinationattemptont he Pope, and
“carefullychoseaMuslimto shootPope John
Paul II. This wastog uilt-inducethe Muslim
world, bringing themstill closer totheRoman
CatholicFaith!” InAllahHad No Sonhe said
thatthe Catholic Churchinvented Islamand
thatMuhammadwas, infact,aVaticanagent
who simply picked “the Moon god”Allahfroma
listof3 60 idols.
In the full-colour comic bookTheGodfathers
he toldthe storyofhow Catholics had created
bothCommunism and theKu KluxKlan;
presumably,the Klan’swell-documented
hatredofCatholicswasacoverstorytokeep
people off the scent.InHolocaustChick ev en
accusedRomeofbacking AdolfHitler(along
withMusso lini andFranco)and claimedthey
were the truearchitects of theHolocaust itself,
because they despisedthe Jews (whoChick
wholeheartedlysupported). InTheBeastthe
Pope wasrevealedas “Satan’s masterpiece”,
nothinglessthanthe Antichrist,and Rome’s
mission as turningtheworld awayfromthe true
Messiah,Jesus.According to Chick, oneofthe
primary tactics employedbyCatholicswasto
spread theological confusio n.They did thisby
dismissingthe KingJamesVersion of theBible
–the onlytrue translation according to Chick.
It’saprinc iple that’sstill strongly defendedby
Chick Publications today. ForChick,and his
many fo llowers ,alternative Biblical translations
didn’treflect developments in linguistics and
history or ne wcultural understandings,they
were obviousworksofS atani cdeception (see
the tractTheAttackformore).
InTheDeath CookieandManinBlackChick
exposedthe use of Communion wafers and the
doctrineoft ransubstantiation(whichstates
thatthe Communionelementsmysteriously
becomethe bodyand bloodofChrist). He
saidthis idea came from ancient Egyptian
AHISTORYOFJACKJack Thomas Chickwasborn in 1924. He
wasasickly child, whose ears were lanced
by the doctorsadozen times before hewas
ayear old. In an open letter to his followers
in 2000, Chick suggested this early ill health
wasthe result of his mother’s attempt to
aborthim.(For his views on this topic see
the tractWho Murdered Clarice?wherehe
describes abortion in America as “the new
holocaust!”). However,the Almighty had
bigger plans,and Jack survived the perils of
the womb.Hewas born into an opportune
decade,coming ofageint he 1940s,when
the goldenageofcomic bookswasinf ull
swing. Detectivestrips and superhero serials
were everywhere; as were the infamous
Tijuana Bibles: full-on pornographic parodies
of Mickey Mouse,DickTracey andPopeye.
Whether Chick read these shocking little
strips is anybody’sguess,but the Tijuana
Bible format (palm-sized eight-pagers)are certainly the closest match to what
would become the ChickTract format.^1
According toYouDon’t Know Jack,the official biography by David Daniels,the
world tried to corrupt Chick from an earlyage. For example,Catholic members
of hisextended family forced him to blaspheme inexchange for food, and they
pressured him into seeingafortune-teller.Such events clearly affected his view
of Catholics,but at school hekept himself out of major trouble withaloveof
sketching andapassion for drama. In 1942 he beat 50 other candidates to
win atwo-y earpaid scholarship to thePasadena Playhouse School of Theatre.
Bigger dramawastocome: in 1943, during his second semester,World WarII
whisked him off to serve in New Guinea, Australia, the Philippines and Japan,
although asacryptographer he never once sawagun being fired.
Chickwasnot yetaChristian while serving in the Army,but he did show
distaste for‘sinful ways’. When stationed in Japan, forexample,hedeclined
an invite toared-light district. He pretended hewasmarried and said that he’d
rather stay faithful. He didn’t have to wait long. He met his real-life wife back at
the Playhouse after thewar. Shewas calledLola Lynn, though he sometimes
called her his ‘Honey Girl’. In 1948, he andLola visited her fundamentalist
parents in Canada on their honeymoon and his new in-laws insisted he listen to
the CharlesEFuller Old-FashionedRevivalHour on theradio.Chick said it was
thefirst time he had really heardthe “preci ous message of the Gospel” and
his faith blossomed over the next decade.Int he 1950s hewasworking in the
aerospace industry asatechnical illustrator,and even did somesyndicated
comic strips in newspapers,but it didn’t takelongfor his artistic skills to fuse
with his faith.
By the 1960s Chick had already started writing tracts–heand his wifeLola
turned his kitchen intoaproduction space.Yet what became the true calling
of his lifewaskick-started when he met missionary andradio broadcaster Bob
Hammond. Bob said that the Communists had been taking control of China
throughaseries of small, illustrated books.Chic k’svision wasgalvanised.
Perhaps Godmight use his own little books to startaChristiancounter-
revolution that might challenge not only Communism but every other evil ‘ism’
that threatened to ruin the world. And for Chick, almost every ‘ism’was evil.
The following decades sawhis tract output grow and grow,particularly
in 1972, when he hired the talented artist Fred Carter to helpkeep up with
demand. As the company developed, so did the controversyaround Chick’s
shocking worldview...1 It’s certainly reasonable to think Chick caught the infamous EC horror comics of the
1940s and 1950s,ashis style and themes so clearly resemble them, (even down to
the ‘HawHaw’laughter of his characters). Censorship pressures led to the EC horror
comic line becoming defunct in 1956 (seeFT320:28-35). In someways,Jack Chick
resurrected their approach, albeit withvery different motivations.HTTPS://CHICK.COM/PRODUCTS/ITEM?STK=1443