Jack T. Chick:Anti Catholicism at it's worst

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Xenos acts suspiciously like some other non-Catholics who come to the forums and post. He starts off on the offensive–criticizing Catholics generally, throws in a few “I thought I would be welcome” here, implying that his lack of welcome is because he is not Catholic, rather than related to his attacking tone. He parries any suggestions that he ought to look at CA tracts (they aren’t specific enough???) But my favorite is that those who respond to him in the same way that he does is “not acting like Christ”. So Xenos is the judge and jury of who is most like Christ. And he never responds to the substance of any posts that challenge his views which are unrelentingly critical of all things Catholic. Yep, seems to me he has been here and done that before. Anyone remember what his previous screenname was?
 
La Chiara:
Xenos acts suspiciously like some other non-Catholics who come to the forums and post. He starts off on the offensive–criticizing Catholics generally, throws in a few “I thought I would be welcome” here, implying that his lack of welcome is because he is not Catholic, rather than related to his attacking tone. He parries any suggestions that he ought to look at CA tracts (they aren’t specific enough???) But my favorite is that those who respond to him in the same way that he does is “not acting like Christ”. So Xenos is the judge and jury of who is most like Christ. And he never responds to the substance of any posts that challenge his views which are unrelentingly critical of all things Catholic. Yep, seems to me he has been here and done that before. Anyone remember what his previous screenname was?
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I can think of this type of poster posting more than once… Starting, posting, leaving… and, then a new poster that sounds pretty similar… :hmmm:
 
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moira:
Jack Chick tracts are really garbage. One Halloween, a man down the street gave out these tracts to children. I found it in my daughter’s bag and went back to the man and told him ‘no thank you’ and that he was peddling hate. And this man was supposedly a ‘minister’. Another time I found one about the ‘cookie god’ on my car when I came out of Mass.
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When I was a kid, we got them every year taped to candy bars. We never did figure out where they came from, but we were afraid to eat that candy! 😃
 
La Chiara:
Xenos acts suspiciously like some other non-Catholics who come to the forums and post. He starts off on the offensive–criticizing Catholics generally, throws in a few “I thought I would be welcome” here, implying that his lack of welcome is because he is not Catholic, rather than related to his attacking tone. He parries any suggestions that he ought to look at CA tracts (they aren’t specific enough???) But my favorite is that those who respond to him in the same way that he does is “not acting like Christ”. So Xenos is the judge and jury of who is most like Christ. And he never responds to the substance of any posts that challenge his views which are unrelentingly critical of all things Catholic. Yep, seems to me he has been here and done that before. Anyone remember what his previous screenname was?
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Y’know…you might just be right.
You ARE right about the style of attack here. Real cute…
All this stuff about “not being Christ-like” had me wondering why it’s okay for others to come in and talk smack about the Church, but we are unchristian if we make any effort to defend what we believe? That’s carp… They do the very same thing on other forums and I won’t even go there because the only time I made even the slightest defense I got suspended. They were FAR less tolerant than we are here. :ehh: :hmmm:

BTW…can you PM me w/that other screenname?
 
jmm08 said:
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Father Damien. Another Roman Catholic witness that touched my life is Father Damien.

To me, Father Damien is one of the most convincing proofs that the Holy Eucharist is the Body of Christ (and not symbolic). Because he sacrificed his life in priestly service. He couldn’t have been an idolater (as some Protestants call Catholic Adoration of the Eucharist). Father Damien poured out his own life as a living sacrifice in the full measure of Agape love as our Lord described.
“Of all the pulpits from which human voice is ever sent forth, there is none from which it reaches so far as from the grave.” – John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849

Father Damien means more to me because I heard his story for the first time while standing there in Kalaupapa near his grave. I suppose it was a Holy moment in my life that took years for me to more fully comprehend.

One very big Catholic witness was when I went on a tour in Hawaii in 1976 including a day-long trip to the Kalaupapa leper colony. At the time I had never heard anything about him. I heard about Father Damien (aka Joseph de Veuster) from a leper, while I was not standing far from Father Damien’s grave. Unspoken words were loud enough in my mind.

John 15:13 “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Father Damien died from leprosy in Hawaii. He had buried hundreds of lepers. Father Damien had the penultimate degree of Christian love for his mission field. Even though he was dead, Father Damien took the initiative to also tell me of his love by sowing a seed that sprouted again and again, through leper after leper, through heart after heart, waiting years after years, until the leper told me his story. The story couldn’t have been framed any better or more indelibly. I am afraid of heights, and I had to ride a mule down a narrow switchback trail along very steep sea cliffs - the world’s tallest - just to get there and back.

The State of Hawaii did its best to recognize Father Damien’s Sainthood with its placement in 1969 of Father Damien’s statue into the National Statuary Hall Collection (located in US Capital House connecting corridor, first floor). Just imagine that - a statue of a Catholic Saint in our US Congress. Subsequently, the Catholic Church began to increase its recognition of Father Damien. Father Damien is blessed at this time (two steps out of three to be Roman Catholic Saint). You know something? When Blessed Father Damien gets to be a Saint, our nation’s capital will start to look a little bit like a Roman Catholic Church (with St. Father Damien’s wonderful and very unique statue already inside it). Isn’t that going to be a miracle? Could it count towards his Sainthood?

Benedictine Sisters on Linton Hall Road. It is an obvious fact to open-minded Christians living in Prince William County that their ministry always was and continues to be one of the most significant ministries in our County (BARN, etc.). I once attended a workshop with the Benedictine Sisters. At the workshop, I was quite convinced how much the Benedictine Sisters loved Jesus. And how they experience the Presence of Christ by faith while they pray the Psalms with Jesus.

Since these precious Roman Catholic brothers and sisters are Christians and not idol worshippers, Jack Chick must be wrong in labeling them as idol worshippers. I accept the spiritual fruit of their lives as evidence that the Roman Catholic teaching about the Eucharist is correct.

Note (12/10/2004): It is a rather amazing coincidence that the tabernacle in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception’s Crypt Church is just in front of a mosaic titled “Christ the Good Shepherd”. On August 26, 2004, I spent about an hour next to that tabernacle and looking at the mosaic.
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:crying: You have given a wonderful witness to what God can do with these wonderful Saints, I am so moved:heart: May Jesus be loved and adored in every tabernacle around the world until the end of time.God Bless:gopray:
 
Interesting discussion here. xenos makes some interesting and understandable points, but I’m sure the very same things could be said about Evangelicals. I’ve run into some preposterous and ignorant statements by some of them. But, It would probably be unfair villify them all because of it.

Basically, in any church you’re going to run into people, and whereever there are people there are problems, period. That’s a basic reality of life among fallen beings in a fallen world. For anyone to go pointing accusing fingers is going directly against what our Lord told us not to do. Of course, he does understand that it’s our basic nature to try and point out everyone else’s faults and ignore our own. We keep falling back into that trap over and over again. It’s like we’re caught in quicksand. So, he forgives us over and over and keeps trying to help us.

So, I think we all oughtta cut each other slack, over and over, just as Christ does with us. And, as for Jack Chick, I love him! His tracts are highly amusing and hilarious. They encapsulate a very simple folk approach to religion, with all the scholarship of an ignorant hillbilly. They are uniquely American, a real cultural oddity, and belong a timecapsule in the corner of a building somewhere, preferably in West Virginia, Arkansas, or some other downhome place… 😃
 
Basically, I LIKE Jack Chick’s non-polemical tracts. I despise his anti-Catholic, his anti-occult, his anti-Mormon, his anti-Masonic, his anti-JW, his anti-Muslim, etcetera tracts. Invariably as soon as he gets off the basic Gospel message and starts trying to ‘refute’ something he seeks out the most taboidesque and least-reliable things to charge against other groups. And he seems utterly indifferent about the innacuracies he perpetuates. I’m not a great supporter of the ‘easy-believism’ of his non-polemical tracts, you understand, but I do feel he can tell a story in an interesting fashion when he chooses to put forward a positive message.

HIS TRACTS INEVITABLY GET READ! I know: I have used them extensively and have seen people pick them up and read them, pocket them, actually approach me and ask for more. Most other tracts hit the trashcan posthaste. Someone should catch on to that fact and steal his thunder rather than sniping at him. If he had to compete with three- four, five other tract publishers, putting out similar illustrated/comic type tracts aimed not just at four year-olds or six year-olds but at the older-teen and young-adult population (as Chick’s tracts are), I suspect this would serve as a much greater lever to motivate him to moderate his tone and work harder at getting his facts straight. Complaining to bookstores and boycotting stores which distribute his tracts has proven to be a failed tactic: people either order from him directly or find bookstores which won’t cave in to such pressure. And focusing upon buying only those tracts which don’t have the ‘nasty stuff’ in them isn’t very effective either, since he often ‘imports’ some of those ideas into popular tracts or uses the popular tracts to subsidize the polemical ones.

Incidentally: the vast majority of Evangelicals DON’T believe Chick’s attacks against the RCC, and those who do don’t keep it a secret. I have interacted with folks pretty regularly who are utterly amazed that a guy as ‘intelligent’ as I can’t see just how deeply the Jesuit/Catholic conspiracy has progressed in taking away our American liberties preparatory to a soon-coming pogrom against true Christians. :whacky:
 
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flameburns623:
I have interacted with folks pretty regularly who are utterly amazed that a guy as ‘intelligent’ as I can’t see just how deeply the Jesuit/Catholic conspiracy has progressed in taking away our American liberties preparatory to a soon-coming pogrom against true Christians. :whacky:
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Well, that particular rhetoric has been around a long time. The problem is that people who believe it tend to become like the “Know-Nothings”. Our country is highly paranoid right now.
There never has been any Catholic attacks on American liberty

I’m just glad that a guy “as intelligent” as you is here. 👍
 
Xenos,

As a couple of posters have mentioned, There will always be catholics and protestants alike who aren’t always charitable. In one of your posts, you claim that your point about rude catholics proven by their own words. It’s true that two wrongs don’t make a right and so even if you were to insult catholics (and I’m not saying you did), it doesn’t give catholics the right to insult back.

However, another thing that I noticed is that you take issue when catholics say that we are the “true” christian church. I’m not sure you believe in a “true christian church” but in any case, you seem to be applying a test to see if this is true.

You basically said, If you are part of the “true church”, why are you acting so badly (sinning against me)? As if acting badly is THE test to show whether someone belongs to the true christian church.

Do I understand you correctly?

Martin
 
Also, Mr. Chick believes The Jesuits are out to “kill” him. He also has tracts about The Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Masons, and has it “out” for The Assembly of God now.
 
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Lilyofthevalley:
Also, Mr. Chick believes The Jesuits are out to “kill” him. He also has tracts about The Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Masons, and has it “out” for The Assembly of God now.
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God be merciful to our A/G friends. Many of whom use his stuff.
He seems to have a real good case of paranoia going. A shrink friend of mine once said that the bad thing about paranoia is that if ya act like ya think people are out to get ya, sooner or later they will be. :rotfl:
 
Church Militant, no kidding. He’s a real fruit cake. Look at this article:Charles Colson, Watergate convict turned ecumenicist, says, “Evangelicals and Catholics [must] stand together in common defense of the truth.” Christian Broadcaster Pat Robertson advises, “…it is time that we focus on the similarities between evangelicals and Catholics” (emphasis added).

It’s understandable that Colson, married to a practicing Roman Catholic, would not want to face daily contention with his wife who is not willing to put away her sacraments. But other evangelical leaders should know better than participate in this unity of compromise.

A recent example of this “standing together” and “focus on similarities” thinking was displayed at an ecumenical gathering called “Congress on the Holy Spirit and World Evangelization” held in Florida during July. About half of the ten thousand participants were Catholic with the rest from Protestant, Pentecostal and nondenominational churches.

Those who spoke were also as diverse, including broadcasters Pat Robertson and Paul Crouch, Raniero Cantalamessa, a Catholic priest who often preaches at the Vatican and is chaplain to Pope John Paul II, Church of God in Christ Bishop Gilbert Patterson, healing evangelist Benny Hinn, COGIC Bishop Ithiel Clemmons, Assemblies of God General Superintendent Thomas Trask, Episcopal Bishop John Howe, and Jack Hayford, pastor of the Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif.

“The Holy Spirit wants to break down walls between Catholics and Protestants,” said Congress chairman Vinson Synan.

chick.com/bc/1995/compromise.asp
Heck, even The Bible Answer Man who dislikes Pentecostal’s beliefs ,intensely, has a statement about Mr. Chick being a fruit cake.
 
Church Militant, I HAVE to share this with you. I was in the process of leaving my last church, the people there were not nice. and did not drive. So, I “found” this pastor as I was working on putting up signs to urge people to vote against a prospective casino. Anyway, this pastor seemed like a nice man 83, active, into The Bible patriotice etc. So one night he asks if I want to attend his church and I consented and he had someone pick me up.
Anyway, I get to the church looks like any other Protestant/ Evangelical Church. I look at the pamphlets they have, and there it was: CHICK publications. I almost died. My face turned RED and I wanted to leave, but I could not. I had to wait. It was tracts about The Masons and Jehovah Witnesses. Nothing about The Catholics. BUt I saw the writting on the wall.
 
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Xenos:
OK, let me see. Where have I heard this before… Ah yes…

1Pe 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

My friend, let me try once more. How can I KNOW that you are Christ’s Church, when you don’t act like Christ?
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A couple of points if I may join this conversation (well maybe more than a couple 😃 )
  • Am I to understand that the way you would know the True Church is if ALL the people who were members of it acted perfectly sinless?
  • Christ’s church is easy to find, all you have to do is look at history. Yes some people may act overly prideful and that is unfortunate. We all have fallen natures and it shows up in different ways but you don’t need people to find the truth here, just trace back the roots of early Christianity. Does it make sense that church founded by the first generations after Christ would have it wrong and it would take 1600 years to get it right?
  • Look at what has happened to the protestant churches when they decided they needed no earthly authority. How prideful is it to start a knew denomination/church if there is a disagreement.
  • Catholics that truly know their faith are often on the “front lines” of the battle. Trust me if you think we’re bad you really haven’t known bigotry as a Chistian unless you’ve walked in Catholic shoes.
  • Anti Catholic literature to me means things that are blatant lies about the church. No matter how many times we say No we don’t worship Mary, No we don’t think we can “work” our way to Heaven, No we don’t re-sacrafice Jesus at every Mass - those outside the Church insist they know more about what we believe than we do.
  • Sometimes it is tough to give a charitable Christain response when you hear the same misrepresentations of the church over and over and over…
-That being said, it’s not an excuse to be rude because someone else is, or to insult because someone else did but to say that you can’t believe the Catholic church is the true church because all Catholics aren’t perfect is not a good enough excuse for me.
 
Gooed evening!

I had a long reply to all of you that have written since my last post, but just as I was about to post it, the thing was gone. What a tragedy; all of that wisdom gone forever…

Any way, I’ll try again with individual responses.
La ChiaraXenos acts suspiciously like some other non-Catholics who come to the forums and post. He starts off on the offensive–criticizing Catholics generally, throws in a few “I thought I would be welcome” here, implying that his lack of welcome is because he is not Catholic, rather than related to his attacking tone. He parries any suggestions that he ought to look at CA tracts (they aren’t specific enough???) But my favorite is that those who respond to him in the same way that he does is “not acting like Christ”. So Xenos is the judge and jury of who is most like Christ. And he never responds to the substance of any posts that challenge his views which are unrelentingly critical of all things Catholic. Yep, seems to me he has been here and done that before. Anyone remember what his previous screenname was?

Sorry to dissaopint you; this is the first name I have used. Don’t remember visiting before I signed up, but I might have looked at the Forums for a day or two.

Now, perhaps you can help me. Show me where I attacked Catholics generally; and that what you rightly call attacks on me were justified by anything I wrote.

In this thread, I began by saying I agreed that JTC was wrong (I think I used a stronger word), but that many Catholics were in essence doing the same thing that JTC does. I further pointed out that the responses I received proved my point.

My comment about being welcome was a specific response to a specific question about why I was here; you have taken it out of context in an attempt to prove that I was making anti-catholic statements. You have created an offense where one clearly never existed.

Don’t you think that with the small number of posts I have made that calling them: “unrelentingly critical of all things Catholic” is just a little hyperbolic? That doesn’t even address the content of the said posts, which make it harder for yo yo defend what you have said (at least in my opinion, it does).

I am certianly not judge and jury; I did not condemn anyone as best I can recall. My question was meant to mean, “How can I know that you have the fullness of the truth, when you are not measuring up to the truth that I can see now?” Would you care to argue that those responses that I refered to were characteristic of Jesus Christ?

With all respect, the fact that others may have treated you that way does not justify attacking others.

As far as the CA tracts, by their very nature they are more simplistic than I am am looking for. I will deal with this in an answer to the post by rayne98.

Blessings,
 
Church Militant:
Xenos,

My friend I apologize if I have made you feel unwelcome here. You have spoken with some retraint, however I am one of those who HAS caught grief from Prots, evangelicals, JW’s, Mormons and the Mickey Mouse Club is who I figure will be next. Seriously though, as an ex-Prot I know all the baloney I was fed about the Catholic Church over my 34 year sojourn among them. In the end it was an attack by an A/C guy that led me to begin the serious research into the faith of my childhood and ultimately to my return to Catholicism. For that I really have to give praise to God.

Please bear in mind that these forums are pretty much just like the rest of the net and hence ya get some rough characters. To the point that I made it my own policy not to respond to threads by non-Catholics who are not sincere or honest in their queries, or Catholics who are being a jerk. Sometimes it’s hard to tell from their initial post…

My point about Jack Chick is that he is far more widely received than he’s worth and he spreads unbridled hatred of our most holy faith. Sadly, some people believe all his tripe and it puts us in a mess. As you can see, I live down south and this place is eaten up with him. To steal a phrase from Kermit the Frog: “It ain’t easy bein’ green.”

Just don’t freak out…we defend pretty hard, but it doesn’t change the truth. 😃
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Militant,

Thank you for the note. Out in the NW, I don’t see as much JTC as I used to. To be honest, when I see the things in phone booths, etc. I take them and dispose of them. Many of them (Not just the A/C) contain false and half true information that will do more damage in the end. BTW, most Catholics seem to have views about Evangelicals that are also “Baloney”.
 
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