Jack Chick is more than just not reliable. He spews hate to all who will listen to him or read his stuff. Yes, he is violently anti-Catholic. Not just in his tracts, but also in his comic books. He has four or five against the Catholic church. One being “Alberto.” Now that one is so stupid it’s a wonder that anyone would buy it or believe it. But there’s a market for it, so someone is reading the stuff. I wonder how many people actually believe him. One lady I knew did. Her own ideas were so far from reality that I can’t talk to her anymore. It always turned into an argument about our beliefs. And she was one that said that Jack Chick spoke the truth in all things.
Well, there’s plenty of hate speech out there, not just against the Catholic Church, but against plenty of people, groups, and ideas. Kind of flies in the face of Christ’s commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. We don’t have to necessarily like their ideology, and if we can’t convert their minds, we’re told to walk away and shake the dust off from our feet. I don’t think that relieves us of the responsibility of praying for their eternal welfare, though. And I hope any intelligent Catholic isn’t similarly guilty of hatred.
I’m casually wondering if your old acquaintance would fall into the category of those experiencing “invincible ignorance.” I had such an acquaintance who would routinely attempt to proselytize me to his nondenominational megachurch, despite my repeated verbalized objections to this. We were coworkers, and, quite frankly, he had a bit of a crazy glint in his eyes when he would start his version of evangelization when I was trying to get some work done. It got to the point of his interrupting my work several times a day, and really made the workplace quite a nuisance. Part of his evangelization was including Jack Chick tracts in my lunch bag that was in the office refrigerator. That was my first experience with the ridiculous things. I filed them in the circular file.
This went on for months, and I would try to do my patient rounds when I knew he was in the department office, just to avoid him, but I would have to stay late to complete my documentation. One time I was trying to enter stuff into the computer reporting system with him preaching at me, and nearly entered “whore of Babylon” in the progress note I was trying to write (I"m a physical therapist, and if such a record ever went to court, I’m sure that that entry would be picked apart by a malpractice attorney.) I’m just going into detail here to demonstrate just how noxious a work environment this became!
I ended up reporting him to Human Resources, and they called him in and gave him what-for for not doing his job.
I felt a little uncomfortable about the whole scenario, since he had gotten into some trouble by my reporting (they told him to knock it off or he’d be placed on probation,) and discussed it with my spiritual director. He counseled me to pray for him, and told me I handled the situation well. Then Fr. J., rest his soul, made a comment: “Just mention him in your prayers, and count on the mercy of God in His dealings with him. Some people are just plain too stupid to go to hell!”
