Please tell me you don't think Christians really think like this

Shocker? Rolf Harris has always been Satan in disguise. Actually, can that, no disguise, he's just SATAN.

I think some people "appreciate" Chick because they imagine that his fantasies are but the logical extension of certain aspects of Christian belief, and thus he becomes a convenient means of dismissing it outright. (I thank that's what may have happened on the other thread.)

I coincidentally had conversations about faith with several friends over the past week and all of them, unwittingly or not, implied that they don't believe in the reality of conversion. I guess that's one thing what paints them as athiests, and myself as an agnostic?

"for god so loved the world (that's you) that he gave his only begotten son (jesus), that whoever believeth in him should not perish (in hell), but have everlasting life (in heaven)."

so glad those were there, otherwise i would have been really confused.

i don't think the likes of chick are a basis for dismissing christianity outright, but they certainly make it look pretty stoopid. many christians, i'm sure, look at this sorta stuff as total bullshit.

There's also your typical Chick-tract "the world's a baseball field and everybody plays for one of the two teams, so watch out for people who aren't actively preaching to you" bit (the William M. Gaines lookalike telling John not to worry), but as far as I can tell, the tract doesn't deviate greatly from Basic Christian Message #2, i.e. "You must accept Christ or you are lost." (#1 being "Love thy neighbor as thyself," which hasn't exactly been the focus of Christianity lo these past 2000 years.)

The Chick cartoons that are most objectionable are those where Chick posits a bunch of behaviors (most of which would seem normaly or unobjectionable to us) and suggests what their appropriate punishments will be in Hell.

I normally don't give a shit for this threads on a serious manner but being raised as a good little RC post VCII I was never taught #2 and I can't remeber if we ever got rid of Purgatory offically, we just don't mention it. Like exorcism, its all hush hush.

better name for it: limbo

Religious fanatics heart childish cartoons - what's that about?

A cult, not a cartoon ahem..

I do have a Nuclear Freeze comic book but it's fairly wry in tone, nothing like Jack Chick or the JBS.

I think you're right in general. It might be a comic books = horrible mass-market consumerism equation or a comic books = for kids equation (is the right keener on going for the kids' demographic?)

i also like how john is giving the audience a thumbs-up when he is a confident twentysomething.

http://www.chick.com/tractimages92391/0021/0021_05.gif

http://www.chick.com/tractimages68536/0021/0021_10.gif

As for Limbo, I have no clue. Purgatory is where you burnt off your sins before entering heaven I recall but I forget where the unbaptised babies and others go offically, probably depended on the year and the order of priest/nun teaching.
Its another one of those John Vs Paul FITE!
and yet another horrible thread for future googlers.

http://www.chick.com/tractimages68536/0069/0069_08.gif

On the other hand, this is basically the same theme as Dante's Inferno which is widely regarded as a classic of world literature.

But not necessarily a canonical Christian text....

***

"Thank God, he just made it!" (This reminds me of the lyrics to "Moonshiner": "Well it's cornbread when I'm hungry, corn likker when I'm dry / Greenbacks when I'm hard up, and religion when I die.")

True. I think I missed the context of your original post. My point was more that even if we may not agree with Chick's theology, we can still enjoy his work. Speaking of ultra-conservative Xtian art/kitsch, has anyone else here ever seen the trilogy of rapture films: A Thief in the Night, A Distant Thunder, and Image of the Beast? They're sort of a B-horror movie depiction of conservative Xtian eschatology: the rapture, the Beast, 666, etc. They struck me as being quite creepy when I saw them as a teenager.

Despite feeling this way, I feel relatively happy and get along with most people I meet. So, is my rampant cynicism and haterd of people in general a gigantic pose, a self-defense mechanism, a subtly-drawn alternate personality, or am I really pitifully lonely on the inside?

never.

"i't really pulling the USA straight down the shitter"

Gaaaaaa, you've got no evidence of this. It does the opposite.

"I haven't seen a full answer to Darn1elle's question yet."

"how does mainstream Christian belief differ from the view expressed in that tract?"

It doesn't.

None of the above. I think it shows that while one can despair at everybody as a collective whole -- and one easily can -- that you can approach folks as individuals and see their good qualities for what they are, and see if those qualities temper or indeed override those which you don't like in people in general. It sounds perfectly logical to me -- and what makes it not self-defense is that you make the effort to get along with others one-by-one. Like here. :-)

It doesn't.

Heather: in light of this statement, what differences did you have in mind when you started the thread?

You're welcome! :-)

When you read in the news about some things, or are removed from a person or event by other distancing effects (race, class) you recognize that people as a whole tend to spread suffering around as much as they do anything else, and this sticks in your mind. Because you are logical and 'objective' you admit that this includes the whole species and not just Christians, Muslims, Malaysians, or dog owners - even people you know.

But! Somehow you forget that one or two of your friends have fathered abortions, that you have stolen, that you once drove a Jeep Grand Cherokee, that you buy tobacco products and think that free markets are the answer - you and your fellow herd members are okay and you can get along - because otherwise you'd just shoot yourself in a spastic fit of hypocritical angst.

How hard is it for you to ditch a friend for doing something you find reprehensible in other people? I can think of a few cases where I've either accepted a person as they were or taken an extremely long time to cut myself off from people, even though I couldn't stand the thought of certain past behavior on their part.