The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature
Chick Parody Archive designed by Webmaster "Psycho Dave." Furthermore,
insiders have developed neologisms such as "Chick-aresque worldview," "non-
Chick Christians," and "Chickean theology." His tracts are disseminated in 100
countries all over the world and have been translated into dozens of languages.
The internet home page of Chick Publications (www.chick.com) boasts that
copies of the tracts are even displayed in the Smithsonian Institute as an integral
part of American culture! Why are Chick tracts so attractive? Richard von
Busack gives the answer on one of the anti-Chickean web pages:
Chick's comics are so fascinating because they contain such maniacal
passion and rage in their apocalyptic images. The man is a great folk
artist; his visions of war in the Invisible World are the newest versions
of a style of imagery that has influenced American populist thinking for
centuries. [...] Comics reduce the human condition to its purest form. To
see Chick's worst-case-scenario Christianity illustrated as a comic
pamphlet is like seeing a reduction of a reduction. Chick confirms our
worst fears of ignorance and prejudice. To read Chick is to have the
thrill of horror comics restored for the first time since childhood. [...]
[I]t's hard to distance yourself from the rawness of Chick's sick images,
each one jolting with klaxonlike blasts of shock, each as powerful as the
hot kiss at the end of a wet fist. 1965
Jack T. Chick has discovered a clever way to infiltrate the masses with his
ideas: according to his own home page (www.chick.com), he was told that
multitudes of Chinese people have been won to Communism through mass
distribution of cartoon booklets. God told him to convert the people likewise.
This proved to be a promising business: "Jack Chick's logic and artwork are so
over-the-top that his tracts are now a big hit with the gen-ex, cocktail nation,
recreational Christian set." 1966 That such pamphlets are in no wise to be
underestimated in their effects is stated by a Masonic internet site: "It is, perhaps,
somewhat apocryphal that a short-comic book would become the basis for
someone's beliefs about an organization. Based on the constantly declining level
of literacy, particularly in the United States where Chick is based, we can
appreciate how materials such as theirs could influence empty minds." 1967
While it is true that most Freemasons are elderly gentlemen to whose range
of literature do not belong comic tracts, the influence on the younger generation
and on intolerant Christians could possibly nurture hatred against Freemasonry
and foster conspiracy theories. The special tract which Freemasons sometimes
find tucked under their windshield by some Chickean fanatic in an effort to
"save" them is the 1991 edition of "The Curse of Baphomet," the title already
creating a link between the devil and Freemasonry.
1965 Cited from www.metroactive.com, "Unearthing famed Christian artist Jack T. Chick" by Richard
von Busack. From the April 2-8, 1998 issue of Metro. © Metro Publishing Inc.
1966 Cited from www.postfun.com, © PostFun 1998, Adult Christian Home Page.
1967 Cited from www. Masonicinfo.com, © 1998, 1999, 2000 by Edward. L. King.