Jack Chick Passes Away

The controversial figure Jack Chick, who published a range of comic books known popularly as "Chick tracts", which attacked a number of activities including Dungeons & Dragons, has passed away. His Dark Dungeons tract was released in 1984 and is often linked to the 1980s paranoia about Satanism and other elements suggested to be part of tabletop roleplaying games. A movie version of that particular tract was also made by JR Ralls.

[video=youtube;8qc9JiIiOSQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qc9JiIiOSQ[/video]


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[Max_Killjoy]

So far, Knasser has made by far the more compelling and supported argument.

 

[Celebrim]

I suspect - but don't know for a fact - that his other tracts were written to generate an income, not because he really believed any of them. That may in itself be morally wrong, but we shouldn't be too fast to condemn him for views he promulgated but may not have held.

I don't follow this at all. So you are saying that if he was dishonest and insincere (as you believe), and motivated principally by greed and self-interest (as you believe), then we ought to condemn him less for his actions than we would if he was motivated by the sincere belief that he was trying to save people from a horrible fate? Of course one ought to condemn someone promulgating beliefs they do not hold, especially if they are doing so merely to make a buck!

If he was dishonest and insincere, then I'd despise his actions much more and not less.

 

[sstacks]

[FONT=&quot]It's fashionable to hate on Jack Chick among geeks, but his This Was Your Life tract deeply impacted me as a kid and I'm sad he's gone. Rest in peace.[/FONT]

 

[sstacks]

[deleted accidental double post]

 

[Zander]

I don't follow this at all.

That's true.

So you are saying that if he was dishonest and insincere (as you believe), and motivated principally by greed and self-interest (as you believe), then we ought to condemn him less for his actions than we would if he was motivated by the sincere belief that he was trying to save people from a horrible fate?

No, I didn't say he was motivated by sincere beliefs that he was saving people.

Of course one ought to condemn someone promulgating beliefs they do not hold, especially if they are doing so merely to make a buck!

We agree about that. I didn't say Chick wasn't immoral, just not necessarily as much as one might imagine.

If he was dishonest and insincere, then I'd despise his actions much more and not less.

I wouldn't. If he genuinely hated {insert group targeted by Chick here}, that's worse than if he didn't really hate them and just did it to make a buck. Real hatred is more immoral than a pretence motivated by money.

 

[pemerton]

But one thing worth emphasizing is that by "modern sensibilities" I don't mean "since the 90's" or anything.

Yes, that was clear. It's obviously a bit tricky to put a year on it, but the French and American revolutions are as good as any for marking the relevant watershed.

 

[prosfilaes]

[FONT=&amp]It's fashionable to hate on Jack Chick among geeks, but his This Was Your Life tract deeply impacted me as a kid and I'm sad he's gone. Rest in peace.[/FONT]

Among geeks? Dark Dungeons is a joke to geeks. Chick attacked just about everyone who didn't believe as he did as being in league with Satan. Bringing food to a far-away land without demanding conversion? Going to hell. Bringing solace to soldiers at war as a chaplain instead of lecturing everyone who doesn't believe as you do? Going to hell. A Catholic? On the hell-bound train. Dressing up for Halloween? All aboard. Some of it was humorously stupid, but a lot of it attacked good vulnerable people.

 

[MichaelSomething]

As least he's closer to God now...

 

[Chaosmancer]

While I'm all for a good "Literary opinion off" (is there a better term for that?) and I'm more than happy to have a discussion about the Daemon created by Frankenstein (and I choose my words and spellings thereof purposefully) perhaps this is not the best spot for that sort of discussion.

As to other Chick tracts.... some of them were monstrous in the extreme. In fact I remember reading one (intense trigger warnings ahead, seriously, all of them)

[sblock] Where a man is forgiven for raping his 10 year old daughter and selling her as a prostitute because he ended up finding Jesus, and the last scene is him hugging her and saying everything will be all right from now on. Oh, and this is with the blessing and full knowledge of the local doctor, who instead of reporting the man to the police and getting him arrested spends months lecturing him about God and Jesus instead. [/sblock]


Whether he believed it, or acted like he believed it to make a buck, doesn't make a lick of difference in how forgivable messages like that are.

They are not, in any way, forgivable.

 

[jrowland]

Come on people!

I know we live in an age of tolerance, and I find it refreshing in these days of internet commentary mud-slinging that you all are rising above the vile commentary.

But...

We are D&D aficionados, and Jack Chick was our bogeyman. So let us mark his passing in the most fitting way we aficionados can:

By bringing him back as an Undead Overlord!

He will make a cameo appearance in my campaign and in every campaign henceforth during the month of October...

So, thank you, Jack, for providing my player characters with a recurring villain. I am truly grateful.