Say what you will about the animal-rights group PETA, you can’t deny they have a wicked sense of irony.
According to their annual report for 2003, they sent the adorable comic book “A Chicken’s Life” to hundreds of "correctional facilities” for use in “literacy programs.” While I’m sure hardened criminals empathize with the plight of “today’s overworked, stressed chickens” (pg 3), 
I suspect that they would have a better appreciation for the comic given out to children whose mother’s are caught wearing fur.
The flier with the charming title “Your Mother Kills Animals” helps spark children’s imaginations by asking them how they would “feel if someone were to take away their kitty or puppy, stomped on their head, and ripped their skin off their bodies?” The tract ends as many of these public service type booklets do, by leaving the kid with some useful advice: “Keep your doggie or kitty friends away from mommy – she’s an animal killer!”
If you’re like me, you might be wondering who could have devised such a brilliant idea. While I can’t be certain, I know of only one man in America who has the genius to dream up this type of campaign -- Jack Chick.
While you may not recognize the name, if you’ve ever used the restroom of a truck stop then you’ve probably seen his work. 
Chick produces tracts and comics that look like work that R. Crumb would have produced had he attended Bob Jones University. For over twenty years the tracts have been used to spread such Christian messages as Catholics are going to hell and that the Holocaust was a Jesuit-led inquisition against the Jews. (Perhaps the Jesuits are also behind the Chicken holocaust as well.)
To me, though, Chick is not just another anti-Catholic bigot. When I was a kid Jack Chick was the man who was responsible for more nightmares than the Twilight Zone and Kolchak: The Nightstalker combined.* Chick not only scared the hell out of me, he made me afraid that hell was all around me.
While his comic books are less well known than his tracts, they were a primary source of literature around my fundamentalist church. In a typical display of twisted '70s fundie logic, our congregation believed that comics about Satan and the occult were more wholesome than reading about Spiderman or Archie and Jughead.
One comic that still gives me the creeps is “Exorcists”, a tale of young boy who prays to Satan and becomes possessed after falling asleep. Being a Christian I knew that I didn't have to fear about demons taking over my body. But I wasn’t so sure about some of my heathen friends. Anyone who was sleeping over my house was quickly sent home for so much as mentioning a Ouija board or humming Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven.”
This isn't the first time I've noticed Chick's methods being adoped by PETA. Last year I recognized a similar link and wondered if we couldn’t learn something from these activists:
Before we get too upset at PETA, though, we should stop and wonder if they haven’t learned something from evangelicalism more kitschy methods of spreading the “Gospel.” When I was growing up, passing out tracts or holding up signs with “John 3:16” at football games was considered a legitimate means of carrying out the “Great Commission.”
Fortunately, many of us in the church have become aware of the fact that the “medium” was obscuring the “message.” There are, however, many evangelicals who believe that the value is in the means and not the results. As long as they are doing something, regardless if it becomes counterproductive, they will get credit. Sure you will turn some people off, as the inflammatory and despicable “Chick tracts” have done for decades, but you will win a few converts. And if one life (or in PETA’s case, one chicken) is spared then wasn’t it worth it?
There are ways to share your beliefs with others without offending them or turning them off to the message. PETA seems to have learned some lessons from our evangelistic methods. Hopefully, we have learned something in return.
Since they're adopting some of our old ways, PETA should heed some of the lessons learned by conservative churches. One thing we've found is that irrational fear is an overrated motivational tool, especially when you're trying to win the hearts and minds of children. Just look at my example. Twenty years later I’m still creeped out by the thought of the Chick comics. While they might have had the intended impact, they did so by appealing to my fear of Satan, rather than for my love of God. If PETA really wants to instill a love and respect for animals they should do so by appealing to the love of God’s creature, not the fear of their own mothers.
*The second most nightmare inducing image was seeing the end of The Electric Company where a guy would sit alone in a chair as the eerie strains of Also sprach Zarathustra played in the background. No one I ever mention this to, though, remembers this scene. Does anyone know what I’m talking about or is it simply a figment of my fetid imagination?
1
I've always noted that PETA has mastered evangelism better than the church. The most brilliant thing they do to perpetuate their message is the indoctrination of children. They have the brains enough to know that the religion won't spread unless they target the children. Millions of dollars every year are allocated for the sole purpose of winning over the minds of young people. They're pretty bold about it too. There's a good research study out on the efforts of PETA in this respect. They complete over-step their boundaries. Even many Liberals admit they are often out of line. They blatantly disregard laws all the time. But of course, they're allowed to do that. They're PETA.
I use the word "hate" sparingly, but I truly hate everything that PETA represents. It's a wicked organization in more ways than one.
posted on 09.07.2004 3:33 AM2
Even many Liberals admit they are often out of line. They blatantly disregard laws all the time. But of course, they're allowed to do that. They're PETA.
Everybody hates PETA.
Their general position is fairly far out toward the extreme end of the animal-rights movement (though not as far as many assume), and their tactics are despised by virtually everyone. Most liberals aren't particularly embarrassed by them, because we don't see them as part of liberalism at all (and, indeed, their willingness to mock liberal values even in cruel ways - like publicly urging Timothy McVeigh to request a vegetarian last meal before being executed - in service of their isolated idee fixe clearly puts their own values in some sort of moral bell jar, unconnected to a broader sense of social good). They're just annoying, and, to people who share their goals, irresponsible.
They're childish assholes who found that outraging people was both fun and attention-getting, and a lot easier than taking their own issue seriously.
posted on 09.07.2004 9:07 AM3
Hmmm. There seems to be an area of gray that is often overlooked by both sides of an issue. One of my first expereicne of church in CA. During prayer requests time, a lady raised her hans and asked if we could pray for the Redwoods. Last winter I visited my family back east and ran into an old high school friend. She was wearing a full-length fur. I never thought much about fur before, but it just hit me, "There are people in CA (where I live) who would spray paint you for wearing that coat." Something seemed arrogant to me about her owning the coat. Maybe it was because it was fulllength. Anyhow, I seemed to have forgotten all about it once my chicken wings arrived.
Rick
4
PETA has a lawsuit on the way against--can you believe it?--the Chick Fil A cows.
"Eat More Chikin" is speciesist, even for the bovines.
posted on 09.07.2004 11:07 AM5
Jack Chick rules. I keep every tract I find. Brilliant propoganda.
posted on 09.07.2004 1:40 PM6
No, PETA isn’t anywhere close to Christian evangelism. When quarterbacks from the winning Super Bowl team stand up to receive the Lombardi trophy and scream, “Stop eating meat and wearing fur!” Then we’ll know they’re getting close. :-)
Go Chick-Fil-A!
posted on 09.07.2004 1:47 PM7
Thank you for speaking out against Chick. I had never seen the PETA connection, but I've long opposed their particular brand of stridency. They are not unlike Operation Rescue in that respect.
If anyone would like to see some amusing Chick tract parodies...
"http://www.weirdcrap.com/chick/"
posted on 09.07.2004 5:09 PM8
Joe writes
"The second most nightmare inducing image was seeing the end of The Electric Company where a guy would sit alone in a chair as the eerie strains of Also sprach Zarathustra played in the background. No one I ever mention this to, though, remembers this scene. Does anyone know what I’m talking about or is it simply a figment of my fetid imagination?"
Not your imagination! That was my first introduction to Also sprach Zarathustra (most people probably heard it first in Kubrick's 2001, which was the inspiration for the cartoon). As I recall, the guy was sitting by a pylon and the pylon would crumble and it would be the letter or number of the day or something like that.
My other favorite Electric Company cartoon was the hard rocking "We All Live in A Capital I." But I have seen this cartoon attributed to Sesame Street ... am I misremembering the source? Did it play on both shows?
And to put the cap on this surreal post, the nickname foisted on me in my Sunday School class was "Joe Reader." Remember him?
posted on 09.07.2004 5:40 PM9
...irrational fear is an overrated motivational tool...
I think this is exactly right, Joe, and deftly summarizes why I'm so uncomfortable with the Chick tracts (not to mention the anti-Semitism and anti-Catholic bigotry).
Just curious: Is there any evidence that PETA actually distributed "Your Mommy Kills Animals?" I read the stories last year about their plans to distribute the fliers to children whose mothers wore fur to performances of The Nutcracker, but I've never heard of them being handed out. A quick Google search doesn't turn up anything.
It looks to me like a stunt designed to generate loads of publicity without actually giving a single leaflet to a child.
posted on 09.07.2004 5:58 PM10
That PETA comic book cover is so very, very amusing. If it had the right dimensions, I'd make it my desktop wallpaper. It's not sick, it's just amusing because it's so damn out there.
posted on 09.07.2004 6:00 PM11
The first time I learned who Jack Chick was, a friend of mine gave me a link to his comics page and I started to peruse his work. Great hilarity proceeded. I found Chick's tracts so off the wall, so ridiculous that I assumed that they must be satirical. Later, I investigated the greater website more, reading up on Chick and the sober realization that this nut was serious came over me. Maybe one could make a case that Chick means well...but as far as I'm concerned his kind of tactics have no place in the church.
posted on 09.07.2004 6:06 PM12
Joe,
"One thing we've found is that irrational fear is an overrated motivational tool"
I'd have to agree that it is overrated Joe, however I do think that rational fear of possible fates is as important as rational hope of possible fates is. Focusing on one to the complete exclusion of the other means you are missing a big part of the picture.
I am a little confused as to why you define things you have explained as 'irrational fear' though... Are you able to elaborate a litte?
posted on 09.07.2004 7:24 PM13
I have to agree with the whole Chick-tracks/nightmare thing. My piano teacher always had a few laying around as I waited for my sister to finisher her lesson. I still can remember the feeling of the blood draining out of my head as I read them.
posted on 09.07.2004 11:56 PM14
As a young child, I vividly remember [i]Also Sprach Zarathustra[/i] while the monstrously big monolith crumbled into the word of the day.
I think [i]We All Live in a Capital I[/i] was Electric Company not Sesame Street. My other E.C. fave was the "-ly" song: "You enter a very dark room/and sitting there in the gloom/is Dracula, now how do you say good-bye?/immediately, immediately, immediate - l - y!"
The Chick tracts/comics always struck me as well-intentioned when I was younger because I think I was only selectively exposed to the milder ones by the adults in my church life. Later, after I saw some of the crazier ones, I quite changed my mind about them!
Funny that you specifically mentioned Archie; I remember a few Christian comics with the characters from Archie. Some strange artistic fusion, that...
posted on 09.08.2004 8:34 AM15
Crud... sorry about my formatting error, I thought this board worked like all the others....my bad!
posted on 09.08.2004 8:35 AM16
It astonishes me that anyone sells or reads the Chick tracts. They are horrendous.
posted on 09.08.2004 8:47 AM17
>When I was a kid Jack Chick was the man who was
>responsible for more nightmares than the
>Twilight Zone and Kolchak: The Nightstalker
>combined.*
You too, huh? What saved me from that was discovering Dungeons & Dragons.
Though the damage is still there. I cannot think of God or Christ without the Jack Chick imagery of "God as Cosmic Josef Mengele" (i.e. Selection at the Great White Throne) horning in.
posted on 09.08.2004 2:07 PM19
So PETA is one step ahead by going after the minds of kids? All they did was take a page from the tobacco industry.
Yea, the tobacco industry, the ones who kill 400,000 Americans each year (Cancer Society figures). That is 3 jumbo jets crashing each day, everyday of the year. Today is 9/11. In the last 3 years, the tobacco industry has killed 1,200,000 Americans. That is far more than the 3000 killed by terrorists.
Oh, but there is a big difference between the two? Yea, you are right. Al Qaeda did it out of hate. The tobacco industry did it out of profit.
PETA has better morals than both.
posted on 09.12.2004 12:17 AM