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Jack Chick Strikes Local Jail

Loss Leader

I would save the receptionist., Moderator
Loss Leader
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
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Location
Florida
Reading Jack Chick cartoons that have been linked to from here, I always gave a condescending laugh. Wherever it is in America's heartland where this stuff flies, it certainly isn't here in a suburb 30 miles from New York City.

I was wrong. Jack Chick publications found their way into my local jail and are stirring up quite the controversy. It seems Muslim inmates in my county don't have their own chaplain and can't even get Halal food. They have to settle, ironically, for the kosher meals. Now, they're being told theirs is a false God and Muhammed is a "religious dictator."

See for yourself: http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070413/NEWS03/704130409
 
Clapp, a full-time staffer at the jail, started out as a correction officer in 1989 and became the chaplain in February 1994.
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Translation: The taxpayers here are no fools. We saw a real need for Jesus in the lives of these men and women headed down the wrong road in life. When they leave here we are happy to state that they go right to church and turn their lives around. This is the best investment we've ever made in prisoner treatment!
"She does a tremendous job here," Clark said. "Nothing like this has ever happened before."
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Translation: All at once she just went crazy with the Chick tracts and started passing them out. We don't understand how she could go so insane after so many years of holy work preaching about Jesus to our inmates.
 
Kopji said:
Translation: The taxpayers here are no fools. We saw a real need for Jesus in the lives of these men and women headed down the wrong road in life. When they leave here we are happy to state that they go right to church and turn their lives around. This is the best investment we've ever made in prisoner treatment!

Translation: All at once she just went crazy with the Chick tracts and started passing them out. We don't understand how she could go so insane after so many years of holy work preaching about Jesus to our inmates.
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Well, I'm not so sure about all that. First of all, chaplains are present in jail to minister to prisoners' religious and spiritual needs. The prisoners themselves decide whether to take part in religious services, study groups or whatever. I'm quite certain there is generally no official proselytizing. And I don't see much problem in providing prisoners with access to religion. In fact, I think anything else would be unconstitutional.

Rockland County also happens to have a huge Jewish population. Now, we Jews are generally a pretty law-abiding bunch but the law of averages makes for a significant Jewish minority in the population in the jail at any time. The chaplain in question was one of several. There is a Rabbi and, I think, a Catholic priest. Five or six of our seventeen county legislators are Jewish. So I can't really say that my county government has a strong desire to convert prisoners to christianity.

As for whether this chaplain just went crazy all at once, so far it looks that way. Everybody appears to have had a lot of respect for her until today.
 
A label on the back of booklets in the jail contains the name and address of Upper Room House of Worship, a Spring Valley church where Clapp is believed to be minister.
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I don't have any problem with ministers in the jails, I just don't understand why they are public employees.

Jack Chick's books are hate literature, and the public was paying to have them distributed.

The caliber of 'ministers' that hand out Chick tracts work for free.
 
Kopji said:
Jack Chick's books are hate literature,
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That, my friend, is where you are wrong!

ETA: There's also a tract (don't remember the name) in which one (black) character refers to another (black) character as "You stupid jive turkey!" Presumably, he thinks it's okay because they're both black.

Chick is a funny, funny person.
 
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Muslim inmates said they were deeply hurt and offended by the tracts, adding that other inmates' belief in the information has led to verbal altercations and to inmates labeling Muslim detainees devil worshippers.
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That's so pathetic I laughed. Grown men fighting over cartoons. Hieroglyphics were more mature.
 
l0rca said:
That's so pathetic I laughed. Grown men fighting over cartoons. Hieroglyphics were more mature.
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Presumably, if the men were mature enough not to fight over cartoons, they wouldn't be in jail.
 
Glen.Nogami said:
That, my friend, is where you are wrong!

ETA: There's also a tract (don't remember the name) in which one (black) character refers to another (black) character as "You stupid jive turkey!" Presumably, he thinks it's okay because they're both black.

Chick is a funny, funny person.
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It was Soul Story.

Come to think of it, do you ever see successful black people in the tracts that don't specifically target blacks?
 
c4ts said:
It was Soul Story.

Come to think of it, do you ever see successful black people in the tracts that don't specifically target blacks?
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Okay, a few things.

1) Jack Chick is an ignorant fool that pretends to know more than he really does.

2) Jack Chick lets his fundamentalist faith get in way of his reason.

3) Jack Chick is sue-happy, threatening people that attempt to parody him with lawsuits.

4) Jack Chick makes unwise decisions, strawman arguments, and portrays people in the worst positive light whatsoever; apparently to him, homosexuals have little demons riding on their shoulders or something.

5) Jack Chick is anti-homosexual, to the point of, yes, claiming that they are inhabited by little demons. He also seems to believe that Sodom was entirely filled with homosexuals (not bisexuals), and that they were killed because, yes, they were gay. He doesn't even know his own scripture.

6) But I would not say that Jack Chick is a racist. I really wouldn't. There's plenty of reasons to dislike the man, I really don't think one should look for more where they don't exist (if indeed, the suggestion is that he's racist and not simply unwise).
 
Teaching that people who believe like I do will be eternally rewarded while those who do not will be eternally punished is hateful. No matter how attractive the garbage can is packaged, it still contains only garbage.

Art has motivated people to action for centuries. 'Cartoons' especially, have the ability to convey a message that can be easily understood by both the wise and foolish, peaceful and violent.
 
Lonewulf said:
6) But I would not say that Jack Chick is a racist. I really wouldn't. There's plenty of reasons to dislike the man, I really don't think one should look for more where they don't exist (if indeed, the suggestion is that he's racist and not simply unwise).
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You don't find the black-only comics to be racist? Seems odd...
 
strathmeyer said:
You don't find the black-only comics to be racist? Seems odd...
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I don't see why I should assume that they're racist, no. He put them in to try to convert african-americans, as far as I know, not to ridicule or insult them. Stereotyping based off of ignorance is not automatically racism, at least, IMO.
 
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I'm questioning the assertion that the public is paying for Chick tracts. Just because they are being distributed to prisoners is no evidence.

I suspect someone (or some organization) is donating them. Such has been the case with Bibles in prisons.
 
There was apparently an appallingly racist chick tract towards orientals, taken from the web and everywhere subsequently. Called "Kings of the East" or some such. Anyone familiar with this?

Not to mention all the not-quite-racism-because-it's-about-Islam tracts. And Soul Story, and an amusing tract with a few Hispanic stereotypes. ("Tonight, we'll serve you a taco supreme, because tomorrow you die!")

Overall, the guy probably isn't a severe racist. It's certainly not his worst trait. Still vaguely offensive, but you're probably right.

I suspect someone (or some organization) is donating them. Such has been the case with Bibles in prisons.
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And hotels. Bastard Gideons.
 
Glen.Nogami said:
There was apparently an appallingly racist chick tract towards orientals, taken from the web and everywhere subsequently. Called "Kings of the East" or some such. Anyone familiar with this?
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No, but if it is as racist as you make it out to be, it may sway my opinion. :)

ETA: Did a google search. Didn't read the actual tract, but I found a review on this site. Quoting the first paragraph of the review (that's fair use, right?):

A fun romp through Jack's red-under-every-bed world view. This is basically a rant on how the Chinese are out to take over the world. Released in 1975 and discontinued soon thereafter, it must have really seemed paranoid. Since that time however, the Chinese have made major territorial and political gains through their use of spies, intimidation and bribery [...]
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Did another ETA:

If I have any reason to really hate Jack Chick, it's this. The guy's only "better" than Fred Phelps in that he *tries* to convert people.
 
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Glen.Nogami said:
There was apparently an appallingly racist chick tract towards orientals, taken from the web and everywhere subsequently. Called "Kings of the East" or some such. Anyone familiar with this?
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I own a copy from the 1970s. I was a collector back then.

It's not in print and was never on the Chick website.

It's not particularly racist.

The basic premise was that the Bible predicts a Chinese Communist takeover before Christ's return.

At a certain point, some of the prophesies were so obviously falsified that it had to go away.
 
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