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One of the best ways to introduce sinners to Jesus is through Jack Chick tracts.

Let's home Ted Dabney found Jesus before it was too late! Everyone enjoys the easy to read comic book style tracts that has made Jack Chick famous the world over.

You can help save others like Ted by distributing Jack Chick tracts. Let's hope Ted had a chance to read this one Last Rites.

Obligatory message from Jesus.

That's how you know Dungeons and Dragons is a good game.

http://www.chick.com/reading/t...

"Intense occult training through D&D prepared Debbie to accept the invitation to enter a witches' coven"

If only I understood the dangers before I started playing! Pretty sure my DM isn't nearly this cool.

http://chick.com/reading/tract...

The actual article seems to only say that one web site, titled "What really happened to the dinosaurs", appears in response to one particular search query, "What happened to the dinosaurs".

Well, I also have these on the first page of Google:

Dinosaur Fate I - Christian Answers Network

What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs? (DJ and Tracker John)

There Go the Dinosaurs

The other results are recent articles and blogs about the current case. I had to go to the second page before I saw the first answers which are not related to all of this and which explained about the extinction event 65 million years ago.

How much time have you spent on Tumblr?

There is so much melodramatic teenage 'dark thought' reinforcement there that I have no trouble at all thinking of the alleys it could lead a young adult down that they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to.

Now, illustrated!.

I wonder if it's just that the Internet gives children and teens access to the entirety of the adult world, and that pre-internet adults and tradition can't provide them guidance to managing and understanding what they're exposed to.

Yeah, constantly being accused of a Satanistic suicide cult had no negative impact on D&D.

If I were to listen to all of them, nobody would be a Muslim

This works for Christians too, you know! Jack Chick of the Chick Tracts fame obviously has it out for the Roman Catholics (he has explicitly claimed that the Roman Catholic Church was started by Satan himself) and that only his brand of evangelical Protestantism could bring you to Jesus. And on the other side, I attended a Catholic high school and had a religion professor tell me that all non-Catholic denominations were cults set to take your soul.

That's just what happens when you listen to the extremists.

Chickipedia?

http://chick.com/ ?

That would be ridiculous.

It was the unholy power they gained after their subsequent introduction to the occult. Their success is most likely to do Satanic influence.

Here's a healthy dose of truth for you poor misguided souls

But which Bible could he trust?

"I wanna see the oxygen deniers" We only have gravity deniers so far. Gravity is "just a theory", the earth and the universe itself are held together by the hand of God (Col 1:17). And yes, some people believe such things http://www.chick.com/reading/t... According to Wikipedia, some professor wrote an article on "Intelligent Falling", but the paper has been retracted and hasn't been archived http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

Perhaps Chick tracts. Chick.com

Weren't there some people that committed suicide after their characters were killed in the game?

Please tell me you're joking, and don't actually think Dark Dungeons is a documentary.

I don't think time spent studying the monster manuals or magic would be of much aid in the actual spiritual journey we face on earth even if you could make various other claims of benefit.

It's amazing how many people have apparently completed their own journey despite still inhabiting their mortal coils, which they obviously must have because they have the time and wisdom to worry about the effect other people's pasttimes might have on reaching their destinations.

Also, while each life stage certainly has preparing for the next as an important component, that isn't the only component. You are a living being, not just a production facility for your future self. The latter is committing the fallacy - and sin - of thinking people as merely tools to be used and discarded, with no value beyond their utility.

Also, I doubt that very many devout Christians, reference above, were getting high on coke.

From what I've seen, the "Christian" drugs of choice are hate, lust for power and fear. Frankly, coke would be less harmful to the spirit.

While you're at it tell your 5 year old that there's no such thing as Santa, the Easter bunny, or the Tooth Fairy and watch how well that goes down.

Jack Chick, is that you?

GOOGLE IS A TOOL OF THE ANTICHRIST!

It's true! I read it in this little pamphlet I found on the subway!!

.

> Let me see. "Neocons" are largely Jewish conservatives.

Huh? No Neocons are largely Evangelical conservatives. I totally understand your confusion here, since their main defining issue is blind, unwavering support for Isreal. It does seem like this would, tend to indicate they are Jews, but, its just not the case.

Simple fact is, jews are a tiny minority. They really don't deserve their status as a major world religion, at least not based on number of adherents. Here in the US, they are a small minority, so small that they barely make a voting block that anybody would care about, if not for the evangelicals.

Problem here is that the Evangelicals have a plan for the Jews. Many of them follow an interpretation of revelations which says that God's plan includes the Jews taking back Israel, and it playing an important role in "the end times" as they like to call it.

While this sounds a lot more insane than the proposition that Jews are neocons, quite simply, there are more evangelicals who subscribe to this here in the US than there are Jews here.

For reference see: http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1000/1000_01.asp

In the end times, Israel will play a vital role in Bible Prophesy. Satan's man (The Beast) will rise
out of Rome as the world leader. His ultimate goal will be to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. The Beast will order all armies of the wolrd to converge on Israel and destroy her. When all seems lost, Israel's Messiah will burst through the clouds and save her. He will destroy the invading armies... take over all governments... and judge all nations that opposed Israel!"

Jack Chick is no Jew.

When this story broke I immediately thought back to my days in the 80's playing D&D and the fear evangelical Christians had of the game. I even remember being chased, yes chased, out of a friends house by his crazed father. I'd no idea at the time but somehow there was a growing fear that D&D lead to devil worship. Or something. I do recall there were even news reports along this line.

So now, put into a political context, this fear has been reanimated by the Maine GOP to accuse their opponent of being 'not one of us' at best and an agent of evil at worst. WoW is the new D&D! Clever. Fits the GOP play-book, however, it didn't work. Rather like a lot of the GOP play-book isn't working anymore.

It's worth it to know that in the years since I'd discovered the source of the Christian fear of RPG games. The comics of one Jack Chick. Wonderfully illustrated but deeply paranoid, his comics are familiar to any fundamentalist church goer. The D&D issue can be found here...
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.ASP

We all know that this is part of Satan's trick, right?

http://chick.com/reading/tracts/1079/1079_01.asp

It's easy enough to get it unblocked. I tried to find the D&D cartoon on http://www.chick.com/default.asp and found the site blocked on Vodafone. It's just a case of phoning them and removing the block if you're over 18.

http://chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.asp

The bible isn't a textbook. Neither are the "Noah's Ark Flood Geology Activity Book" or the Chick Tracts you leave lying around.

Have you never DMed or played under one that did quid pro quo trades in game? "Get me a coke for that 15xp you need to get to next level." "Whoever does X, I will give Y." There are plenty of instances where a DM can be a leader or use their position as one of authority. It's just like Farmville. Do this and I will give you this imaginary reward in this imaginary world. But don't think for a second that just because it is imaginary, that it isn't valued. As a DM I've gotten some pretty sweet RL rewards from players for those imaginary rewards.

You're that female DM from the Chick Tracts aren't you?! How could you do that to Marcie?
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.ASP

if you use thorium powered nuclear reactor

But if we go "new killer", then the fundies can break in and get the shit to make bombs. Or at least that's what we've been told.

there's no fundamentalists on the sun

But are there fundies in the places where we get raw materials for PV panels? And are there fundies who own large tracts of land on which a huge PV or photothermal array would be installed? (There have to be; otherwise, we wouldn't call them tracts of land.)

It's not a parody. The tract he mentions is real.

Figures that the "skeptics" take part of their knowledge straight from chick.com.

You're making a lot of assumptions there, dude. Interesting, though - I hadn't heard that before about Gutenburg. Thanks for the info

I believe the catholic church held a similar view when the Gutenburg press came out

Figures that the "skeptics" take part of their knowledge straight from chick.com. Ignoring the fact that Gutenberg's Bible still cost far more than a common man could afford, not only did the Catholic Church cheer for the availability of the printed Bible, they also supported Gutenberg by having him print church documents - including indulgences.

Are they talking about something like this: http://www.chick.com/cartoons/embed.asp

Dude they don't even have one complete skeleton, how can they possibly prove anything? Evolution is fake anyway http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.asp

Anyone remember when the far right religious wing started saying that playing D&D turned people into Satanists who then ritually killed people?

This started with the lies of just one guy, and if you haven't read his (intended to be completely serious) work on the subject, you should: it's hilarious. (The idea of having that many women in a D&D group is itself enough to make me want to start sacrificing animals...)

And how dare you present evidence of Ann Coulter being rational! Ugh, I'm going to have a migraine all day...

Apparently not (Yes I realise it was a joke)

They don't want the prisoners to learn black magic rituals.

Some required reading

When I started reading I thought it was a joke. Now I'm not sure.

I hope it is a joke, because either it is a joke or there are people spreading very stupid notions out there, if they aren't stupid themselves. And if they aren't stupid or joking they are being deceitful with their absurd brainwashing, which is even worse.

I can't get it. As a christian I can say I don't get it at all. What is the point of all the veneration if the people ignore the teachings. Where is the understanding, altruism and good sense? Why the feel the need to spread so much FUD?

Jesus walked amongst the sinners, treating them as equals and teaching the willing. Doesn't that give them a clue?

So many of them don't even care enough to help those who need or even to stop harassing others. Want to be rich and healthy without effort and think they will just because they can cite biblic passages passages out of context.

Ugh, it's hard to be even slightly religious when there is so much harmful ignorance and ill intentions standing behind the same flag. Official religions usually go bad, if people want to be religious they should be at least capable of making their own interpretations.

...I think I got worked up.

Matthew 7:13-14
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

How much easier could Satan be making it than providing the game for free online?

Some required reading

Remember all those extreme "Chick Publications" handouts? Not only are they all

Here's the link to that one "Dark Dungeons" flyer that showed all he players in black robes in a big room with a huge pentagram on the floor and a kid hanging herself because her character died.

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

People still pay to keep those websites up, and to get all the fresh copies anybody wants printed.

and there it was all along..

You are thinking of tracts. Haw! Haw!

Funny, but true. I did forget my login information (email/username and password) to this site, which is just the one image.

For those who don't know, this is a parody of Chick religious tracts (God, what a waste of a domain name!) that has often been the target of the Chick lawyers.

Note to the Chick legal team: I'll be glad to take it down if you give me my password! :)

Reading the Jesux web page, it's one of those satires that I'm not quite certain is satire. It worries me when that happens. For instance, compare and contrast the Landover Baptist Church website with Chick Publications.

I am Jack Chick, and I reach out to the Slashdot audience. Accept Jesus into your hearts, or face eternal damnation! Go here and learn all about Jesus!

The teacher turned red, started to stammer, so my son stopped talking.

In other words, the wise conservative student outwits the mush-brained liberal professor and humiliates him in front of everyone, just by stating the facts! In reality, of course, the professor would just steamroller over any argument or fact thrown at him, and keep right on going. Anyone who has met the type knows exactly what I mean.

This sounds like something right out of Snopes. I'll bet I could find a variant of this exact story if I looked hard enough.

No kidding. Hell, it sounds like something right out of a Jack Chick tract, and I think this is a variant of that exact story. (It's pretty entertaining as, er, unintentional self-parody if it doesn't raise your blood pressure too much.)

That would be this one.

I can see it from here: TRUTHINESS WARS!

Forget about the Usenet flame wars, the Slashdot flame wars, even the Wikipedia editing wars, people... This is the Real Deal! Years after the Truthiness Wars, the Intertubes will still have that scarred, scorched look that faintly glows in the dark due to the irradiated remains of a thousand web sites.

Decades after the commotion, survivors and veterans will trade horrible, traumatic war storie...

Remember when the Vatican webmaster was allowed to rate Jack Chick?
And Disney allowed to rate Warner Brothers?
And Fox News allowed to rate Barack Obama's web site?
Oh, come one, what about when Theo de Raadt was allowed to rate Linus Torvalds? And Linus counter-attack?
And... Wait for it... RMS and the FSF rating Microsoft? Now, THAT is what I call a nice truthiness battle, baby! The mother of all such battles, in fact. Thousands of web sites went down in that one with the infamous 0% truthiness rating. Ugly, my man, but it had to be done.

OK, does anybody else think this is a Bad Idea(tm), or am I the only one?

And here is the proof: don't trust anything I ever posted on Slashdot. ;-)

Actually, I'm coming to believe a section in science class called "Challenges to the Theory of Evolution" could be extremely productive. You could take common problematic arguments like "If humans evolved from apes, why are there still apes?" and address some of the reasons why they're poor challenges.

No, this is very dangerous. There are lots of educated creationists about. Do you really want to see things like this happening?

I can do better than PDF. Here's the tract itself, straight from the horse's ass. I should warn you; it's pretty damned lame. I wish some of the Chick-tract fundies would give me the one about how heavy metal is Satan's music; I'm a metalhead, not a D&D player.

The Internet sees ALL.

Is anyone else reminded of Chick tracts? Share files and you go to hell...

The Devil's Night.

Read it, if you dare... try not to drink anything, you might spit it out at your monitor.

Hell for Nerds! I was reading that yesterday and thought it was particularly relevant.
My favorite part is when the girl kills herself because her character died.