Battle Cry July/August 2007, Jack Chick and associates

During my indoctrination into the Aggie Church [Assemblies of God] at a younger age, I was exposed to Jack T. Chick tracts and indeed I used them in my "witnessing" to bring people into fundamentalism christianhood. I was unaware of some of the controversies involved and would have dismissed it as "the work of Satan" if I had known. I had never heard of Alberto Rivera, Elaine Moses and her cohort Rebecca Brown [a.k.a. Dr. Ruth Bailey], John Todd, or Bill Schnoebelen. I did know and read the works of Charles Finney and Hal Lindsay. [By the way Hal, what happened to the rapture occurring in 1981?]

I look back on that period of my life with mixed emotions. The problems that I'd had fitting in socially were not alleviated by my forays into pentecostalism. Nor were my fantasies about women relieved. Two things did happen during that time that may have ultimately saved my life. It was a church member who called my father and blew the whistle on my mother's physical abuse. And I took a break from drinking and using street drugs. It was during that break that I was exposed to an accurate definition of addiction. I remembered that definition several years later when I was seeking a way out of my own active addiction.

Husband [non-theist] has an obsession with Jack Chick tracts. To my chagrin, he dropped-- I think it was-- 15 bucks on a box of them and now he is on the list to receive a copy of each new freebie as it comes out. Additionally, he gets a bi-monthly copy of Jack Chick's little 16 page "Battle Cry."

Jack Chick has been a long-time advocate of conspiracy theories regarding the Vatican, the Illuminati, and witchcraft. Via contact with the late Alberto Rivera and the now convicted rapist alleged former satanic high priest and Green Beret John Todd, Chick has made various claims in his tracts that are not historically accurate. Among the claims are that the Vatican orchestrated the founding of the Muslim religion and the Holocaust, and that an unholy triad of witches, Masons, and Catholics [some being Jesuits a.k.a. Illuminati] have infiltrated all or most christian churches. Sucks to be christian these days. According to Chickology, one can't trust the cops or the folks in most christian churches these days.

Jack Chick has [wisely] chosen to distance himself from the now dead Elaine Moses and her controversial defrocked physician cohort Ruth Bailey/Rebecca Brown. Both have claimed to be witches who converted to Christ. Brown authored a book about curses on christians and others. Elaine Moses claimed to have literally married Satan [in a white tuxedo] and then supposedly traveled all over Europe and the U.S.A. on behalf of some huge satanic network. Brown was brought up on charges [as Dr. Ruth Bailey] for doing things like praying over patients for deliverance from demons, diagnosing non-existent illnesses in patients, claiming special knowledge of healing including sharing Moses' leukemia very much in the fashion of pranic healing but with the twist of actually [allegedly] coming down with Moses' leukemia herself, and injecting people with non-medically necessary controlled substances for treatment of the non-medically existing diseases.

In the July/August issue of Battle Cry in the editorial on page 15-16, Jack Chick claims that the [now dead] Alberto Rivera as a [supposed] Jesuit was told that Pope John Paul II [also dead] in pre-papal days of lusting after the young boys of the factory workers he was [supposedly] assigned to investigate priests who were assigned to minister to Polish factory workers. Alberto Rivera was no Jesuit, despite his pretensions otherwise. He was a bit of a con man and a fraud. Many christian bookstores removed the Alberto comics when he was found out. Chick touted the action as a victory for the Vatican and Satan. In the editorial, there is an oblique reference to the controversy.

Also in this issue are advertisements for various books-- including one by anti-Mason and alleged former wiccan turned satanist Bill Schnoebelen-- witnessing and tract-passing tips, a summary of a lawsuit allowing a bible study outfit to send inmates who request it material [note: an outcome which I believe is correct according to the described circumstances], and references to the sexual abuse scandal within some catholic churches in California [continuation column on page 7 subtitled "Homosexual Subculture"], and a few other tidbits.

The back cover features a cartoon frame equating Islam's promise of peace with chopping the heads off of the infidels. A tiny chick in the right-hand corner says, "Ouch" much in the fashion of Spike the dog in some of the tracts.

I found the editorial in the July/August issue of Battle Cry to be particularly abhorrent. Then again, Jack Chick is known to be anti many things and to use inaccurate or made-up information as the basis of the biographical stories featured in his tracts.

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http://faith.propadeutic.com/authors/fundamental

http://www.squidoo.com/garydale/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Rivera

http://www.monsterwax.com/chicktapes2.html

http://www.catholic.com/library/sr_chick_tracts_p5.asp

http://www.chick.com/reading/comics/0112/indefense.asp

http://members.aol.com/monsterwax/Contents.htm

http://www.witchvox.com/protection/kerr_chick1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Brown

http://members.tripod.com/monsterwax/brown1a.html

http://www.kt70.com/~jamesjpn/articles/closet_witches.html

http://www.holysmoke.org/wb/wb0073.htm

http://answers.org/satan/brown.html

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/brown.html

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

http://www.fecundity.com/pmagnus/darkdung.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Todd_(evangelist)

http://www.kt70.com/~jamesjpn/articles/john_todd_and_the_illuminati.htm

http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/todd00.htm

http://www.skepticfiles.org/mys3/jtc-jtc.htm

http://www.masonicinfo.com/schnoebelen.htm

http://www.holysmoke.org/wicca/bills00.htm

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=whs&id=4355

Order of the Phoenix

Friday, husband and I went to see the long-awaited "Order of the Phoenix," the fifth of seven Harry Potter movies. I was impressed. The array of special effects was stunning, the plot did leave out lots of stuff present in the book [Hollywood time constraints I suppose], and the development of several characters was notable.

It is noted that Ginny Weasley had a very minor role in this movie and hopefully that will be remedied. Luna Lovegood did remarkably well with her bit, acting every bit the part of a budding young conspiracy theorists. Voldemort remains the evil that everyone loves to hate.

I am noting nothing about the storyline in this review for the sake of those fans who have not been to see the movie yet. With this movie and the seventh book being released within 10 days of each other, there is much cause for rejoicing in those of us who have awaited every new book and every new movie with the eagerness of Snape dealing out detentions to a Griffindor.

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Two Forks, Maine

A friend who is nuts over white-water rafting wanted to goto this place in Maine for a few days and I went along.

We left on Sunday with my doggie looking out the bedroom window and crying. That was a bit sad.
There is no direct route to this place. It took seven hours or so. And the last bit of that was on a rather dinky road.
Ah, but the scenery was most rewarding. There were pine trees and little houses and stores and water and all of that.

The pictures in the on-line brochure really are a poor representation of The Forks Resort Center. Actually, The Forks looked a tad run down.
The lodge was not as splendid, the hot tub was made of metal, the pool had a line of algae along the rim.

The cabins and lake were sweet though.

Our room had comfortable albeit noisy beds, hooks and hangers but no dressers at all.
The air-conditioner [an older model hung out the window] worked well.
No phone in the room-- not even a direct line to the front office or emergency number-- was a safety hazard.
No television was forgivable since the wifi signal reached upward.
And the price-- 25 bucks or so per person per night-- was right.

For dinner Sunday, I had a huge portion of dead cow cooked as steak-- just the way I had ordered it and deliciously flavored with herbs and spices. Along with that came a salad [satisfactory green stuff], mashed red potatoes, and three very large grilled slices of squash.

Monday dawned wet and got wetter.
Friend went off on her white water rafting adventure [$129 buckeroos] after a false start [a showing of a vid and a solicitation to rent a wetsuit]. She came back looking very much like a frozen dead rat.
I spent most of the day sleeping. I did some puttering on the computer.
Friend and I went to the outskirts of Jackman to a trading post which had cool tourist trap stuff.
For dinner we split a plate of nachos. At 5 bucks apiece, it was a bargain. And quite tasty.
A huge portion which included the nachos, cheese, black olives, peppers, onions, and salsa.

Tuesday was a sunny-cloudy-sunny sort of day. The breakfast buffet was like buffets all over. Not distinguishable from any other breakfast buffet. Morning was spent poolside.
Afternoon we went off to Moxie Falls, a quiet stroll of less than a mile to some very turbulent water with signs advising not to even wade.
In spite of the danger, there were two locals jumping off of one rock into a swimming hole.
We also found a small memorial to someone who ?had died? at the falls.
The water was brown from tannic acid and the rocks were all broken up into slender pieces of bluish-gray.

We went off to a meeting that night at the library in Jackman.
It was a small meeting and everyone felt they had to tell us that no one could get sober and stay that way without god.
The regular members were warm and welcoming there, a point in their favor.
We ate at a little diner afterwards. I had a nice juicy reuben.

Today being Wednesday, we packed up and left with rain whipping at our backs.
Yeah it did rain more.
We did get home and doggie was happy to see me.


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