Chick and the god of Fear

I passed up a small office front today titled "Chick Publications". The text was in a simple white serif typeface.

Innocent enough.

But the name brought back black and white visions of a bloody apocalypse, fear, and a sinking dread of the Almighty.
I "grew up" in the church and was both sickly fascinated and terrified by the "Reverend Chick" tracts. Someone always died at the end and went to a fiery hell full of sarcastically cruel demons who tormented their guests for all eternity. Sometimes even professed Christians went to hell! And let's not even start about what happened to the deceived Catholics!

I'm sure somewhere in the wide world, Chicks tracts have done some good, I'd be a narrow minded fool to deny that. However, one has to question Reverend Chicks view of God as well as his idea of what it means to be a Christian.

God is shown as a emotionless judge casting people into hell on a whim. I wish Reverend Chick would actually READ his Bible. Over and over and over in the Bible God comes to people in love. There is judgment, to be sure. However, it is always Gods last resort. Read the books of the prophets! God warned the Israelites for years on end and tried to turn them back to Him through his love long before He unleashed judgment on them.

Another thing I got as a kid from his tracts was that your life had to conform to some narrow ideal to make it into
Reverend Chicks heaven. You had to think, act, react, listen, not listen and have the same theological views as he or else you were doomed to an eternal fiery hell. All you Catholics! All you non-King James bible readers (including myself!) BE WARNED! REVEREND CHICK HAS SPOKEN!

Fear mongers like the "Reverend" Chick (or whatever his real name is...) do nothing more than turn a compassionate God into a fierce and angry being to be dreaded. One bent on sending us to hell if we dare step an iota out of line. No permanent, healthy relationship can ever be based on fear. Not a friendship. Not a marriage. Not a parent and child. And certainly not one between God and man. It's about time people like the "Reverend" figure this out and stop spreading the gospel of the god of fear.