As many of you may or may not know, Jack Chick passed away on October 23. Now Jack Chick was a evangelist and cartoonist known for drawing Chick Tracts (my personal favorite one can be found here). Chick often wrote about his anti-Catholic, anti-gay, Anti-Halloween, anti-role playing games, anti-Islam, anti-Evolution, pro-Southern Baptist ideals. He died this week according to his official website, putting to rest any rumors of him being a pen name or a collection of writers and artists.

Despite his apparent religion inspired bigotry, I mourn for Jack Chick. I truly do. Despite his hideously uninformed Chick Tracts and his hubris in spreading ignorance as fact, I mourn him not as an evangelist or a follower in his beliefs, but because he was.a person. I refuse to celebrate his death nor do I condone anyone else who does so. But if there is one thing that his legacy will leave behind, it is misinformed bigotry and willful ignorance. And I refuse to let that shit fly with me.

His Chick Tracts often have a message of "us versus them." If you aren't with us, you are our enemy and you deserve to rot in a place of fire and brimstone is the name of his game. Often times his tracts contradict the Gospel itself with criminals getting rewarded (because they accepted Jesus) and the "bad guys" getting their just desserts for things like charity, taking care of homeless, etc. Arguably the most disgusting of these is Lisa. Remember kids, molesting your child is A-Okay so long as you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Give me a fucking break.

Also he has adapted his tracts for black audiences. Everyone is shaded in and the characters use outdated slang (read: jive turkey). Soul Story, the most infamous of these, is described by the Rational Wiki as a "christian blaxsploitation film." So yeah, believe it or not, he actually believed that would actually bring African American souls to Jesus. Read the tract. I am not kidding. Add that along with his often debunked and questioned sources and, well, you got some material for a Chick Tract.

And with that, I would like to say that while Chick is dead, his followers are more than likely to spread his words (and tracts) until generations to come. Oh joy.