Sorry

Jack Chick tracts are alive and well, and I run across them from time to time. If they weren't so sad, they'de be funny

I know exactly what y'all mean about that fascinating appeal, especially the train-wreck aspect. There's something so lurid in the way they're so devastatingly IN THY FACE, but also kind of "funny" in the situational aspects of their storylines. Life does not operate the way Chick depicts. People do not fall into either a beatific or demonaic bucket. One must admire the sheer Black and White-ness of it. It's like Spy vs. Spy in Mad Magazine, but more twisted. That there are people who believe this is how the world works takes it from funny ha-ha to something darker, IMO. From personal experience, as an evangelizing tool they're not so good. Back in my LSU days when I was with a church called CLF, the college evangelizing teams would hit Chimes St. to hang out, meet people and invite them to visit the campus meeting on Wed. Some of the more zealous would bring Chick with them, and I gotta tell you - while people always took them, they did so for the kitsch, not for the theology. They'd pass them back and forth and act them out drunkenly, getting a good laugh. Not a very effective door-opener when trying to encourage them to take us seriously enough to come to church with us, you know? I'm personally glad that I don't see Chick around as much. It may be because of my location - North Dakota is largely Lutheran and Catholic, and neither are really "Chick Folk."

The mere fact that Mahony continues to hold a major see speaks volumes about the corruption imbedded in Rome -- corruption that reaches all the way to the top. Let's be honest: Rome doesn't give a damn about the faithful, whether ordained or lay, and it certainly doesn't give a damn about God. All Rome cares about is its own power, prestige and image -- which has deservedly taken a beating for at least seven centuries, now. Mahony is merely a symptom of a far greater problem: an episcopal system that rewards careerists, isolates its members, encourages institutional arrogance, demands blind deference from subordinates and discourages accountability at every turn. Such a system is an abomination to a holy, righteous God. Such a system betrays the very principles of service laid down by Christ Himself in John 13. Do you think St. Peter -- a simple, blunt man who demanded that Cornelius stand up instead of kneel to pay him homage in Acts 10 -- would tolerate the sight of bishops acting like medieval potentates, dressed in lace and having their rings (and their asses) kissed?