New Jack Chick pamphlet out... it must be Halloween

[flipper]

Yup, October is about ready to saunter in and as predictable as the leaves turning, Jack Chick has put out a `new' tract on Halloween.

The storyline is broadly similar to most of his other two tracts on Halloween. This time though there are some nascent signs of continuity and character development - the evil Ms. Henn once again must face her nemesis Little Suzie, and we learn that Suzie has a curious father figure in her life; one who cuts a rakish dash by sporting both bow-tie and piratical eye patch. I would fain learn the back story here, but alas he's only in a single panel.

Little Suzie lectures her new friend "Buffy" (her mother is heavily into TV shows about vampires, Chick reveals) about the origins of Halloween but unfortunately Little Suzie's weak young mind has become badly confused, letting slip the surly bonds of fact for fantastic make-believe.

"Pagan priests would go from house to house demanding an offering of food for their gods. The "trick" was to take a child for human sacrifice. They left something like a pumpkin with a face on it... to show no one else would be harmed there."

As Buffy is lapping this up, Suzie closes in for the kill:

"Lots of kids disappear before halloween Buffy... remember those satanic priests? Well there's people today serving Satan who are just as bad as they were. That's why kids have got to be so careful on Halloween. They should never go off by themselves or with a stranger..."

See, not even Jack Chick is immune to the macabre allure of Halloween and its spectral mythologies. Caught up in the spirit of the season, he dutifully does his bit to stoke its ghostly fire.

And I bet you that by Halloween 2006, Suzie will have converted the wicked Ms. Henn, who I suspect may be living in sin with the vitriolic professor who stars in "Big Daddy": http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.asp

You can read "The Devil's Night" for yourself... if you dare! Mwahahaha!

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1053/1053_01.asp

[Solly]

[evil aside]That pesky kid knows too much. We will have to silence her.[/ea]

[Piebald]

I love Halloween! But for me it only entails dressing up spookily, making my house frightening, and giving candy to kids who dare to approach my home!

[elysian]

I can attest to and agree with one aspect of the tract- the incidences of animal cruelty/mutilations do increase around Halloween time, especially to cats. In my area anyone with all-white or all-black cats is advised to keep them indoors during the weeks before and after Halloween because there have been incidences of drunken teenagers who think it's "cool" to get drunk and kill some cats while listening to Marilyn Manson (therefore thinking they're "Satan worshipers.") There was a group of kids who lived across the street from my parents' house who got caught slaughtering cats in a woods not far from there (unfortunately at that time animal cruelty was only a misdemeanor, so all they got was a slap on the wrist and a week apiece in Juvenile Hall.) Whether or not the kids are truly engaging in Satan worship or if they're just getting drunk and trying to look cool to their buddies is open to conjecture, but the risk to cats is very real.

I keep my cats indoors- all of them, not just the two black ones. The risk of ritual sacrifice isn't as pressing as the risk of busy highways close by. Even without the risks of busy roads, a very sweet all-black cat like my Isabel would be no match for the kind of thugs that would kill cats for jollies/peer pressure/Satan worship, whatever. I watch my son's buddies very closely around my cats.

I like what my church did last Halloween. The overnight at church for the middle school kids was the night before Halloween, so there was a costume contest, pizza, candy, games, fun and all that but we also took it as an opportunity to teach the kids about Reformation Day. Our senior Pastor dressed up like Martin Luther and had a Q and A session with the kids about the history of Halloween, the Reformation, the 95 Theses, etc. It was pretty cool for them as they stayed safe and learned something but still had fun. If we demonize everything in the world the kids become enamored of all the things we forbid. (but that aren't necessarily forbidden in Scripture) If we teach them to do all things to the glory of the Lord, we can even use a secular/pagan holiday like Halloween to teach some valuable lessons and even have fun.

I am more afraid for my cats around Halloween, but if it is taken in context it can be both a fun and educational time.

[Meh_Gerbil]

I can attest to and agree with one aspect of the tract- the incidences of animal cruelty/mutilations do increase around Halloween time, especially to cats. In my area anyone with all-white or all-black cats is advised to keep them indoors during the weeks before and after Halloween because there have been incidences of drunken teenagers who think it's "cool" to get drunk and kill some cats while listening to Marilyn Manson (therefore thinking they're "Satan worshipers.") There was a group of kids who lived across the street from my parents' house who got caught slaughtering cats in a woods not far from there (unfortunately at that time animal cruelty was only a misdemeanor, so all they got was a slap on the wrist and a week apiece in Juvenile Hall.) Whether or not the kids are truly engaging in Satan worship or if they're just getting drunk and trying to look cool to their buddies is open to conjecture, but the risk to cats is very real.

I keep my cats indoors- all of them, not just the two black ones. The risk of ritual sacrifice isn't as pressing as the risk of busy highways close by. Even without the risks of busy roads, a very sweet all-black cat like my Isabel would be no match for the kind of thugs that would kill cats for jollies/peer pressure/Satan worship, whatever. I watch my son's buddies very closely around my cats.

I like what my church did last Halloween. The overnight at church for the middle school kids was the night before Halloween, so there was a costume contest, pizza, candy, games, fun and all that but we also took it as an opportunity to teach the kids about Reformation Day. Our senior Pastor dressed up like Martin Luther and had a Q and A session with the kids about the history of Halloween, the Reformation, the 95 Theses, etc. It was pretty cool for them as they stayed safe and learned something but still had fun. If we demonize everything in the world the kids become enamored of all the things we forbid. (but that aren't necessarily forbidden in Scripture) If we teach them to do all things to the glory of the Lord, we can even use a secular/pagan holiday like Halloween to teach some valuable lessons and even have fun.

I am more afraid for my cats around Halloween, but if it is taken in context it can be both a fun and educational time.
At what point did killing a cat become a way to impress one's friend? :eww:

[elysian]

At what point did killing a cat become a way to impress one's friend? :eww:

Good point, although some of these young punks have got it in their heads that it's a "cool" thing to do.

All I can say is Jeffrey Dahmer thought killing cats and other small animals was "cool" too.

The Homicidal Triad:
Arson
Torture/killing small animals
Bedwetting past the "normal" age

(I never understood the correlation of bedwetting, but hey, this is forensic science!)