the Gospel according to a cartoonist

Title:

Hell

Artist: M. C. Escher

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when i was cleaning yesterday, max (my almost 18 year-old son) heard the doorbell ring and i told him to see who it was. when he returned a couple of minutes later, i asked him who it was and he said it was "some old dude trying to save my soul. he gave me one of those things that people try to put in your bag when you go trick-or-treating."

oh, no --- a jack chick tract. sure, i know the link i provided is the Catholic spin on what they are; however, anyone can read for themselves and be really afraid that these things are actually being purchased and left in random places so as to "spread the Gospel."

i asked, "what did he say to you?"

"he said he wanted to give me something, looked at me, went through his bag and said, 'i think you will like this one,' and then left."

it was entitled "No Fear?"

and how is it, exactly, that this man thought my son would appreciate this *gift*?

because he is a teenager?
wears a lot of black?

the tract itself it deals with suicide. how appropriate -- one of our close friends committed suicide almost three years ago and that act, in and of itself, would never be enough to prevent us from doing it ourselves -- oh, no. thank God for the tract to set us all aright. (sarcasm, in case you were not aware.)

it is mortifying to me that these tracts still exist and that people find distributing them acceptable practice for evangelization - through fear. he is one lucky old dude that i was up to my elbows in cleaner lest i ran down the street after him to give him back his propaganda along with a little piece of my mind.

(not that my evangelizing would have been acceptable, either. i realize that :)

i am wondering if i am alone in my rationale - do you think this modern-day Jonathan Edwards-style of evangelizing-by-cartoon is acceptable and your reasons why?

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.

ahhhh. what a cartoon that would make!