The King of Kings – One crazy Christian comic
lFlicking through today’s Advertiser (Tuesday, May 3rd) I couldn’t help but stop on the public opinion section where today’s topic was the relationship between religion and other spheres of life, including politics, education and law.
My favourite letter of the day comes from Tony of Lower Mitcham who wrote about religion and education, and that when his son was 11 a close relative secretly gave him some religious comic books. One of the books called There Go the Dinosaurs apparently described the time roughly 6000 years ago where man and dinosaur coexisted together (you can see why Tony was worried about his child’s education). However much more disturbing was the comic called Superman that told the biblical story of Samson and Deliah. According to Tony, the closing message of the comic book was “Unlike Samson, Jesus Christ will slaughter billions of people at his second coming. All who oppose him will be smashed”… mmm can’t wait.
Disturbing is the fact that these propagandist comic books were being distributed by a Baptist Church in the Southern Suburbs and that they are aimed at the susceptibility of 11 year olds.
Now I like Tony. Not just because he puts forth a very convincing argument against publications of this manner, but also because he names the US publication that makes these comic books, and low and behold a two second Google search of Chick Publications leads me to being able to read a plethora of comics online.
Today, if you will let me, I would like to review the comic book King of Kings.
King of Kings spans over a long time period from the creation of the universe - to the ultimate Judgment Day where not all of us, but most of us will be burned in a lake of fire. However the real thrust of the comic is detailing the fallings of those who didn’t give themselves to God and their punishments.
First up was Lucifer, Gods right hand Angel, that is until he planned a coup to take over God’s throne and was sent to Earth with his followers. Why he was sent to Earth which at the time was supposed to be a paradise I don’t know, but crazy and inconsistent punishments from God also seems to be a bit of a theme.
So Lucifer (now Satan) on Earth under the guise of a serpent, convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and Adam, being the good boy friend of course does the same. God finds out and deals out some punishments (child birth, manual labor, crawling on belly) but there is one punishment that surprised em somewhat; “Someone had to die for the crime. Some believe God chose little lambs, because they were precious and dear to Adam and Eve. The lambs were killed”. So God gave lambs the chop because Adam and Eve ate fruit that a serpent told them would be fine. Clear as day.
Lambs become a bit of a focal point after this as Adam and Eve’s first-born Cain get’s into strife because instead of sacrificing a lamb to god for his sins, he has the audacity to try and sacrifice fruit and vegetable! I mean how is a sicko lamb killer like God meant to get pleasure from killing lifeless fruit and veg? His brother Abel however, a bit of a goody-two-shoes decides to do the right thing and sacrifices a little lamb to God. Which presumably God slaughters and cleans Abel of his sins.
Cain then murders Abel and is punished pretty harshly. By being given a long life of being, and I quote, a “loser”; “The world has been filled with people like this ever since”. I think the comic is right on this point as a day doesn’t go by where I don’t bump into a murderous loser, running around trying to save lambs.
But the next bit was my absolute favourite insight into history. And that was the destruction of the city of Sodom where Abram and his wife lived. You see Satan had complete control over the city of Sodom and ordered his “Demons of Homosexuality” to take over every man, woman and child so that they could no longer see good from evil. God saved Abram and his family from Satan occupied Sodom and helped them escape. Then the next day of course he burnt the city to the ground killing all the evil homosexuals;
“Only three people made it to safety. (A picture of the US in the future?) It is estimated that over 10% of our population is homosexuals… and proud of it! God help us!”
So to dissect what the comic is telling us here. It is saying that God (now presumably sick of killing lambs) should help us in the present day by murdering all existing homosexuals.
Any way the rest is basically all plagues and Jesus on the crucifix, until Satan at some point in the future forms a super church that encompasses all other religions, which gives rise to an all powerful leader (The Beast) who claims to be God, who then tries to kill all the Jews in the world. This is when Jesus returns and all who followed this super church are thrown into the lake of fire on Judgment Day.
As far as scaring kids into religion goes this comic gets 5 out of 5 little sacrificed lambs.
Now religious people may scoff, and say these views are rare and extremist, but that is not to say that this material is accessible to the public freely online, and has apparently been distributed to children through churches. One can only believe that if these US publications have made it as far as the Adelaide Southern Suburbs, that they have probably found their way to several other locations across the US and across the globe (comics also available in Spanish) where they may well be read and believed by children as fact. It’s active propaganda and attempted brainwashing, and I think Tony is right when he says that they should be banned.
But arguments saying that publications like this should be banned would no doubt give way to discussions of freedom of religion. I mean why should these comics be banned and not bibles, when all these comics are, are biblical interpretations (I’m guessing First Testament)? For the sake of freedom of religion, should publications like these be allowed to circulate churches and class rooms at the risk of children developing homophobic attitudes, reservations about ideas of evolution (which is described in the comic as a lie created by Satan) and the belief that all people who don’t believe in God are to be condemned to hell? I personally think people whom are gay, atheist, like lambs or are in any other way implemented as being morally corrupt or evil by religious publications, have the right to get angry at religious publications like these. I don’t see why religious propaganda should be protected under the right of freedom of religion if it in anyway impedes on other people’s rights in society.
And now to play it safe I’m off to sacrifice a lamb.
Lewie D
My favourite letter of the day comes from Tony of Lower Mitcham who wrote about religion and education, and that when his son was 11 a close relative secretly gave him some religious comic books. One of the books called There Go the Dinosaurs apparently described the time roughly 6000 years ago where man and dinosaur coexisted together (you can see why Tony was worried about his child’s education). However much more disturbing was the comic called Superman that told the biblical story of Samson and Deliah. According to Tony, the closing message of the comic book was “Unlike Samson, Jesus Christ will slaughter billions of people at his second coming. All who oppose him will be smashed”… mmm can’t wait.
Disturbing is the fact that these propagandist comic books were being distributed by a Baptist Church in the Southern Suburbs and that they are aimed at the susceptibility of 11 year olds.
Now I like Tony. Not just because he puts forth a very convincing argument against publications of this manner, but also because he names the US publication that makes these comic books, and low and behold a two second Google search of Chick Publications leads me to being able to read a plethora of comics online.
Today, if you will let me, I would like to review the comic book King of Kings.
King of Kings spans over a long time period from the creation of the universe - to the ultimate Judgment Day where not all of us, but most of us will be burned in a lake of fire. However the real thrust of the comic is detailing the fallings of those who didn’t give themselves to God and their punishments.
First up was Lucifer, Gods right hand Angel, that is until he planned a coup to take over God’s throne and was sent to Earth with his followers. Why he was sent to Earth which at the time was supposed to be a paradise I don’t know, but crazy and inconsistent punishments from God also seems to be a bit of a theme.
So Lucifer (now Satan) on Earth under the guise of a serpent, convinces Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and Adam, being the good boy friend of course does the same. God finds out and deals out some punishments (child birth, manual labor, crawling on belly) but there is one punishment that surprised em somewhat; “Someone had to die for the crime. Some believe God chose little lambs, because they were precious and dear to Adam and Eve. The lambs were killed”. So God gave lambs the chop because Adam and Eve ate fruit that a serpent told them would be fine. Clear as day.
Lambs become a bit of a focal point after this as Adam and Eve’s first-born Cain get’s into strife because instead of sacrificing a lamb to god for his sins, he has the audacity to try and sacrifice fruit and vegetable! I mean how is a sicko lamb killer like God meant to get pleasure from killing lifeless fruit and veg? His brother Abel however, a bit of a goody-two-shoes decides to do the right thing and sacrifices a little lamb to God. Which presumably God slaughters and cleans Abel of his sins.
Cain then murders Abel and is punished pretty harshly. By being given a long life of being, and I quote, a “loser”; “The world has been filled with people like this ever since”. I think the comic is right on this point as a day doesn’t go by where I don’t bump into a murderous loser, running around trying to save lambs.
But the next bit was my absolute favourite insight into history. And that was the destruction of the city of Sodom where Abram and his wife lived. You see Satan had complete control over the city of Sodom and ordered his “Demons of Homosexuality” to take over every man, woman and child so that they could no longer see good from evil. God saved Abram and his family from Satan occupied Sodom and helped them escape. Then the next day of course he burnt the city to the ground killing all the evil homosexuals;
“Only three people made it to safety. (A picture of the US in the future?) It is estimated that over 10% of our population is homosexuals… and proud of it! God help us!”
So to dissect what the comic is telling us here. It is saying that God (now presumably sick of killing lambs) should help us in the present day by murdering all existing homosexuals.
Any way the rest is basically all plagues and Jesus on the crucifix, until Satan at some point in the future forms a super church that encompasses all other religions, which gives rise to an all powerful leader (The Beast) who claims to be God, who then tries to kill all the Jews in the world. This is when Jesus returns and all who followed this super church are thrown into the lake of fire on Judgment Day.
As far as scaring kids into religion goes this comic gets 5 out of 5 little sacrificed lambs.
Now religious people may scoff, and say these views are rare and extremist, but that is not to say that this material is accessible to the public freely online, and has apparently been distributed to children through churches. One can only believe that if these US publications have made it as far as the Adelaide Southern Suburbs, that they have probably found their way to several other locations across the US and across the globe (comics also available in Spanish) where they may well be read and believed by children as fact. It’s active propaganda and attempted brainwashing, and I think Tony is right when he says that they should be banned.
But arguments saying that publications like this should be banned would no doubt give way to discussions of freedom of religion. I mean why should these comics be banned and not bibles, when all these comics are, are biblical interpretations (I’m guessing First Testament)? For the sake of freedom of religion, should publications like these be allowed to circulate churches and class rooms at the risk of children developing homophobic attitudes, reservations about ideas of evolution (which is described in the comic as a lie created by Satan) and the belief that all people who don’t believe in God are to be condemned to hell? I personally think people whom are gay, atheist, like lambs or are in any other way implemented as being morally corrupt or evil by religious publications, have the right to get angry at religious publications like these. I don’t see why religious propaganda should be protected under the right of freedom of religion if it in anyway impedes on other people’s rights in society.
And now to play it safe I’m off to sacrifice a lamb.
Lewie D
