Save me, Jeebus!

Well, today brought me a first: I saw my very first Chick Tract.

Now, I've seen lots of these online, since they're all very helpfully (to somebody, I suppose) archived on Teh Interweb, but until today, I'd never run into the print version of one before. Someone left one in a conspicuous location at The Store, as happens from time to time; they know they're not allowed to openly distribute literature on our property, so they do it on a "stealth" basis. They'll go into the bathroom, do their business, hopefully wash their hands, and leave a couple of brochures on the counter. (Yes, when I find these, I toss them. I don't care if someone is leaving pamphlets extolling the virtues of The Phantom Menace, I'm tossing them.)

The types of literature usually left behind (heh) by such folks are almost always identical, but today's was an actual, paper copy of a Chick Tract. I'd never ever seen a printed version of a Chick Tract before, so it was a little exciting to see the creepy artwork, the lousy writing, and the completely unsubtle message (Jesus, or HELL!!!). I was going to toss the thing, but one of my coworkers -- a pretty militant atheist, it turns out -- was highly amused by the thing and pocketed it to take home, for some reason. I'm always a little curious about this approach to ministry -- does the "Leave a pamphlet or two in a bathroom" approach really work? I suppose that probably works more frequently than the even more obnoxious version of this practice, the Christian pamphlet that's designed to look like a folded-up $20 bill, which the Nice and Helpful Faithfuls will leave on their tables in restaurants in place of a tip. I saw this happen more frequently than you would guess when I worked in restaurants, and let me tell you, not once was the server's response to receiving one of these what I suppose the Nice and Helpful Faithfuls wanted to hear.

In general, I find the leaving of religious literature -- or the actual physical distribution of it, as has happened to me in parking lots or malls or county fairs or city streets -- fairly obnoxious and irritating. The active seeking of converts always annoys me, but I have to admit, seeing a real Chick Tract in person instead of online was kind of amusing.