Church Treats Trick-or-Treaters To Comic Featuring Child Suicide for Not Fearing God

Posted by Kevin Farrell on Oct 31, 2011 in Separation of Church & Prostate | 35 comments

Ohio’s Northview Baptist Church wisely decided not to give its youngest parishioners cavity-causing chocolates and candy this Halloween. Instead, 2,200 Christian themed comic books were handed out to impressionable trick-or-treaters about God killing two of a mother’s three sons.

Oh, and the third kills himself with a noose in the basement. How Christlike!

The comic, Mean Momma, scared the hell out of recipients, leading to enough complaints for the Associated Press to pick up the story. The church’s Facebook page was inundated with criticism from all over the world, leading to Rev. Kenny Cousar deleting the entirety of guest comments after posting an apology.

I want to publicly apologize for what has happened in Greenfield and Hillsboro this past Thursday. Annually, our church has a ministry of passing out Gospel tracts with our candy to children as an outreach to our communities. Unfortunately, we did not realize that one of our tracts was not appropriate. That is our fault for not paying attention to the tract in the first place. Our church does not endorse this type of extreme methodology that was represented in this particular tract, and we can assure you that we will not let this happen again. In our zeal to get the Gospel out, we were careless; but our church is a loving church that loves souls and wants to do all we can in our community to help as well as spread and share the Gospel message of Christ.

Is Northview Baptist Church unclear on what it means to endorse something? Because gifting children with comics “featuring extreme methodology” is the very definition of endorsement.

Having read the comic myself, I find it wildly inappropriate and more than a little bizarre. Was this church someone unaware of the 300 gay teens that commit suicide each year? And that’s just within the LGBT community! In Momma, God punishes a nonbeliever by killing two of her children via tornado and a car accident. The third son hangs himself after hearing his mother loved one of his siblings more than him. Panels mentioning bullying on behalf of the wicked sons also exist.

Whatever point the comic is attempting to make (Non-Christians die grisly deaths?) is completely missed. And whatever point the church was attempting to make (Um, non-Christians die grisly deaths, again?) is additionally bizarre.

What comics about child suicide would Jesus hand out for Halloween?

http://www.facebook.com/people/Steven-Norman/1170917683 Steven Norman

Chick Publications cause a lot of issues..and controversy..plain and simple..
Anonymous

Stupid fucks. One can wonder why gay kids are committing suicide these days.

Sorry, I really cannot word this any differently.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YWRFPM7JACFRUATZJBCFKCYE2I Emily

*Grisly

http://www.facebook.com/SiNT4X J.d. Ballard

LOL

http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-English/100001507078206 Michael English

I can’t understand how anyone can read this and still post “LOL”. Am I missing something or are you sick?

james spoldberg

This comic is so screwed up, what kind of nut sends out this trash? I am also appalled that there is a graphic designer that actually took up this job to make this comic! How atrocious!

Anonymous

Times are hard. Frankly if I was hard eup enough I’d do it, but hide my own views between the lines or in the art ;3

http://twitter.com/antitheistangie ajackson

Most likely they didn’t read the damn things before passing them out.
meh2

two words. white. trash.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gillianne-Rountree/100000210206782 Gillianne Rountree

There aren’t enough words to describe what I’m thinking/feeling about this whole situation… *smh*
http://www.facebook.com/people/Robyn-Venessa-Mazy/1303224949 Robyn Venessa Mazy

what kind of comic would Jesus hand out ” i love your for you are my child” and it would be a picture of a cloud with the light coming out of it and all people of all shapes, sizes,ethnicity, sexual preference and religions are going toward it!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Matt-Riale/1216304711 Matt Riale

What the hell?! This really doesn’t surprise me actually. :/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Erica-Cook/100000628613592 Erica Cook

funny thing is, the nonchristions are what most extreamests look like here.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=518698462 Tracy Hamburger Patton

Must be the sister-church of Westboro baptist. This kind of thing is right up their alley.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Brandon-Rose/100001040445651 Brandon Rose

Holy Shit!?!?! What on earth were these people thinking. That comic is f#%ked up on so many levels. If any peice of childrens literature needs banned, its this demented comic. I really just….wow!!!
http://twitter.com/kpringologist Kindra Pring

How exactly do you NOT read something before handing it out to CHILDREN. If his apology is true, it just exhibits extreme irresponsibility.
http://www.facebook.com/XwhyterabbitX Anthony Powers

i think this one is almost as amazing as the one i STILL have from a decade or so ago… two kids poking a dead squirrel on the side of the road… leading to a discussion of the squirrel being in hell because he wasn’t “saved.” (i carried it in my wallet for a laugh for years)
This one, however, proclaims its view in the first panel… the mother claims there is no god, and therefore you can live anyway u want… which is of course the black and white of everything, right? if you don’t worship white christian god and his white christian son, then u MUST be a hedonistic anarchist hellbent on raping children and goats, doing every drug and breaking every law possible.
And as sad as it is, this really is a fundamentalist christian view of the world. Growing up on the very buckle of the bible belt (a mere stone’s throw from Bob Jones University) i have had pamphleteers shoving this nonsense into my hands since i was old enough to put on my nice dark kohl eye-liner, and the “debate” always comes down to black and white for them… u are a good christian or u are a devil in disguise.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-English/100001507078206 Michael English

If this is the kind of thing Good Christians do, I think I’d rather burn in Hell.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1520798926 Laura Stubbs

If you think this is If you
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1520798926 Laura Stubbs

If you think this is bad, you should see the one titled Lisa. The moral of the story is you can rape your 7 year old daughter and sell her body to someone who gives her herpes, but once you accept Christ, everything is a-okay again.

http://twitter.com/BlueScorpioMoon Jennifer

That’s one of my biggest problems with Christianity, and one I debate with people about all the time. A person can be a murdering thieving child abusing rapist, and repent on his/her death bed, and with a simple, “oops, sorry God, my bad!” it’s all forgiven? Fine, but what about the actual lives destroyed prior to that? Are they magically healed? Oh, I forgot… if they pray about it, it’ll all be fine. And if they were victims of, say, murder? Well, they can’t pray, obviously, but if they were Christians before they got whacked, then they’re ok, and if they weren’t, who cares, right? UGH.

Pingback: Gaius.org » Church Treats Trick-or-Treaters To Comic Featuring Child Suicide for Not … – Unicorn Booty (blog)
http://www.facebook.com/HanzoBarren Hanzo Barren

Dear Baptists,

Your simply made of fail.
http://twitter.com/lilith210 Traci Cohen

Wow. Just wow. I clicked that link and read the whole comic and it was just shameful. This story tells kids that if their parents don’t believe in God they will be killed to punish their nonbelieving parents. This tract makes suicide seem like a punishment for someone else and not an extreme end for someone who desperately needed help. This and some of their other tracts (I’ve looked at the Lisa one that one of the commentors mentioned) take serious issues and try to boil it down to something that can be fixed with praying after the fact. She ends up being saved, but her kids (who are portrayed as being as bad as she was) are, in the tract’s universe, most likely suffering in hell.

IF (and to me this is a big if) the pastor did not read these he’s failed a basic test as a leader. I believe the more likely scenario is that he read it, thought it was fine, and sent it out. If they are not going to read over everything they send out then it’s best they stick to handing out bibles. Leaving something like that in the hands of a third party is never a good idea. Chances are the kids going to the churches to get candy are most likely growing up in at least vaguely religious households. I mean, I grew up in a small town where it would have been easier to get candy from a church than a house, but because I am Jewish I never went there, because my family knew that they were going to try to give us something religious.

I went on quite a rant there, but I read this right as the first group of trick-or-treaters showed up. I gave them extra candy this frustrated me so bad. It’s been bothering me all night, so I figured saying something would make me feel better.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=813278327 Chris Smith

It is a Chick tract. I’ve yet to find one that isn’t simplistic and hate filled.
Anonymous

So not the priest, or any other person, (not one?!), handing these out ever once opened them up to look inside? Nobody? Is that even humanly possible? I read the back of the Snickers package while handing out candy. Isn’t lying also a sin? Instead of the news reporting o bogus pot and razor blades in the candy stories, they should have been warning parents of this. Trick or Treat or Scarred for life?

http://twitter.com/BlueScorpioMoon Jennifer

But why would they bother to read it? After all, it said GOD on there somewhere, so a good Christian had to have created it, therefore it has to be ok, right?
Anonymous

They barely read the book they preach from. I wasn’t surprised if they didn’t read it.

Anonymous

LOL……ok, please. Has anyone clicked the link? There’s this crazy, mean looking woman with a smoking gun on the cover! NOBODY bothered to look inside? When handing this out to Trick or Treaters?? We’re seriously supposed to believe that?
http://twitter.com/Whitefurre Daniel Barker

You would think that they would, gee, I don’t know….ACTUALLY READ THE STUFF THEY’RE GOING TO BE HANDING OUT?!?!
Lonny Parr

It’s been said that: ”The trouble with Baptists is that they don’t hold them under long enough.”
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000035047164 Gus Anderson

**Christians** are sick.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Luinne-DLlard/100001583873176 Luinne D’Llard

This is why christians can kiss my ass.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FR3MB75FT7YG6B2QVLJYA5P5TM Geologyst

God. I had to read so many Chick tracts as a kid. How did I ever turn out OK?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1349950827 Amber Carr

I don’t know if this happened to anybody else, but the ad in the top left corner is advertising a Bible college and learning the bible. Just… funny in a way I guess. Thought I’d share.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chreiya-Sonia-Zaari/100001967165977 Chreiya Sonia Zaari

Don’t endorse this kind of stuff? Of course they do!

Their whole anti-life stance that sex is “evil”? The way they dictate and control peoples’ lives?

Ugh. It’s sickening.

Tags

Church Treats Trick-or-Treaters To Comic Featuring Child Suicide for Not Fearing God

Pages

Tags

Church Treats Trick-or-Treaters To Comic Featuring Child Suicide for Not Fearing God

Yo Categories

Pages