And the selfish shall inherit...

I've been reading Jabberwocky's dissection/mocking of Chick Tracts in my free time recently, and something that he points out repeatedly and continues to strike me is the fact that Chick's beliefs come across as so horribly selfish.

Take, for example, this tract on how good works do not get one entry into heaven. The missionaries in question may come across as pretty annoyingly smug, but they still spent the majority of their lives improving the lives of thousands in the name of their religion.

However, they are denied entry into heaven because they didn't believe correctly.

Granted, I don't quite understand this idea of proper belief. Fundamentalism seems to have at its core that a strong belief in Jesus and being saved is what you need to go to heaven. I would assume that a pair of Christian missionaries would both believe in God, and welcome him into their hearts. So, what are they doing wrong? Why is their belief insufficient?

Gah, and I also hate that Chick attempts to portray these people as assholes who constantly think about the fact that their works are giving them a free ride to heaven. While there are certainly some smug asses in the world that think about how awesome the afterlife is going to be, I would assume that people who spend fifty years in Africa are doing it out of some genuine goodness in their heart.

Still, why is their belief, which I am sure they have, insufficient? Wouldn't all the work they've done just be extra brownie points?

And, God must be an asshole to send Christian charities workers to Hell.

But, what has spawned this post is perhaps the blatant misuse of scripture that I see in that tract. This idea that works are not enough, and you must have belief (whatever that means), is a perversion of Matthew 7:21-27, which if you actually read and comprehend, means that people who do works that Jesus wanted them to and believe go to heaven, and those that just claim to have done good works will not.

So, why the perversion?

The simple answer appears to be that this branch of Christianity is rather selfish. They already possess a lot of smug people who like to lord the fact that they are saved over others, but beyond that, a big reason to become saved that is cited in Chick tracts is to get a mansion and riches in the afterlife. Well, that and to avoid Hell.

It appears to be an appeal to both the human fear of suffering and our inherent greed. God's great, and when I die, I'm going to get all this stuff! And all I need to do is say this sentence and be a sanctimonious prick full of faith in Jesus.

Because, as far as I can tell, all you have to do is have a specifically worded kind of faith and prayer practice to go to heaven in these tracts. You don't need to give to charities or anything hard or expensive like that, you just need to believe. No wonder this appeals to conservatives (hello cheap shot), as this excuses doing unchristian things such as cutting welfare and social programs. It really isn't part of being Christian to help those in need, as works don't mean anything to this asshole God we worship, because he's going to give us riches when we die just for believing. It's a rationalization of greed and not doing charity even if you have the funds.

I will never argue that Chick's brand of Christianity is a harmful to society bunch of filth, where the rich can keep what they have, and the poor can fuck themselves. I'd be rather curious to see what the fundie rate of giving to charity and volunteer work is if this portion of doctrine is common in fundie churches. It really just boils down to being all about the individual without needing to give anything to anyone but "witnessing." If there is a God, and this is what he wants, he can go fuck himself. At least I'll have great company in Hell.