Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world, behind the gruesome two-some of Christianity and Islam. Still, only about 1% of the American population identifies as practicing Hindus. As would later be the case with Evil Eyes and Santeria, it really makes me wonder why Chick felt the need to take a potshot at such a (relatively) small opponent. I suppose he felt compelled to work his way through all of the competing religions in an attempt to expose each of them as “Satanic Counterfeits”, and he'd do the same with other faiths like Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Islam, and (of course) Catholicism. As much as I am onboard with Bartek's observations, The Temple of Doom came out six years earlier, and as racist as that film was, it seems odd that Chick would wait that long to jump on the bandwagon. I suppose that sooner or later, every dog will have his day. This is The Traitor.

…I suppose it doesn't need to be said that actual human sacrifice has never been an established part of mainstream Hinduism, right? If Chick makes a claim about another religion, you can pretty much assume he's either exaggerating or just straight up lying about it.

Most Hindu deities have a special mount called a Vahana, but Kali’s is the jackal, not the tiger. One might think Chick or Carter had her confused with fellow warrior-goddess Durga, but I’d put at 50/50 odds that he was just going for something cool, scary, and Indian.

To quote a certain wineglass-flinging vampire, “Perhaps the same is true of all religions.”

Vis a vis nothing at all though, here’s an article I found about the goat actor in the Witch film.

…also, Ganesha is typically considered to be male and depicted with masculine features. What Carter drew here is probably closer to what would be identified as Vinayaki instead. I highly doubt Carter did all that much research on that before drawing those melons, though.

So yes, you could find Hindus who would argue Kali is more powerful than Shiva… but not that many of them compared to how many would claim the exact opposite (and even more who would point out that Shiva is Kali’s husband and there are stories where he calms her from her wrath). I think Chick wants to emphasize Kali and de-emphasize all the numerous other Devas because her frightening iconography makes it easier for him to treat her as purely a bloodthirsty monster.

I think that this might be a good time to mention that there is a material difference between Kali Ma (Mother Kali the goddess), and Kali (the demon). The latter is a specifically evil figure, while the former (as Kile pointed out) is a protective maternal figure. Chick et. al. seems to be confusing these two concepts, either accidentally or intentionally. I realize that the author thinks all non-Christian gods are really demons in disguise, but this is just stupid.

“I’m afraid of your God! Does he hate me?” “No, my friend, God loves you! But if you don’t repent he would still leave you with those demons you served. And he would ditch you while he takes people like me to Heaven early. And you would have to live seven years while all hell breaks loose, all by his permission. And he would then throw you into a lake of fire for all eternity…Look, He loves you, but yeah, be afraid. Be very afraid.”

Not that it had much to do with this page, but there’s only so much that can be said about the same ‘basic gospel summary’ he puts in literally every single tract.

Then again, how ‘false’ are these gods really? The tract doesn’t dispute the existence of deities other than the Abrahamic god, it just insists that they’re evil. Isn’t an evil god still a god?

Gives some mighty crocodile tear vibes when Chick tries to have his cake (an all-powerful, benevolent god) and eat it (everybody who doesn’t believe exactly what he does is tortured forever).

Just can't get enough of that John 3:16. Wouldn't be a Chick Tract without it.

And oh yeah: We still don’t know the meaning of the title, “The Traitor”!

Unfortunately Jack Chick seems to know only two things about Hinduism - belief in reincarnation, and that there have historically been violent cults of Kali. Coming into this without any prior knowledge, and you’d think this tract was about some obscure blood cult or one of his many made up satanist covens, not his attempt at portraying one of the world’s largest religious traditions. I mean it’s not like I came into this expecting him to make a fair or even sane take on Hinduism, what surprised me is just how lazy his lack of research was compared to his treatments of Mormons, Jehovah’s Witness, and Freemasons, which showed he had SOME knowledge of what their beliefs and practices were. I guess it really does show how little respect non-Abrahamic religions get in these circles. This was definitely an interesting and fun exercise though, and I’m glad to have contributed.