Chalk Talks

chalkBefore multimedia displays and PowerPoint presentations, fundamentalists had chalk. Credit where it’s due, if done well, chalk talks were a great way to keep people’s attention and make a point. If done badly, however, the presentation may end up looking vaguely like a cubist artist’s impression of a sunset at the North Pole. In short, it’s a royal mess.

In the really extravagant chalk art presentations, a black light may be used to reveal hidden images at the end of the talk. Or perhaps, the artist would draw upside down and then later reveal the real picture by flipping over the canvas. Not too many people do this anymore; it’s really a shame. Watching someone doodle on a screen in MS Paint just isn’t quite the same.

If you’ve never seen a chalk talk done, you can check out a video of none other than Peter Ruckman giving a presentation while drawing an “original autograph.”

12 thoughts on “Chalk Talks”

  1. When I was a Moody, the former president, George Sweeting, did a chalk talk that was pretty good.

  2. I’ve seen many great chalk talks in my time. This site is bringing back a lot of old memories…

  3. First of all, I have laughed outloud so many times reading your website! Thank you. I have grown up watching a lot of what you post about. I am still a fundamentalist but not of the stripe that is normally presented here. I wanted to share that just yesterday I was approached by a man in our fellowship to participate in a Children’s education seminar and if our church had someone who did chalk drawings! I coldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was like I had been picked up and placed inside your blog. I had to do everything I could from laughing not at him but that what he said. Thanks for the time and research into all you post! I have been telling all my friends to check it out!

  4. Way late on this, but is that the same Ruckman KJV only nut from Pensacola? Just listening to the first 7 mins or so (so far) and he seems incredibly reasonable & normal, and charming. Not the nut that I’ve read about. And @AcadStudent001 I’m a proud “effin” hippie, although I have a pretty fundamentalist haircut.

  5. He is the very same. And now you understand why even though he’s demonstrably nuts, people still follow him.

  6. I’d seen Ruckman do one of these at a camp! Wow. I wasn’t a fundie for very long so I thought chalk talks were exclusive to him.

    PS. Yes, he’s a nut-nut. I’ve read both of his Theoligical Studies books. As soon as I read that I was going to get a sex change once I get to heaven (y’know, to look more Christ-like)… weeeeelllll, I love Jesus and all that, but I’m really okay with being female. 😀

  7. I find “the Doc” mostly refreshing although I have learnt to discard his pages of “names” (anyone who has read his books knows what I mean), and his opinions. But I find him quite real. He isn’t afraid to say what he thinks. He is unfortunately misrepresented by many of his opponents (especially David Cloud). But I have no idea why people care so much about a 90 year old preacher with a congregation of 200 in the south south of the US.

    For a laugh, watch Steven Anderson’s video on why Ruckman is a heretic. It’s not anderson preaching, it’s one of his preacher boys (Matt Stucky), but he really shares the Christian love around – at one point, he declares “I hope Ruckman dies and burns in hell”.

    It really goes without saying that I don’t agree with everything Ruckman says, but what two people in the world do agree with each other?

    1. Ruckman is one of the “father’s” of KJV onlyism and as such deserves his place in the Hall of Shame for fundy foolishness!

  8. @exIFB, that was the single sanest comment I have ever seen on these weird, self-involved threads. LOL

    Thanks, man.

  9. Oof! We had one on our wall… I think my mom sold it. My twelfth (thirteenth? both?) birthday party involved a living room full of girls taking advantage of the black light to creep each other out (the advantages of having an October birthday and parents who didn’t drink ALL the fundy Kool-Aid!).

  10. I remember one of those chalk artists that came to our school in IL about every year. He was like 6′ 10″ Paul-something. He had the black light and all.

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