Weird Religious Tract Number 12: "Courtship and the Dangers of Petting" by John R. Rice

Troy Davis writes:

Anyone who collects religious tracts is probably familiar with the work of John R. Rice. Rice was a prolific and tireless writer of longwinded evangelical booklets in the Baptist vein. Most of Rice's writing are unexceptional in the context of weirdness but "Courtship and the Dangers of Petting" is amusing in the sense that an elderly man thought that young people would heed his old-timey advice on dating.

Excerpt:
     Strip tease and leg shows, bathing suits which unduly expose the body,
     particularly women's bodies, magazine stories and pictures that turn
     the mind specially toward lovemaking, the movies, the embrace of the
     dance -- these lead to sex desire and so to necking and petting. All these
     have broken down the modesty and natural inhibitions of purity, have
     even broken down the sense of respectability and decency, till on every
     bathing beach, in every darkened movie theater, on front porch swings,
     even on the dance floor and (most deadly of all) in automobiles far from
     [sic] chaparons, young people make free with each others' bodies; hug,
     kiss and fondle each other. They pet when there is no pretense for love
     nor holy intention to marry. They do it promiscuously, as shamelessly as
     the mating of promiscuous barnyard animals.

The Museum of Weird and Demented Religious Tracts is a project of Les Zazous Postmodern Art Galley of Bellaire, Ohio. Read the Welcome Statement of The Museum here.

For more on the gallery, check out the web site here and the gallery's Twitter handle is @ZazousLes.  The Twitter handle for the museum is @WeirdTracts

The index of tracts for the museum's website is here. 

Contributions of weird tracts to the museum can be made by mail: send your weird tracts to Les Zazous Postmodern Art Gallery 3475 Guernsey Street, Bellaire, Ohio 43906.