Weird Religious Tract Number 8: "Peace" by "Teen Challenge Institute of Missions"

Troy Davis writes:

When the anti-Vietnam War movement adopted the peace symbol based on a design from the initials of the words "nuclear disarmament," the reactionary right's response was swift and decisive: this was proof that The Beast itself wanted peace because the symbol was the appropriation of an anti-Christ symbol from the late Middle Ages: The Broken Cross (more recently, Pat Robertson has made this claim).  The John Birch Society's house organ American Opinion had an article on the matter in the early 70's. Heavies in the Jack Chick comic universe wore the symbol (see panel below from "The Last Generation"); Chick even titled his John Todd-inspired comic book "The Broken Cross."  When I was a kid, long after the war was over, the local Assemblies of God church had a tract denouncing it on their free lit table (Dang, I wish I kept my copy).

This undated four-page tract, circa 1970, was put out by Teen Challenge and written by DeVore Walterman (1919-2004), uses ersatz hip language to proselytize (Walterman was probably in his fifties when he wrote the tract). Examples:"PEACE IS NOT a political groove"; "PEACE IS NOT meditation or vibrations"; "PEACE IS NOT doing your thing"; "No man, I'm not putting you on. This peace is for real. Any other kind of trip is a bummer"; "You can rap all you want about peace, but unless you have it in your heart, you're batting the breeze"; "The Bible is the peace manual"; "Don't blow your cool and sound off 'til you've tried it"; "You're not the cool cat you pretend to be--when you're high, it's groovy. But what about coming down?"

The back page of the tract (below; click on to embiggen) has the boilerplate fundy crap about The Broken Cross.

UPDATE: The museum has posted about other tracts with peace symbol/broken cross religious theme here and here.

Jack Chick's use of the peace motif:

(click on images to enlarge)

Chick tract vehicle adorned with peace symbol

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.