Weird Tract Number 18: "The Four Spiritual Laws?" by Bill Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ

Troy Davis writes:

I previously wrote a Museum blog post about the noxious Bill Bright and his equally noxious Campus Crusade for Christ (now known as CRU). As I noted in the post, the tracts given out by CRU are lame (but ubiquitous; according to CRU, over 2.5 billion of the Four Spiritual Laws tract have been published). You've never heard about the Four Spiritual Laws in the Bible? That's because they're a marketing tool concocted by Bright, a retired candy maker (fellow crackpot Robert Welch, the founder of The John Birch Society was also a candy manufacturer; he was the man behind the Sugar Daddy).

Although the tract itself is weak, it was partly responsible for another tract empire: Chick Publications. Although Chick Publications has produced a billion or so tracts since 1961, it wasn't until the 1970s that tract output was significant. In the early years, the Chick tracts were actually Chick booklets, significantly larger and with more pages that the current pocket-sized 24-page format (see picture below). When Chick was making the larger booklets (I have some--see the post on my Chick collection and see pic below), sales were low.  Chick's printer urged him to make them pocket-sized (and, thus, significantly cheaper and much more likely to be bought and distributed). Chick pointed out that this drastically increased sales and distribution of the tracts:

     We printed large tracts for a couple of years, but sales were very slow until my printer, who was producing the Four Spiritual Laws, asked me to make the tracts pocket-sized. When we did this, the tracts started selling better, and I had to rework some of them to fit the smaller size. The company grew until we had our own print shop, and that is how we are able to keep the cost per tract so low.

Robert Welch Created Candy and Wingnuttery

The first Chick tracts were approximately 5.5 X 8 inches.

 

 

NOTES ON JACK CHICK: In my introductory post, I listed just a few of the many rare and valuable objects from The Museum's extensive Chick-related collection . . . The role of Ralph Rushtoi in the publishing careers of both Jack Chick and another comics-based tract writer Vic Lockman. . . . My thoughts on Jack Chick's spreading of the peace symbol/broken cross mythology . . .  Jack Chick's retro-futuristic car in the scarce 48-page version of "The Beast" . . . Chick tract parody "Constitutional Rites" . . . Jack Chick's cold war tract "Ivan The Terrible" . . . Article on Chick by fellow Catholic-baiting Bob Jones University magazine . . .Catholic-bashing tract by Chick's protege Alberto Rivera . . . Knock-off of a Chick by James Lloyd:"Left Behind" . . . Chick tract parody "Donald Trump Is The Antichrist; Prepare for the Rapture!" . . .The 1972 Chick tract "The Last Generation." . . . .The Chick Publications comic book "Jonah" by Chick and Fred Carter . . . The museum's prized cultural artifact, original art by Jack Chick.

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.