Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Museum Artifact: Bilingual Dianetics Personality Test Invitation Card

Troy Davis writes:

SCIENTOLOGY PERSONALITY TEST
When I lived in Los Angeles, these cards were ubiquitous as were Scientology zombies sitting at card tables on the corners of the cities offering personality tests and E-meter demonstrations. Sometimes, when I had the time, I would grab the E-meter cans and see the needle move; other times, I would yell out things like, "Nobody's gonna hook me up to jumper cables!" or "Could you get me John Travolta's autograph?" The idea of filling out a survey asking about personal details of my life and giving to a predatory cult is not too smart. I was so disgusted by Scientology that I created the
comic book Cock-Tale: A Modern Tijuana Bible (French version here).
OTHER SIDE

DIANETICS COMIC BOOK XENU L RON HUBBARD
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

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.





Friday, December 27, 2019

Weird Tract Number 86: "Ronny Reb!" by Life Messengers of Seattle

Troy Davis writes:

life messengers tract ronnie reb
I previously wrote about the story of  Life Messengers of Seattle here and how, mostly in the '70s, it served as the main fundamentalist Christian comic tract competitor to Chick Publications,  (LM went out of business sometime in the early '80s). Ronny Reb is a 24-page comic from 1973 that takes on the hippies (quick aside: I'm going to be featuring another counterculture-bashing tract from the Museum's collection "Hippie Come Home" by Vic Lockman soon).

As you can see from the cover art and the panels at the end of this post, the artwork by Fred Basher is amateurish (if Tony Tallarico is the Mario Mendoza of comic book artists, Fred Basher is the Morris Buttermaker). Ronny is a hippy who embraces the counterculture and the high life. "I'll split to the big city," Ronny crows, "There I can do my own thing and LIVE!" He lives the life of the prodigal son and when he's out of dough, Ronny's fair-weather friends split the scene. Ronny escapes through drugs an he has a "real bummer" and ODs on acid. Ronny finds himself in Hell where Satan in the form of a serpent torments him. Ronny implores Old Scratch, "But . . . I don't dig this gig. I want out. PLEASE."  Satan shows him how he messed up by not accepting Christ when Bill, a student preacher, implored Ronny to become a Christian. Ronny is damned for eternity and The Serpent breaks the third wall and asks us to join Ronny. The last page tells us how to become born again.

NOTES:  The Museum has featured other Life Messengers tracts: "Hooked For Good: The True Story of Sammy Hall"; "The Lonely Cabin on the 40-Mile"; and "I Discovered The Real Person and Power Behind Witchcraft"

chick tract knockoff ronnie reb life messengers
Chick tract life messengers
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.


Saturday, December 14, 2019

Museum Artifact: Stage Pass for Whitney Houston Performance at "Blessing '97" (Moonie Mass Wedding)

Troy Davis writes:


Failed Messiah Sun Myung Moon (1920-2012) was a wretched person. He scammed Japanese widows out of hundreds of millions of dollars in his "spiritual sales" racket and pissed away over a billion dollars of his ill-gotten wealth with the creation of the right-wing newspaper the Washington Times. Moon served federal time in the '80s for tax evasion (I remember when I was at Ohio State, the Moonie group had a poster that asked, "Who is Reverend Moon?" Someone scrawled, "AN EX-CON WHO THINKS HE'S GOD!").

cult of trump book hassan
Blessing '97 was intended to be a showcase mass wedding event for Moon. Moon rented Washington's RFK Stadium and Whitney Houston was paid $1 million to perform (when she found out it was for a cult mass wedding, she called in sick). Up to 20,000 couples exchanged vows that day. Church officials considered the event a success. I got the stage pass from eBay a few years ago.

NOTE: Former Moonie Steven Hassan has a new book The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control.

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.

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Weird Tract Number 85: Untitled Anti-Alcohol Tract from Churches of Christ Temperance Committee

Troy Davis writes:

temperence tract booklet pamphlet
This 8-page anti-alcohol comic book is weak sauce. It's looks like a poor knock-off of two Peanuts characters discussing gardening until the next-to-last panel when the unnamed boy slams booze. This particular tract was passed out by The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Melbourne, Australia. The back of the tract contains the old prohibitionist trope that alcohol "makes one shrivel up inside.'"
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.
temperence tract booklet pamphlet
temperence tract booklet pamphlet


Monday, December 9, 2019

Weird Tract Number 84: "The Pope's Secrets" by Tony Alamo

Troy Davis writes:

tony alamo pope's secrets bizarre tract
Tony Alamo (1934-2017) was not a good man. My post on Alamo's Terry Schiavo tract tells about the scam artist, sexual abuser of children, and all-around weirdo who rightfully died in prison. Alamo and Jack Chick are the most prominent Catholic-baiters of the late 20th and early 21 century. This eight-page pamphlet from 2006 is footnoted and many of the references cited include the Chick Publications stable of  writers: Chick's muse Alberto Rivera, Avro Manhattan, and the Chickster himself. Alamo rehashes many of their paranoid conspiracies including:

  • Catholics control a huge share of international banking
  • The Vatican was behind the assassinations of Lincoln and JFK. 
  • The Reverend Jim Jones was a Jesuit agent.
  • The Pope controls the IRS, the U.S. Department of Labor, and other government agencies.
  • Pope John Paul II was a kinky Freudian homosexual.
Messed up stuff. The pamphlet comes with an insert promoting Alamo's radio ministry.

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.
tony alamo


Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Museum Artifact: 1996-1997 Liberty University Admissions Application Package

Troy Davis writes:

When it comes to sheer disdain, the two religionists I love to hate are Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ (read about my beef with him and his zombified followers here) and Jerry Falwell. There's a special kind of contempt I have for Falwell. Right after losing his lawsuit against Larry Flynt for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) over a satirical ad that portrayed the Lynchberg preacher as an incestuous drunkard, Falwell started hawking $40 videotapes claiming Bill and Hillary Clinton were murderous drug kingpins. Falwell included infomercials for the tapes on his Old Time Gospel Hour broadcasts. One of the infomercials included an interview with an alleged journalist who was silhouetted, Falwell solemnly told us, because he was in fear of his life from the Clinton gang. Several years later, actual investigative reporter Murray Waas looked into this and found that the reporter was not a reporter but was the producer of the tapes, Patrick Matrisciana of Jeremiah Films (The Museum has many of Jeremiah Films' videos and all of them are aimed at the stupid and ignorant). The millions that flowed into Falwell's coffers, along with some "loans" from Failed Messiah Sun Myung Moon, allowed him to save the financially-distressed Liberty University. When the elder Falwell became part of The Big Con In The Sky in 2007, his son took over Liberty U and further monetized substandard education. As a result, each year $800 million in federal financial aid goes to Lynchberg, Virginia to teach college students that Moses fled Egypt on a Brontosaurus (see Richard Dawkins' priceless putdown of Liberty U here). I'm in the process of creating a Chick tract parody of Falwell. 


Anyhow, back in 1996, I wrote Liberty U for an application, I received this admissions package consisting of a 20-page brochure, a letter from Chancellor Falwell (not his real signature--just like for his Old Time Gospel Hour fundraising letters), a financial aid factsheet, an application for admission, and a return letter.


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.


Bonus: Bill Maher on Liberty University



Museum Artifact: Hot Chicks Movie Preview Card 2006

Troy Davis writes:

hot chicks movie 2006 film
When I lived in Los Angeles in the aughts, I attended the LA Film Festival in 2006 and one of the big treats was the screening of Hot Chicks, a movie adaptation of nine Chick tracts. Each adaptation is a creative treat: the use of live action, puppets, and animation of the tract art were some of the methods used. After the screening, I spoke with several of the filmmakers, mentioning that I spoke with and interviewed Chick in 2004. Below is the trailer, the adaptation of the classic Chick tract "Party Girl," and the back of the card.

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.

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 . . . I discuss the role of Bill Bright's prolific tract The Four Spiritual Laws in leading to a format change in Chick tracts that was a key reason why they have become much more popular since the late 1960s . . . My thoughts on Jack Chick's spreading of the peace symbol/broken cross mythology . . . Chick tract parody "Constitutional Rites" . . . Chick tract parody "Donald Trump Is The Antichrist; Prepare for the Rapture!" . . .The 1972 Chick tract "The Last Generation." . . . The extremely rare 1970 Chick tract "Operation Somebody Cares" . . .The rare Chick Publications comic book "Jonah" by Chick and Fred Carter . . . The museum's prized cultural artifact, original art by Jack Chick. . . 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 tract by James Lloyd:"Left Behind" 
. . . Artifacts from the museum's collections:all of Jack Chick's high school yearbooks (which include the first published cartoon by Chick) . . . "Closet Witches" by Jack T. Chick (audio-cassette interview with Dr. Rebecca Brown and "Elaine").







hot chick film movie 2006





Weird Tract Number 142: "Mark of the Beast" by Anonymous

Troy Davis writes: "Mark of the Beast is an anonymous, undated four-page pamphlet promoting the Catholic-baiting book by Seventh Day Ad...