Weird Tract Number 31: "Receiving Your Miracle Through Seed-Faith Partnership With God" by Oral Roberts

Troy Davis writes:

Oral Roberts (1918-2009) was one of the godfathers of the Prosperity Gospel of the 20th century (i.e., God wants you to be healthy and wealthy).  This 96-page booklet is the essence of Roberts' "seed-faith" message: tithe money to Roberts and you plant the seed for your miracle from God. At the end of the booklet is a page intended to be torn out and sent to Roberts' ministry; in it is the message, "I intend to pray for my project often and to plant a seed for $_______ in this seedbed each month. I'll be telling others about this opportunity and about the goodness of God."

 Seed-faith theology worked well for Roberts: he had homes in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs and three Mercedes.

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.

Weird Tract Number 30: "Satan's Bid For Your Child" by Jack Hyles

Troy Davis writes:

When I first received this tract from Ebay as part of a huge lot, I thought it might be a spoof. This 15-page booklet from 1971 is so over-the-top that it looks to be the work of a wag. I didn't know who Jack Hyles (1926-2001) was at the time and it shocked me when I found out more about him.

The booklet's content is so dated that it's hilarious. I scanned page three (see below; click on the image to enlarge) because it's chock full of unintentionally funny tidbits. For instance, in his questionnaire for children, he seems to have predicted the rise of Hillary because he asks if any of their teachers wear pants suits (Hyles uses the term "pant-dresses"). The back cover notes the author's "homespun humor, convictions, experiences, and philosophies."

When I researched Hyles, I discovered he was the pastor of a megachurch outside of Chicago in Hammond, Indiana. What shocked me is that contrary to Hyles' straitlaced and folksy image, in real life he was an abusive authoritarian who used church funds to keep at least one mistress and used his pull to shield his equally sleazy son's serial adultery from his congregation. Hyles' daughter used a TED Talk titled "From Cult To Change" to speak in detail of her ordeal as a captive of this monster. No wonder Hyles had won the praise of Jerry Falwell (I'm working on a Chick tract parody of the preacher titled "Falwell in Hell").

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.

Weird Tract Number 29: "You Will Take Time to Die" by The Lord's House

Troy Davis writes:

"You Will Take Time to Die" is an undated four-page pamphlet published by The Lord's House of Livonia, Michigan. Despite the freaky cover illustration, the tract is the standard turn-or-burn message.

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.

Weird Tract Number 28: "Games Satan Plays" by Stan Baldwin

Troy Davis writes:

This 32-page booklet from 1974 is a pre-Satanic Panic warning about the dangers of activities such as the use of Ouija boards, psychedelic drugs, and spiritism. Author Stan Baldwin makes the argument that these practices can open the unsuspecting dabbler to demonic possession. This is standard fundamentalist fare. The anonymous cover artist appears to have been influenced by Steve Ditko's Doctor Strange psychedelic artwork.

I lampooned this component of the fundamentalist worldview with the "Doorways to Demonic Possession" panel (below) in my various Chick tract parodies (read them here).  This article discusses how this panel became a viral Internet meme.

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.

Weird Tract Number 27: "THE LORD KILLS--REPENT!" by Darwin Fish of A True Church

Troy Davis writes:

This is one of the times I met the author of a religious tract. In this case, it was--I'm not making this up--a guy who calls himself Darwin Fish. Back in 2005,  I was checking out the scene at Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. There was a group of Bible-beaters with a banner that read, "THE LORD KILLS--REPENT!" Whenever I see something like this, I ask them if they're giving out Chick tracts. I asked the guy who was the head of this group (I later found out his name--is Darwin Fish) for a Chick tract. Fish told me that Chick is a false teacher because he is a five-point Calvinist and a King James Version-Only proponent. He gave me a tract that also had the title, "THE LORD KILLS--REPENT!" which identified his group as "A True Church" which at that time was based in Lake Hughes, California (somewhere out in BFE between Los Angeles and Bakersfield). The church is now based in Oklahoma.

I took a look at the tract and it had a section titled, "BEWARE," which listed what Fish and A True Church believe are false teachers; included in the list of the deluded are Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, Charles Stanley, John Hagee, Rick Warren, Chuck Swindoll, James Dobson, and many others. I asked Mr. Fish what he thought about the late reconstructionist Rousas John Rushdoony; Fish wasn't familiar with him.

I also noticed that in the "BEWARE" section that it lambasted "certain holidays" such as Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. I told Fish that I liked Halloween. He asked me why. I told him my reasons: 1) You get to wear whatever you want; 2) Halloween is noted for great parties; and 3) Halloween gives women an excuse to dress like tarts. He took my response as a cue to try to proselytize someone else.

Later, I took a look at Mr. Fish's web site (which was listed on the "THE LORD KILLS--REPENT!" tract). The site is totally hard-core. Check out their intro. For more, Check out RationalWiki's entry on Fish.

Note of clarification: I know that Jack Chick trusts the authority of the King James Version of the Bible--which I suppose would make him a KJV Only proponent. However, I checked the five points of Calvinism and concluded that Mr. Fish was incorrect to label Chick a five-point Calvinist.

Back of the tract

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.

Weird Tract Number 26: "Walter Reuther Package`` by Billy James Hargis

Troy Davis writes:

Billy James Hargis (1925-2004) is one of those people who was ahead of his time and when the time came that his ideas were more widely adopted, he had long fallen from grace.

A brief discussion of 20th century American fundamentalism: fundamentalists made a big powerplay with the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial but the embarrassment of the trial lasted for decades. Rather than deal with mainstream society, from the aftermath of the trial until the birth of the modern Religious Right in 1979, fundies tended to focus on their own counter-institutions that shieded their children and converts from the corrupt mainstream American society.  

There were some exceptions such as Hargis and preacher Carl McIntire (1906-2002) who had an overt political agenda in post-World War II America. Hargis acted like a man possessed, his Christian Crusade organization began in the wake of Joe McCarthy's death. He also created a sophisticated media empire that included a radio show and a slew of publications. Hargis held a much-publicized speaking tour with retired military man Edwin Walker, the inspiration for Jack D. Ripper from the film Dr. Strangelove. 

By the 1970's, Hargis was feeling his oats with his media empire, megachurch, and his bible college featuring The All American Kids Choir. The 1970s looked to be promising time for Hargis to address the depravity of the remnants of the '60s counterculture and new threats to the Christian American Way of Life such as punk rock, Maude, and shag carpet.

In his book, Why I Fight for a Christian America, Hargis had stern words for the counterculture: 
"...[B]oys let their hair grow like a woman's, dress in clothing that we used to relate to tramps and bums, and engage in permissiveness on the lowest possible bestial level..." As luck would have it, soon after Hargis wrote those words, some interesting events occurred. Hargis had presided over the wedding of two of his Bible college students, who on their wedding night confessed to each other that each was not chaste at the time of the wedding. What made this particularly odd was that both bride and groom had been deflowered and defiled by the same person: The Reverend Hargis. It also came out that Hargis diddled members of his college choir, "The All-American Kids." When confronted about his penchant for buggery, Hargis took the biological determinism approach to homosexuality, attributing his misbehavior to "genes and chromosomes." Hargis' college closed in 1977 and when the modern religious right emerged, despite his groundbreaking efforts, Hargis was considered persona non grata.

Nevertheless, Hargis trudged on through the 1990s. The Museum has an impression collection of Hargis' newletters, letter, and periodicals from the '50s through the '90s. Hargis' Christian Crusade newspaper was blasting the immorality of the Clinton administration, echoing other higher profile porcine preachers of the religious right: Jerry Falwell and John Hagee. 

Walter Reuther Package is a series of red-baiting articles about the labor leader. During the 1960s, Chief Justice Earl Warren and Martin Luther King were the biggest targets of the reactionary right; Reuther, a labor leader devoted to civil rights was close behind. Hargis relentlessly rails against Reuther in this undated tract circa 1968.

Reuther was a native of Wheeling, West Virginia. Les Zazous Postmodern Art Gallery and The Museum are located in the Wheeling metro area. When Trump came to speak in Wheeling, the police closed off the statue of Reuther. I thought that was unfortunate because I believe many of the people attending the rally could have benefited from visiting the statue so I did some performance art with the statue (read the thread here). 

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.

Weird Tract Number 25: "The Computers Are Coming!" by Dr. David F. Webber and Noah Hutchings

Troy Davis writes:

Dr. David F. Webber and  Noah Hutchings were longtime preachers/writers for The Southwest Radio Church. When The Southwest Radio Church program was on the radio in my area,  I would sometimes listen but it was usually humdrum prophesying and standard Southern preaching.

Once I was at an estate sale and the late couple whose household items were being auctioned had a voluminous amount of religious tracts, educational materials, and assorted ephemera (but, alas, not a single Chick tract!). In the mountain of stuff was a couple plastic 40 gallon containers of cassette tapes, booklets, and correspondence from SWRC that dated.from the '70s through the '90s.

This 80-page booklet from 1978 is one of the more interesting of SWRC's publications. It gives a very dated analysis of the potential for computers to be the tool of an Orwellian future in which The Antichrist reigns over us all and uses the surveillance state to give a computerized Mark Of The Beast to those mockers and heathens not scooped up by Jeebus' Holy Vacuum Cleaner with the advent of The Rapture.

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.

Weird Tract Number 24: "Power For Living" by Jamie Buckingham

Troy Davis writes:

Power for Living is a 1983 come-to-Christ booklet that cribs from Bill Bright's "The Four Spiritual Laws" (previously featured on the museum's website). It was mailed out free as part of a huge boondoggle by the Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation (the foundation had plenty of moola to blow; its endowment in the early '80s was $200 million). The booklet was given away "to celebrate The Year of the Bible." Yes, in 1982, non-Bible-reading President Reagan signed legislation to make 1983 national Year of the Bible in order to curry favor with evangelicals in order to help him with his upward wealth distribution schemes (kind of the way that Trump is calling for Bible literacy classes in the public schools). The offer was heavily promoted in a series of television commercials with celebrity endorsers (here is one with Pat Boone wearing a all-white outfit with a gull-wing collar).

The book starts out with a series of testimonials from early 80's celebs: Dr. J., Roger Staubach, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Steve Bartkowski, skater Janet Lynn, former Watergate conspirator Charles Colson, etc. but the crux of the book is to convert the reader a la Four Spiritual Laws-type evangelism (Bill Bright is quoted in the book).

This booklet is as dated as Jams and stirrup pants.

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.

Weird Tract Number 23: "Glory In The Cross" by Saints Alive in Jesus

Troy Davis writes:

This pamphlet is by Saints Alive In Jesus, a group founded by Mormon-turned-fundie Ed Decker (born 1935). Decker is the bane of the LDS church having written the bestselling book The God Makers (which was adapted into a film) and the sequel The God Makers II (the film version was produced by Jerimiah Films, a major producer of religious and political paranoia).  Decker was also behind the short film Temple of the God Makers (which has some really trippy animated sequences--watch them here).

This tract contains typical accept-Jesus-or-burn messaging. There's nothing special in it. The format and style is similar to Jews for Jesus tracts.


The Museum of Weird and Demented Religious Tracts is a project of Les Zazous Postmodern Art Galley of Bellaire, Ohio. 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 @Weir

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.

Weird Tract Number 22: "Want To See Something Nasty?" by The Bible Baptist Bookstore

Troy Davis writes:

This black-and-white Chick tract-sized 12-page comic book tract is just plain freaky.  The artwork on the inside is just as bad as the cover art. This is a "fake-out" lit. A person sees it and assumes that it has salacious content (a la the old Tijuana bibles), but inside is the standard plea to accept Jesus or burn in The Lake of Fire. Bummer.

If you want an up-to-date Tijuana bible, check out my "Cock-Tale: A Modern Tijuana" starring Tom Cruise, L Ron Hubbard, and Galactic Overlord Xenu here.

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.

Weird Tract Number 21: "Witchdoctor's Dilemma" by Arthur Dodzweit

Troy Davis writes:

"Witchdoctor's Dilemma," a 1968 booklet by missionary Arthur Dodzweit, is the really boring story of Kasoba, an African shaman who becomes a Christer. Too boring for me to describe in detail. Really.

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.

Weird Tract Number 20: "Terri Schiavo Says Let Me Live" by Tony Alamo

Troy Davis writes:

I have profiled some real religious wackjobs and predators such as Brother Ralph Stair, Bill Bright, and David Berg. Tony Alamo  (1934-2017) is one of the worst of the weirdos. Alamo and his wife Susan ran a Pentecostal ministry in the late '60s until her death in 1982. By that time, Alamo was running a wacko cult and he became convinced that he could raise his wife from the dead. Susan's body was kept on display; A waggish local disk jockey heard about this bizarre attempt at reanimation and would play the Everly Brothers' song "Wake Up, Little Susie" on his radio show to commemorate the attempted feat. Apparently the late Mrs. Alamo began to reek from the decomposition after six months on display and Alamo finally admitted defeat and put the body in a mausoleum (the body was missing for several years thereafter). Despite this bizarro behavior, Alamo's ministry was running on all cylinders; the ministry had locations in several major US cities in the 1980s.

In fact, Alamo landed on his feet after the Rotting Corpse Fiasco in an unlikely way. In the '80s, Alamo became the jacket designer to the Stars, selling really tacky stonewashed and painted rhinestone-bejeweled jean jackets to Hollywood actors (and to anyone with more money than taste). Each jacket was sold for several hundred dollars; Alamo became rich because they were made with sweatshop labor by members of his cult who worked long hours in horrific conditions with no pay. One news report found that Alamo bought trailer tractors full of stale and insect-infested food for the workers while Alamo hobnobbed with celebrities.

Alamo was also using his converts to spread his anti-Catholic propaganda. Like Jack Chick, Alamo adheres to the belief--not uncommon in 19th century Protestant thought--that the Roman Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon from the Book of Revelation.

Tony was doing something else in the '80s: abusing the children of the cult. No only did Alamo use unpaid child labor for his jackets, he was sexually abusing the children. Law enforcement eventually caught wind of what was going on, Alamo became a fugitive but was caught and served several years in the slammer. 

By the 21st century, Alamo was still in business. When I lived in Los Angeles, Alamo's people passed out tracts on Hollywood Boulevard and invited people to a free meal at the Alamo compound. I never took them up on the offer but being a collector of religious tracts, I always grabbed their free newsletter & swag. Alamo's tracts sucked. Some were anti-Pope conspiracy essays. Others were PR newsletters for his ministry.

In "Terri Schiavo Says Let Me Live," a tract made in 2005 when the comatose Schiavo was still alive, Alamo claimed that he could heal her. Alamo writes:

If I am permitted to spend some time in the room with Terri Schiavo (her father and brother can be there or anyone else as long as there are no distractions), I know that if I were permitted to talk to her and explain to her the things that God has already provided for her, such as salvation and healing, and if I were permitted to pray with her for her, I know that she would be healed. I’ve done this before with people who seemingly were hopeless.

Not surprisingly, Alamo has harsh words for Schiavo's Catholic religion:

There are many people in the secular government and throughout the world that would be saved and healed if miracles like this were printed and broadcast in the media rather than watching the man in Rome sitting on a balcony, waving his hand or a wand at people. He has his reward. It’s obvious that the Vatican and all religions do not believe God, but I do. Mark 16:17-18 states, “These signs shall follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; THEY SHALL LAY HANDS ON THE SICK, AND THEY SHALL RECOVER.” God gives this power to those who believe all His Word. Christ is the Word of God (Rev. 19:13). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ [the Word of God], and thou shalt be saved [and healed]” (Acts 16:31). . . We are not to live by our opinions or ideas. Our opinions and ideas, the Word of God indicates, is of Satan. We have the Word of God in this world which tells us the right way to go. What I’ve written here is not my opinion or my idea. It’s the Word of God. The Roman cult, its “new world order,” and its media are soon to be punished eternally for its blatant disregard for God’s Word, God’s people, and all humanity.

The media has painted me to be a Catholic hater, yet the woman whose life and soul I’m fighting for is a Catholic. What’s happening on television and in the media today is that Rome, the new world order, and the mouth of Satan, the media, is attempting to condition the world into believing that it’s all right to kill someone if they’re sick, including family members. According to God even if they will to die, someone who knows God should be allowed to pray for them, to raise them up from their sick bed. Then if God takes their life, at least there was an attempt made to follow God’s perfect instructions. If that woman’s soul goes into eternity unsaved, she will be in Hell. So the ones responsible for murdering her are not only condemned for murdering her but for sending her soul to Hell before she had an opportunity to repent and believe the Gospel.

I and my church are praying that at least one of you who has any ability to save this woman’s life that you repent before it’s too late for you. The Lord is very capable of extracting the spirit out of your body by just telling it to come out, and if He does, your soul will be in Hell for eternity. And in the end Hell with you and Satan in it will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14-15).

Alamo again ran out of luck again in 2009 when he was once again convicted for sexually abusing children and died in prison in 2017.

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.

 

I pity the fool who makes fun of my Alamo jacket!

Alamo zombies handing out lit on Hollywood Blvd.