How To Get To Heaven: For Black Readers

A trend that pops up here and there in the tract world is the re-publishing of certain tracts for black readers. I've seen a number of Chick Tracts 'remade' this way (ie - Somebody Goofed re-published as Oops), but a few others have followed his lead.

Remember my review of How To Get To Heaven, from the Fellowship Tract League? Here's the same tract, with five panels re-done with dark-skinned characters replacing the original's yellow-haired white kids.

Two things come to mind when I look at these remakes. 1. Do the tract writers really think black people won't get the message otherwise? And 2, doesn't it say something that there are so few black people in the original tracts that the writers felt a black version was necessary?


And if the League was going to go to the trouble of making an updated version, couldn't they at least have fixed the original's flaws? Nope, Hell is still "a terrible place where fire is." The black kids do look slightly more pained at the idea of burning "in hell FOREVER" than their white counterparts, but not by much. I guess that's a sign of equality - the League will give black readers exactly the same crap that white readers have been getting.

Still, it's good to know that tract makers are willing to be inclusive, and don't think of Heaven as a whites-only club. Otherwise, this tract is just as lame as its predecessor.

Likely to Convert - 2
Artwork - 4
Ability to Hold Interest - 4
Unintentional Hilarity - 5
Level of Disturbing or Offensive Content - 1