Chick Tract #019 - The Poor Revolutionist
"A story of revolution and betrayal shows us that Jesus is the real answer for those who want change."
"A story of revolution and betrayal shows us that Jesus is the real answer for those who want change."
Characteristics| Category | Communism |
| First Published | 1972 |
| Editions | 1972, 2010 |
| Editions | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 2010 | |
| Fowler Code | PORR | PORR |
| Print Code | None | None |
| Cover Color | Fire Red | Fire Red |
Plot SummaryPaul leads a cell of revolutionists, dedicated to the overthrow of the government of the United States. His brother, Jimmy (a Christian), interrupts a cell meeting and preaches to the revolutionists, which results in Paul savagely beating him. He then tells Jimmy that one of the cell members, Harry, used to be a Christian but rejected it and instead became a revolutionist, due to the failures of Christianity. Jimmy explains to Paul that it is because Harry never truly repented of his sins, and therefore was never really a Christian. This upsets Harry, and Paul declares that Christianity can’t coexist with his image of a new world; both of them reiterating their intention to eliminate Christianity in their post-revolution world. Gregory is a higher up revolutionary leader. He holds a meeting of a number of cells, in which he puts forth his vision of the destruction of the current order, and that the revolutionists will be placed in positions of honor and power in their new Communist state.
In the next panel, the signal is given to start the revolution. Law enforcement offices and their families are assassinated. Fires are set and firemen responding to the fires are then assassinated as well. The authorities fight back, deploying military forces, which results in the death of. Harry, who is killed by a tank. Women and children are taken hostage by the revolutionaries and private citizens also take up the fight. Paul is shot by one of them and has a vision of his brother Jimmy telling him about Jesus’s sacrifice, but he decides to ignore it and recovers. Food is running short in supply, with politicians and enlisted men switching over to the side of the revolution, which results in the capitulation by the armed forces.
As a result of the loss of effective resistance, the revolution is successful, albeit at the cost of widespread devastation across the country. The country is overrun by foreign troops, with executions being carried out for numerous reasons, such as anyone who holds significant personal property. Jimmy is captured and is on the gallows, asking to talk to Paul. Paul decides to speak to Jimmy, who is confident that he will be with Jesus, and pleads to Paul to accept Jesus as well. Paul reacts negatively, and Jimmy is hung. Comrade Gregory asks to speak to Paul, who is confident he will be rewarded for his leadership in the revolution. Gregory informs Paul and the rest of his cell that since he was a traitor to his country, he can’t be trusted by the new regime. They are sentenced to death and immediately executed, with the realization that they were just mere cannon fodder all along. Paul is taken to judgment, subsequently not found in the Book of Life, and consigned to eternal damnation.
Characters Narrative DiscussionOriginally released in 1972, The Poor Revolutionist reflects conservative anxiety of the societal unrest of the period.
Internal violence within the United States has overwhelmingly been driven by the political Right. While there was violence on both sides leading up to the Civil War (see for example Bleeding Kansas), the Civil War itself, which nearly ended the United States as a country, was precipitated by the reactionary fear over the possibility of eventual Emancipation. After the war, The Ku Klux Klan and other groups used lynching and other acts of terror to keep Blacks from asserting themselves. In the Northern states, Sunset towns with accompanying acts of violence kept Blacks segregated into the inner cities. So called race riots were an excuse for reactionary Whites to massacre Blacks, usually with impunity.
Against this background, there were really only two periods in which there was significant violence precipitated by the Left. The first was in the early twentieth century and were mostly economic in nature. There was the growing unionization movement, and the First Red Scare, with some high profile bombings at the time. Herbert Hoover predicted an attempted revolution on May 1 (May Day), 1920. This did not come to pass and despite significant media attention, there was relatively little violence.
The second period was from the late sixties through the early seventies. The main drivers in this era were the Civil Rights movement entering a less passive phase, and resistance to the Vietnam War amongst the youth, especially in regards to the ‘draft’ (conscription). There were a number of instances of violence during this time. Notable examples include the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests, the Watts riots, violence associated with the Black Panther Party and the Weather Underground, and much else besides (for example, the killing of four college students in Kent State, though this was a reaction to anti-war agitation). All during this time, these actions, while involving relatively few people, received massive media attention. There was a real sense that the nation’s future was at risk by the vast majority of Americans, who were afraid of what they saw and read on TV and newspapers. However, the actual numbers of people involved in these incidents were always quite small when compared to the nation as a whole.
As a result of certain organizations touting a commitment to Christianity (such as the Klan), it can be said that a number of Christians were not concerned about violence pushed by right-wing politics being a threat to Christianity itself. This gains further credence when the Left did not have the same orientations, tending to favor atheism, which can be considered an existential threat in the eyes of heavy right-wing Christian groups.
Against this backdrop, we have tracts like The Poor Revolutionist and The Last Generation (involving a leftist dictatorship). It would be an understatement to say that the sequence of events in The Poor Revolutionist is wildly improbable. As mentioned, there were never that many leftists involved in violent activities, and contrary to the tract’s picture, they were not all that well organized. On top of this, the belief that law enforcement and the military would be so readily neutralized is fanciful in the extreme, in conjunction with the heavily armed populace. The United States has more firearms under private ownership than there are people, and gun owners are predominantly conservative (aka Right-Wing). The only part of the tract that is at all realistic is the execution of the revolutionary foot soldiers, which happened in both Communist Russia and Nazi Germany. One can also say the threat of Christian persecution in a hypothetical Communist America is not unrealistic, considering what happened in Russia and Cuba. But the base premise remains highly unrealistic.
Jack Chick cynically used the anxiety of the vast majority of Americans in this period to push an end of society and of Christianity narrative. In Chick’s view, the only person who was right in this whole story was Jimmy, who died for his faith, and achieved salvation as a result. The 2010 edition of this tract is essentially identical to the 1972 version in contextual narrative and themes, even though White supremacy is currently considered the greatest domestic terrorist threat in the United States. See also Threats to the Homeland: Evaluating the Landscape 20 Years After 9/11 — FBI and Assessing the right-wing terror threat in the United States a year after the January 6 insurrection.
Parodies Reviews & Commentaries Bible References| 1972 Edition (6) | 2010 Edition (7) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Panel | Verse(s) | Panel | Verse(s) |
| 2 | 2 | ||
| 3A | 3A | ||
| 3B | 3B | ||
| 4A | 4A | ||
| 4B | 4B | ||
| 5 | 5 | ||
| 6A | 6A | ||
| 6B | 6B | 1 Timothy 1:15 | |
| 7A | Matthew 18:6 | 7A | Matthew 18:6 |
| 7B | 7B | ||
| 8A | 8A | ||
| 8B | 8B | ||
| 9 | 9 | ||
| 10A | 10A | ||
| 10B | 10B | ||
| 11A | 11A | ||
| 11B | 11B | ||
| 12A | 12A | ||
| 12B | 12B | ||
| 13A | John 3:16 | 13A | John 3:16 |
| 13B | 13B | ||
| 14A | 14A | ||
| 14B | 14B | ||
| 15A | 15A | ||
| 15B | 15B | ||
| 16A | 16A | ||
| 16B | 16B | ||
| 17A | 17A | ||
| 17B | 17B | ||
| 18A | 18A | ||
| 18B | 18B | ||
| 19A | 19A | ||
| 19B | 19B | ||
| 20 | 20 | ||
| 21A | 21A | ||
| 21B | Hebrews 9:27 | 21B | Hebrews 9:27 |
| 22A | Revelation 20:15 | 22A | Revelation 20:15 |
| 22B | Matthew 25:41, Galatians 6:7 | 22B | Matthew 25:41, Galatians 6:7 |
Tropes & Clichés| Trope | 1972 Edition | 2010 Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Faceless God | 22B | 22B |
| Grawlixes | 2, 6A, 6B, 12B |
Scholarly References Talk Amongst Yourselves
