But yes, today we are covering Who Murdered Clarice?, a tract that goes pretty much all over the place veering off from its initial message. And it’s a wild one.

“When my parents got married they were young and without Christ. When I finally came along they had to deal with a very sick baby. The doctor lanced my ears 21 times before I was one year old. It was years later, when I was 40 years old, that my mother admitted she had tried to kill me through an abortion. I was stunned! That was ME in there. Where were my rights? In those days the unborn were called babies, not fetuses. I forgave her and let it go.

But then Satan deceived one of my family members, persuading her to kill her unborn baby. When I heard about the abortion that had occurred without my knowledge, I wept for the death of that precious little one."

It should be noted, however, that despite the impression the Battle Cry introduction may give, Carol’s abortion would have happened in the 1970s, assuming Daniels’ recounting of it is correct. By this tract's publication in 2000, Carol would be living with Jack, as a result of illness.

It’s quite difficult to confirm the veracity of either Chick’s mother intending to abort him or his daughter having an abortion. But based on his introductory message, if these stories are true, he remained angry and bitter about them for decades.

I've also just realized that this wide exterior shot is framed just like one of Chick's famous Talking Windows panels, but the building stays silent. If only it had bothered to throw out a word balloon it could have alerted a passer by to Clarice's situation.

I wonder if the guy at the far right of the first panel is supposed to be Anton LaVey.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a well-placed Ate His Gun. The panel is WAY too squeezed down by Chick’s wall of text habits. and I remember originally reading this that my eyes kinda glossed past it several times before I hit the realization of Oh right he shot himself okay. It doesn’t help that in the physical tract, this is a left-hand page, which further facilitates the reader just kinda glossing over it, even with the hard cut to heaven in the next panel. At the risk of telling Jack how to do his job, this is an image that you want your reader to linger on just a little bit as they turn the page.

Let’s go over every little piece of this*: Clarice wouldn’t have had body parts to sell at the time of abortion. She was just a clump of cells, a fleshy fungus if you will. And besides that, even if she had developed body parts, they would be way too small to be of use as far as I can tell. Even then, the idea of a fetal black market is just another religious boogeyman to scare concerned parents. It’s scientists and researchers who want to make use of underdeveloped human tissue, NOT Shady Slim** at the back alley bazaar.

*Disclaimer: No I won’t

“kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.”

But Micah also notably does not give any biographical details of this ruler, and it especially does not say that he would be executed in his earthly life and would only rule in a future eschatological age. Almost like this passage did not actually have anything to do with Jesus.

And let’s not forget the fake abortion clinics that Christians set up in the name of ‘saving’ people. Yes, really.

And while they may not typically directly associate these things in their activism, I’m guessing for the most part evangelical pro-life activists would largely agree with Chick’s basic gospel message, as well as the notion that America was “originally” “Christian” (meaning their particular flavor of it) and should return to being that way.