They say proselytism is basically a numbers game with converts a function of how much effort you put into missionary work, mediated by the chance the target is open to a new path (which goes up in cases of crisis and tragedy) and the wealth difference of the mission/convert (which affects the secular appeal of community membership). Mormons and Scientologists get so many converts because they deploy existing members to spend a lot of time seeking them.

Which makes me wonder how useful Chick Tracts could’ve been in evangelism – even if the recipient is in an vulnerable state, how likely is it that the specific subject of the tract at all corresponds?

Strikes me that distributing them was more for the benefit of the distributor, who got to have the experience of affirming whatever specific position to an audience.

In a bar where someone’s introducing the concept of Chick Tracts (“no, T-R-A-C-T-S”) to illustrate what a backwards world they came from