The God-fearing Map to Hell
A simple lesson from Puritan America
With Christian Nationalism in the news - here’s an artifact from America’s Puritan strand:
“The Way of Good and Evil”, drawn and published by John Hailer in 1862, is a circular allegorical image depicting the divergent paths of good and evil while on life’s journey.
It’s simple …
The path splits as a child leaves the school house either they turn toward the House of God and Eternal Life, or toward the House of Sin and Everlasting Punishment.
The “Good path” features a church, a schoolhouse, a peaceful home, and a college with an American flag flying above it. It leads to Good and the Eternal Life through "The Word."
The “Bad path” starts with “disobedience to parents and teachers,” then to a House of Sin to a tavern, a States Prison to Destruction and Everlasting Punishment. The path to destruction ends with a pitchfork-wielding demon in the fires of Hell.
More from the theocrats agenda
Comstock Resurrected (1873)
Satire of Anthony Comstock as a monk thwarting displays of excessive flesh, whether that of women, horses, or dogs. Yet “the village nuisance” ends up in his own hell. Until last week, Anthony Comstock had been largely been forgotten. But then he was resurrected by Texas federal judge grasping for a justif…
Theme Park of Temptations (1932)
Behold this fascinating pictorial map created by W. J. Dittmar, an illustrator of ragtime music sheets in the early 20th century. The map, titled The Road from Earth to Heaven, was first published in 1932 for the Union Gospel Press, a Christian publishing company. It depicts the road through life as a theme park, with various attr…
Oh My. If swearing is a fucking sin then me and the rest of my East Coast friends are heading for the shitty depths of hell! God Damn!
With a few notable exceptions, I obeyed my parents and teachers, so maybe the Lord should pondereth how I ended up at the tavern?