Why is Ned Kelly on your gospel tract?

When this tract was first commissioned back in about 2005, it was no easy choice who to pick to stick on the front. The person on the novelty note would need to be well known and instantly recognisable.

Ideally their legacy would need to assist with a witnessing encounter. Help spark conversations and discussions about God, the bible, morals, life and death.

Some have suggested that only a Christian should be featured on the gospel tract.

If a Christian was to be chosen, who would fit the above criteria? And what if that person wasn’t from the same denomination as you? What if they had different end-times theology for example? Would you still use it? After all, we want all Christians to be able to use our tracts.

A person once asked why we use a convicted criminal on the gospel tract. Fair question right?

Consider this, if there was anyone in Church history that Christians might all agree would be okay on the gospel tract, you could argue Paul the Apostle could be. But hang on, he too was a convicted criminal? And he was executed by the State as one. Is whether or not someone’s a convicted criminal the right standard, and is it even relevant.

Now obviously Paul and Ned were very different people, but this just reveals a flaw in the original question. Many faithful Christians throughout history were “convicted criminals” because Christianity was often outlawed, or had practices that went contrary to the law of the land.

There are risks when choosing anyone, and a lot of questions get asked during the decision making process. But in the end, Ned Kelly was chosen for a number of reasons.

He is iconic and instantly recognisable. He stirs debate and conversation about what kind of a man he was, and he makes it very easy to bring up the topic of morality, ethics, laws, right & wrong etc.