Here’s why so many QAnon believers also happen to be Evangelical Christians. pic.twitter.com/t1bX8qiTAW
— VICE News (@VICENews) July 3, 2021
Well, Bobby Ross, Jr., is taking a week off.
Thus, I went looking for another list of religion-news material featuring short punchy takes on lots and lots of different topics.
I settled on this VICE News chat with GetReligion contributor Ryan Burge — that must-follow guy on Twitter who is also well known for his work at the Religion in Public weblog.
To say that this punchy little video report includes some Hot Takes is an understatement. Yes, there is a flashback to the whole QAnon and evangelicalism wars.
However, let me stress that there are some producers at VICE News who are sincerely interested in the complex world of American evangelicalism and they are doing their homework. I know this because I sent about three hours with one of their production teams several months ago and I know the wide range of materials that we covered.
That video is still in a vault somewhere. It would be interesting if they turned bites of it into a bullet-list collection of takes similar to this one with the always quotable Burge.
So what shows up in this Burge blast? He put this list out on social media:
Things I discuss in this Vice News video:
QAnon
John Darby
Dispensationalism
Thomas Jefferson as the anti-Christ
Kirk Cameron
The Great Awakening
George Whitfield
Jonathan Edwards
Christian TikTok
Tucker Carlson + Sean Hannity
Why pastors are cowards
Remember, when you see that last one, that Burge has years of experiences as a Baptist pastor, in the more progressive American Baptist Churches USA flock (which is one of the Seven Sisters of the old Mainline Protestant world).
If asked to name another topic or two to add to that Burge list, I would have asked him to address “conspiracy theories” in general and their link to fights over “fake news.”
How does that work? Please ponder this long chunk of an “On Religion” column I wrote addressing how those terms link into discussions of QAnon and evangelicalism. One contributing factor, you will see, is that way too many journalists, well, don’t “get” religion.
“A reflexive disregard of what are legitimate news sources can feed a penchant for conspiracy theories,” said Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.
Many mainstream journalists do a fine job of covering the complex world of evangelicalism, stressed Stetzer, reached by email.
Nevertheless, he added: “I think that the bias of much of mainstream news has to be considered in this conversation. Many evangelicals have seen, over and over, news sources report on them irresponsibly, with bias, and — at times — with malice. When you see that enough, about people you know, there is a consequence. Regrettably, I don’t think many in the mainstream news world are thinking, ‘We should have done better.’ “
It doesn’t help that Americans disagree about the meaning of “fake news.”
Many Americans on the left define “fake news” as rumors, acidic political fairy tales and outright hoaxes spreading via social media, often created by activists or hostile operatives overseas. Many conservatives also use the same term to describe news warped by errors, ignorance, bias or a near-total dependence on anonymous sources. Many Trump supporters pin this label on any news hostile to the White House.
It’s clear that these disagreements are affecting some American evangelicals, according to a 2018 study conducted at the Billy Graham Center.
“For those concerned about the rise of conspiracy theories in the church, it is rather distressing that three-quarters of evangelicals agreed that the mainstream media produces fake news compared to only 54% of non-evangelicals,” wrote Stetzer and Graham Center colleague Andrew MacDonald, in an essay for The Dallas Morning News. “Church attendance at least once a month was one of the factors more likely to correlate to agreeing that the mainstream media produces fake news. …We understand mistrust of the media that often struggles to accurately report on matters of religion, but these numbers are stunning.”
One more thing: I would like — once again — to point journalists and news consumers to an excellent piece at The Gospel Coalition by former GetReligionista Joe Carter. The headline: “The FAQs: What Christians Should Know About QAnon.”
The key is that Carter considers QAnon a essentially “political cult” that includes some people who clearly know how to manipulate evangelical language. Read this:
A prime example of an American political cult is the movement led by the late Lyndon LaRouche. Other political cults, such as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian (Aryan Nations) and other groups in the Christian Identity movement, combine both political and also religious elements. While QAnon has primarily been a political cult, there is evidence that offshoots are morphing into full-fledged religious cults.
For instance, Marc-André Argentino recently highlighted a “faction within the movement has been interpreting the Bible through QAnon conspiracies” and “QAnon conspiracy theories serve as a lens to interpret the Bible itself.” Although that particular group is relatively small group of neo-charismatic home churches, it is not uncommon to see QAnon-supporting Christians on social media interpret Q’s predictions as fulfillment of eschatological prophecy.
Read it all. And enjoy the Burge video. Let’s hope that VICE News produces more.
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