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DIR Return to: Conspiracy
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#Post#: 18069--------------------------------------------------
Re: Q Anon
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: September 27, 2020, 7:47 pm
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> QAnon, Conspiracies, and Discipling the Way Out
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> Reflections on my recent article for USAToday
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> Few articles I’ve written have provoked the response as
touching conspiracy theories in 2020. It is an odd mixture of
those consumed by fury or derision at my apparent blindness and
those derisive of my supposed attempt to generate clickbait.
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> This is part of the problem I tried to address in my latest
article at USAToday on the growing influence of the conspiracy
theory known as QAnon in evangelical churches.
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> In the article, I concluded that “we need pastors, leaders,
and everyday Christians to address this conspiracy, and others
like it, before others are fooled.” With this in mind, I wanted
to address some pushback and offer some steps leaders can take.
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> The Problem of the Media
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> By far the most common criticism I get whenever I write about
conspiracy theories is that Christians should be suspicious of
mainstream media. Many have argued that they are often biased
against Christians and conservatives, at times presenting
distorted reporting.
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> I think this is fair criticism—to a point.
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> As I’ve argued many times, the state of reporting on
religion—and particularly reporting on evangelicalism—is poor.
Major outlets get obvious facts wrong that betray not only
ignorance but laziness in not checking.
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> I also explained to Terry Mattingly that poor treatment from
the mainstream media is, at least in part, to blame for why
Christians don’t trust them—they have reasons not to.
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> It’s not hard to ask a pastor or seminary professor for help,
but this is sometimes deemed not important. In the history of
journalism, I’d wager that few terms have been as wrongly used
as Calvinism. Yet the lesson is never learned.
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> More distressingly, some outlets seemingly take joy in
magnifying outlier behavior as examples of evangelicals while
ignoring the majority. This was evident in March, when despite
the tens of thousands of churches that led the way on closing
fast and focusing on serving their communities, media outlets
focused on the few cases of attention seeking pastors. Or, more
recently, with the misleading (and since changed) New York Times
headline about churches being a major source of outbreaks.
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> In talking with other church leaders, it is beyond frustrating
to serve faithfully only to see the loudest fringe voices
receive the spotlight, or to see your community misrepresented.
This wears on Christians and cultivates distrust of the media.
After all, if they’re getting us wrong, what else are they
misrepresenting?
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> Over time, this has eroded trust and obscured the work of
quality religion journalists at just the time we need them most.
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> Going Too Far
> Despite these failings, Christians go too far when they
dismiss all mainstream journalism.
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> This is why in USAToday, I was critical of the 46% of
self-identified evangelicals and 52% of evangelicals by belief
who "strongly believe the mainstream media produces fake news."
While it can be tempting for evangelicals to use bias to dismiss
criticism, “the fact that news agencies have biases is not
synonymous with producing fake news.”
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> This mistake has only served to isolate us from criticism,
whereby we invalidate any news article we find unfavorable.
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> In reality, there are good journalists in the mainstream
media, particularly religion journalists, who strive to
understand and report on evangelicalism in all fairness. I might
not always agree with them, but I respect their integrity and
desire to report honestly.
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> Instead, our goal should be a maturity to engage reporting
with a critical eye rather than to shout bias upon seeing a
logo.
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> We need to develop a track record of accepting hard truths
that are well supported rather than if they support our
political or cultural narrative. Most importantly, we need to
resist our temptations to echo chambers—a temptation that is
common to many other subcultures across the globe.
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> Stepping into our Technology Discipleship Gap
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> I voiced my frustration in Christians in the Age of Outrage
that for how important online technology is to our world,
pastors rarely engaged the topic. As a result, our dependence on
technology far outpaces its prominence in our discipleship
practices. Conspiracy theories like QAnon gaining traction in
our churches is merely one more rotten fruit of thisgap in our
discipleship.
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> In my USAToday piece, I attempted to step into this gap by
challenging Christians to “address the QAnon’ers in our midst.”
Many dismissed the problem as fearmongering while others
believed I’d slandered QAnon.
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> But most Christians are looking for help and frustrated at the
silence from their leaders. They’ve struggled with family
members, friends, and even church staff or volunteers promoting
conspiracies. Unsure how to respond, often it goes unchallenged
and relationships slowly dissolve.
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> Pastors and church leaders need to see this as the
discipleship failure it is. Our silence, casual dismissal, or
even tacit approval of destructive online behavior is corrosive
to the spiritual health of our churches.
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> So as pastors look to engage, let me offer three initial steps
we can take to address the technology habits and relationships
of our people.
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> 1) Challenge the church to make Christ Lord of their social
media.
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> Undoubtedly many in your congregation, organization, and
family believe this is already true for them. In fact, they have
proof!
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> Their social media profile says Christian and is accompanied
by a bible verse. But in reality, the ways we describe ourselves
on social media often say far less about our identity than the
ways we interact and the people, ideas, and causes we choose to
amplify.
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> Social media profiles can be misleading and even destructive
if the heart behind them is not submitted to Christ.
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> 2) Encourage the church to ask God for wisdom.
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> Never in my lifetime has the need for wisdom been as pressing
as it is today. The confusion of the pandemic, the caustic
spirit of our politics, and the unresolved pain of our racial
history are only a few of the pressing demands we face.
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> With so much confusion, church leaders need to ask our people
where they are looking for answers. I believe that any
explanation for rise of conspiracy theories and politicization
in the church should begin with these responses. When faced with
uncertainty, many Christians have developed concerning habits of
turning to cable news or even social media platforms like
Facebook or Reddit when trying to make sense of the world.
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> Into these temptations, Pastors need remind us of the words of
James: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives
generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”
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> While truth is we all lack wisdom, the question remains: where
are we turning? If you want to address the conspiracy theories
in your church, recognize how their posts reflect a struggle for
where to find wisdom and a corresponding set of habits that need
to be rooted out.
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> 3) Caution the church to hit pause.
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> One important lesson I’ve learned in watching Christians on
social media is how the platform causes us to diminish the
importance of being “quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to
anger” (1:19).
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> It is stunning how Christians can just dismiss this warning
from James as insignificant.
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> Encountering something they find offensive or wrong, many
Christians are quick to jump into the fray. In reality, the
majority of these instantaneous criticisms are a fraction as
clever as we believe and exponentially more cruel, ignorant,
and/or prideful. This is why James cautions us to be slow and to
listen. A day, a week, a month; the length matters less than
genuinely reflecting on why and how you are engaging.
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> It’s a good lesson to never send an angry email. Save it in
your drafts and pray on it for at least 24 hours. My inbox is
still filled with dozens of saved emails I wrote in anger but
decided not to send.
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> In some cases, God resolved the situation. In others, He gave
me peace despite a lack of resolution. In every instance, I
realized that the email would only satisfy my rage.
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> Pastors should encourage a similar practice. When tempted to
engage online in anger, hit pause. This is entirely inconsistent
with the spirit of social media but entirely aligned with the
Spirit of God.
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> In all three of these steps, the central need of the church is
for its leaders for wisdom on how to live in our digital world.
These are the pressing questions of our time and if the pulpit
is silent they will go elsewhere.
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> The challenge for pastors is when will we begin to speak up.
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> Ed Stetzer is executive director of the Wheaton College Billy
Graham Center, serves as a dean at Wheaton College, and
publishes church leadership resources through Mission Group. The
Exchange Team contributed to this article.
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> Andrew MacDonald is associate director of the Wheaton College
Billy Graham Center Institute. He’s written here on conspiracy
theories.
>
--- End Quote ---
;D
#Post#: 18370--------------------------------------------------
Re: Q Anon
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: October 3, 2020, 10:31 am
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8)
#Post#: 18554--------------------------------------------------
Re: Q Anon
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: October 8, 2020, 10:10 pm
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#Post#: 18806--------------------------------------------------
Re: Q Anon
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: October 13, 2020, 10:16 am
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> [quote author=patrick jane link=topic=102.msg18370#msg18370
date=1601739083]
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[/quote]Anon
#Post#: 19143--------------------------------------------------
Re: Q Anon
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: October 20, 2020, 11:25 pm
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--- Quote from: patrick jane link ---
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> [quote author=patrick jane link=topic=102.msg18554#msg18554
date=1602213014]
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date=1601739083]
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Q
[/quote]Anon
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#Post#: 21482--------------------------------------------------
Re: Q Anon
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: December 4, 2020, 1:37 pm
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVyHw-85mIo
#Post#: 21616--------------------------------------------------
Re: Q Anon
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: December 6, 2020, 9:42 pm
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQUw8FtfCx8&list=WL&index=58
#Post#: 25179--------------------------------------------------
Re: Q Anon
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: February 13, 2021, 8:52 am
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[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/122039.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/february/white-evangelicals-qanon-election-conspiracy-trump-aei.html
QAnon Conspiracies Sway Faith Groups, Including 1 in 4 White
Evangelicals
Survey examines belief in election fraud, the Deep State, and
other theories on American politics.
A new survey reports more than a quarter of white evangelical
Protestants believe a QAnon conspiracy theory that purports
former President Donald Trump is secretly battling a cabal of
pedophile Democrats, and roughly half express support for the
debunked claim that antifa was responsible for the recent
insurrection at the US Capitol.
Experts say the data point to a widening ideological divide not
only between white evangelicals and other religious groups in
the country, but also between white evangelical Republicans and
other members of their own party.
The survey, which was conducted in late January by the
conservative American Enterprise Institute, reported 29 percent
of Republicans and 27 percent of white evangelicals—the most of
any religious group—believe the widely debunked QAnon conspiracy
theory is completely or mostly accurate.
QAnon has infiltrated other faiths as well, with 15 percent of
white mainline Protestants, 18 percent of white Catholics, 12
percent of non-Christians, 11 percent of Hispanic Catholics and
7 percent of black Protestants saying they believe it.
In addition, large subsets of each group—ranging from 37 percent
of non-Christians to 50 percent of Hispanic Catholics—said they
“weren’t sure” whether the theory was true.
According to Daniel Cox, director of AEI’s Survey Center on
American Life, the report suggests conspiracy theories enjoy a
surprising amount of support in general, but white evangelicals
appear to be particularly primed to embrace them.
“There’s this really dramatic fissure,” he said.
There was also significant support among white evangelicals for
the claim that members of antifa, or anti-fascist activists,
were “mostly responsible” for the attack on the US Capitol—a
discredited claim repeated by former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani
and Franklin Graham. FBI officials have said there is “no
indication” antifa played a role in the insurrection.
Even so, the story has had staying power in the minds of many
Americans, including 49 percent of white evangelical Protestants
who said the antifa claim was completely or mostly true. So did
36 percent of white Catholics, 35 percent of Hispanic Catholics,
33 percent of white mainline Protestants, 25 percent of Black
Protestants and 19 percent of non-Christians.
Among the religiously unaffiliated, 22 percent also expressed
belief in the theory.
Asked to explain why white evangelicals appear
disproportionately likely to embrace conspiracy theories, Cox
noted that, as a group, they do not fit a stereotype of
conspiracy theorists as people disconnected from social
interaction. Instead, most retain strong connections to various
social groups.
But white evangelicals stand out in a different way: The vast
majority say some or a lot of their family members (81%) or
friends (82%) voted for Trump in the 2020 election—more than any
other religious group.
“People who do strongly believe in these things are not more
disconnected—they are more politically segregated,” Cox said.
The resulting social echo chamber, he argued, allows conspiracy
theories to spread unchecked.
“That kind of environment is really important when it comes to
embracing this kind of thinking,” he said. “You’re seeing people
embrace this sort of conspiratorial thinking, and everyone in
their social circle is like, ‘Yeah, that sounds right to me,’
versus someone saying, ‘You know, we should look at this
credulously.’”
White evangelicals express robust support for other conspiracy
theories as well. Close to two-thirds (62%) believe there was
widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election—despite numerous
experts and courts at all levels refuting such claims—and
roughly the same percentage (63%) believe President Joe Biden’s
victory was “not legitimate.”
A majority (55%) also said they believed it was mostly or
completely accurate to say “a group of unelected government
officials in Washington, D.C., referred to as the ‘Deep State’
(has) been working to undermine the Trump administration.”
Cox said forthcoming data will highlight the ideological
distinctiveness of white evangelicals even among people who
identify as Republicans or who lean toward the party, signaling
an “increasingly important divide in the GOP among people who
identify as evangelical Christian and those who do not.”
“If you’re a Republican but identify as an evangelical
Christian, you’re far more likely to believe in voter fraud in
2020 election,” he said. “You’re far more likely to believe that
Biden’s win was not legitimate. You’re more likely to believe in
the QAnon conspiracy. You’re more likely to believe in the ‘Deep
State.’”
White evangelicals also stood apart from other religious groups
when asked about the potential for violent action: 41 percent
completely or somewhat agreed with the statement “if elected
leaders will not protect America, the people must do it
themselves even if it requires taking violent actions.”
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