What do you know? There is a lot of overlap between the Jesus-cult and the QAnon-cult — and Holy Men ain’t likin’ it.
The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, reported in February that more than a quarter of white evangelicals believe the QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that a cabal of powerful politicians run a global child sex trafficking ring, is “mostly” or “completely” accurate. The rate was the highest of any religious group. The same survey indicated that 3 in 5 white evangelicals believe Biden’s win was “not legitimate.”
A poll released this year from Nashville-based Lifeway Research, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, indicated that 49% of Protestant pastors often hear congregants repeating conspiracies about national events.
This should not surprise anybody; once reality has been abandoned, one goofy, implausible story is as good as some other goofy, implausible story.
I used to think that the evangelical affection for Trump signified that one cult had somehow displaced another; that was wrong, and rested upon the subterranean assumption that there is a finite amount of crazy that can occupy any one head. No. I now think that the people who can’t see the crazy in any one story can’t see the conflict with the other crazy stories in their head.