By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
There has been a plethora of news articles about the inroads of the QAnon conspiracy theories into the belief system of white evangelicalism.
Seemingly, it appears that in some churches populated by Christians who do not have their sea legs under them about correct biblical doctrines, they are yielding themselves to outlandish conspiracy theories that simply do not jibe with the tenets of their Christian faith.
QAnon likes to wrap itself in the cloth of the cross of Christ so as to give legitimacy to its kooky beliefs with the hopes that its listeners will not examine its cockeyed beliefs with a critical eye.
QAnon. Who is the driving personality behind this web base source of misinformation, distractions, half-truths and conspiracy theories? No one seems to know. But yet when these, “Q drops” are deposited into the social media, they are gobbled up like jellybeans and spread like wildfire to a base of believers that run with it as if it was the gospel.
If you are a pastor at a church whose membership is QAnon leaning or is sympathetic to its errant gospel, you will have a Herculean job of convincing your church members that all such theories must pass through the safeguards of biblical truths.
If not, preaching and teaching Bible-based truths will fall on deaf ears if the hearer has been compromised by outright lies; and lies that have not been vetted via careful readings of James, I John, II John, III John and the Book of Romans, among other biblical sources.
The articles that I have perused suggest that some white evangelicals have been smitten by QAnon materials and when challenged about their veracity, the QAnon follower will feel either justified (because they are being attacked for believing this “other” source of truth) or will clam up and feel righteous that they are soldiers in a noble cause for truth and justice.
It is exceedingly difficult to reason with someone who has been snick-snarled into a belief system that if you are told to renounce, become very defensive and will harden their conscience against any penetration of truth.
Some white evangelicals who purportedly were at one time, the edge of the sword against falsehood, have compromised their belief system to accommodate QAnon and believe that there is no harm in accommodating both biblical truths and QAnon statements.
Impossible! The Word of God will never commonality or hold hands with discordant lies that have no basis in fact.
QAnon imparts to its adherents the sense that they are warriors on the front line battling the forces of demonic evil and that their cause is given a five-star rating by the Bible.
The Bible however states that our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in the heavens. QAnon names personalities that they contend are the embodiment of evil and thus to war against that personality is to do the work of God.
We find at 2 Corinthians 10:5, the salient words: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
QAnon does not take this approach but rather it uses worldly wisdom which is devilish, and it constructs out of whole cloth, conspiracies that are pure hokum.
White evangelicals do not have the privilege or the option of selecting, as it were, from a buffet of competing truths; and then tie it altogether in a bow that mentions a Bible verse or two as if somehow that cleans the stain of QAnon from their errant pronouncements. Fresh water and salt water can not come from the same source.
If a QAnon position is contra to the Word of God, a believer in QAnon is not given the freedom or liberty to entertain such a position and still hold to the belief that they can serve both God and QAnon.
God is a jealous God and does not lightly suffer having other “gods” before Him. Any belief system that diminishes or contorts or calls into question the rule and reign of God is suspect and ought to be immediately jettisoned.
QAnon is not God friendly, and nor does it exalt the holiness or righteousness of God but rather it plays the role of detractor for some white evangelicals who are either fearful of their standing in society or are fearful of facing a world that, to them, is in dire turmoil.
QAnon attempts to speak to those fears with their doggerel of believing that you can be a QAnon supporter and at the same time, go to a Bible centered church and give homage and worship to God.
Impossible! You will either hate one or love the other. Being double minded is a prescription for failure and angst.
Interviews with sincere white evangelical pastors who have congregations that are lending an ear to QAnon gibberish, state that they have a difficult time reasoning with their conflicted parishioners about what is truth and where it is found.
The takeaway from all of this is that QAnon or similar conspiracy platforms have been and will be around until the end of time and the job of the Bible centered church is to speak truth without compromise and to rescue the confused from being swayed by nonsense that refutes or contradict the Bible message as confirmed in the person of Jesus the Christ.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com