538 "Why QAnon Has Attracted So Many White Evangelicals" (this is really fucked up)

[NewHendoLib]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-qanon-has-attracted-so-many-white-evangelicals/

One week after his first drop, Q was already quoting scripture. “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing,” Q posted on the imageboard site 4chan. The line was from Psalm 23, possibly the most well-known of the 150 psalms, and a beacon of hope for Christians going through challenging times. Is it any wonder that the fringe conspiracy theory QAnon has attracted true believers in every sense of the word?

snip

While we’re still learning about the demographics of QAnon believers, surveys that look at evangelicals’ other beliefs can help explain why they may be susceptible to falling down this particular rabbit hole. A majority of evangelical Christians identify as Republicans — 56 percent according to the Pew Research Center’s 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study — and they are more likely than Democrats and the general public to express belief in QAnon. In a Morning Consult survey from late January, 24 percent of Republicans said the QAnon conspiracy was at least “somewhat accurate,” compared with 19 percent of Democrats. Republican belief in the conspiracy dropped noticeably after the attack on the Capitol, as a series of surveys months before, immediately after, and several weeks after the attack showed, but Republicans remained more likely to support the belief than the general public (18 percent).

snip

While evangelical Christians are less likely to trust the news media, they have a lot of trust in, and enduring affection for, Trump. As recently as October, close to 80 percent of white evangelical Christians said they supported Trump, and they have been much more likely than the general public to call him “morally upstanding” and “honest”; in fact, 15 percent and 23 percent said those respective terms described Trump “very well,” compared with 8 percent and 12 percent of all respondents. Since Trump is cast as the protagonist in the QAnon narrative, the hero who will save us all from the evil cabal of baby-eaters, it’s understanding that those who support him the most could find that idea appealing.

snip

last part

But perhaps the biggest connection between the world of QAnon and the world of evangelical Christians is one that’s much harder to quantify and capture, but it seems obvious when talking to someone from either group. The QAnon movement has suffered multiple failed prophecies, predictions for events that never came to pass. To continue holding onto beliefs in spite of those disappointments, followers need something many evangelicals have in spades: faith. “People of faith believe there is a divine plan — that there are forces of good and forces of evil at work in the world,” said Ed Stetzer, an evangelical pastor and executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. “QAnon is a train that runs on the tracks that religion has already put in place.”

[BootinUp]

1. This country is seriously f*cked. That is all. Nt

[NewHendoLib]

2. that, my friend, is the understatement of the year!

[Trueblue1968]

3. i argree with you and i am soooooooooooooooooooooo sad.

[certainot]

36. it's the fucking radio and it's irresponsible and stupid that pollsters are ignoring dittoheads who

have been fed the background lies over and over for 30 years. Qanon was the russian social media amped up version of what limbQaugh was selling since 2017 inauguration to excuse trump from russian collusion (liberal elite deep state coup). throw in some pedophelia and cannibalism and you can attract some of the more extreme and maybe abused dittoheads and a younger crowd who heard the shit at the dinner table for 20 years

it is incredibly sad that dems have had to wait for limbaugh to croak to start seeing the GOP fall apart. trumpism died with limbaugh and dems need to recognize that and tell the manchins that their days are over and if they go to the GOP they'll be second rate on a party that, without limbaugh leading 1500 radio stations, will be minor minority for a long time

[Sibelius Fan]

4. All Christians believe in make believe. It's no great stretch to believe

Q Anon fantasies, tRump fantasies. The more fantastic, the more it feels like religion.

Talking snakes. People coming back from the dead. Childish bull.

[mahina]

23. Other people have different experiences than you have had.

I’ve never understood why anybody cares what anybody else believes or what their faith is. Or isn’t. It’s not anybody else’s damn business.


.

[Trust_Reality]

30. If you believe things that are unbelieveable but have eternal consequences, you have a serious

need for others to believe the same as you. You need confirmation, reinforcement, etc. You badly need to convince others to believe as you do. You live life secretly or subconsciously terrified except when in the presence of other believers. You only trust people who are believers and/or sound like believers - or preachers? Once you believe in a certain leader, you have a serious need to continue believing.

[whathehell]

35. Lol..Nice try, but people have strong needs to get others to share

their beliefs and opinions regardless of their "believability" and not only on religion.

[whathehell]

33. Thank you.

[mahina]

39. You bet.

Strange, right?

I don’t feel like it’s my business what anyone else believes. Religious or not, it’s a private matter between my God and me, and I give others that courtesy too. I was raised that way.

It seems vulgar when politicians use apparently feigned faith to gain influence.

I try not to judge others by their culture, faith or absence of faith, but by their actions.

[whathehell]

45. I feel the same, Mahina

As I once asked someone here:

If my beliefs don't conflict with democratic values,
why the hell do you care WHAT I believe?

Just shit stirrers trying to stir shit.

[mahina]

46. Raja.

✅✔️☑️

[Progressive Jones]

34. It becomes our business when it works against the general welfare of the nation. nt

[whathehell]

32. Only Christians "believe in make believe", not Jews or Muslims?

Wow..Bigoted much?

[Mariana]

43. The poster did not say "only" Christians believe in make believe.

The word "all" does not mean the same thing as the word "only".

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/all
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/only

[whathehell]

44. The targeting of Christians exclusively implies as much..

so you can lose your little dictionary links, unless, of course, you need them yourself.

With that out of the way, you should realize that he's wrong on the "all" part too.

The OP's speculates on a correlation between Evangelical
Christians, who make up only a third of Christians, and QAnon, not "all" Christians, and yes, there's a big difference.

Among other things, Evangelicals believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, most Christians do not. That fact alone eliminates the 'talking snake' example, a story which originates, by the way, in Judaism, not Christianity.

[qdouble]

47. It's a Christian nation

Atheists/agnostics attack Christianity more because it’s the dominant western religion...not because they only find Christianity to be problematic.

[whathehell]

48. Not a legitimate reason..

Last edited Sun Mar 7, 2021, 01:35 PM - Edit history (1)

Nor do I think it's the real one. The true reasons, in my opinion, are:

1. They falsely equate all Christians with the minority third that are Evangelicals.

2. They get to express their hatred without PC blowback, e.g. being called an "anti-Semite" or an "Islamaphobe".

[certainot]

37. you should check out the Certainty deficit Disorder

and [link: https://www.sexonthewrongbrain.com/theory/|'sex on the wrong brain']

[Faux pas]

5. Kickin' with disgust!

[JI7]

6. White Evangelicals have always been white supremacist trash

so of course they would attract them.

And I mean specifically the conservatives .

[Blue_true]

10. Yes. That type justified slavery, genocide (of Blacks and American Indians).

Anything bad that has happened in American history has it’s roots in their belief system.

[GemState]

50. "Anything bad that has happened

in American history has it’s roots in their belief system”
When broad-brush claims such as this are directed against Jews it’s called anti-Semitism.

[Blue_true]

51. Sorry, take your BS somewhere else. Jewish people have not historically

used every available tool to suppress and keep other people down, in fact, they have had to fight against that.

BTW, the Inion battle flag is much cooler that the confederate one in use (not even the original one, which still is pathetic when compared to the Union one (the Stars and Stripes)). Also, General Sherman was one of history’s great Generals, even if he was not as good as the Union Generals Grant, George Henry Thomas and Sheridan.

[GemState]

54. Sorry, don't agree with you about Christians;

do agree with you about Sherman.

[KentuckyWoman]

19. Absolutely.

And covid is a punishment for electing Obama.

Crazy is as crazy does.

[GemState]

49. A link and some history

https://www.google.com/amp/s/studiesinamericanhistory.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/abolitionism-and-evangelical-christianity/amp/

[blueinredohio]

7. I wonder how much Qanon shit would be posted

if Michael Flynn, Steve Bannon and Roger Stone were in jail.

[certainot]

38. you forgot the kremlin

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. Yep, and as I've pointed out many times before here...

... both Biden AND Clinton would've won the "white vote" too, if NONE of the "white evangelicals" had voted.

Unfortunately, they did vote... and the CNN exit polls also indicated that they're very motivated voters. Their percentage of all voters has been significantly higher than their percentage among the general population.

Evangelicals are especially dangerous among Christians, in my opinion, because their focus is often directed OUTWARD instead of inward at their own faults. The possible explanation is that they're being driven to CONVERT others! How are you going to focus on converting others to your religion if most of your time is devoted to introspection and self-improvement? Nope, what's important to evangelism is to convert OUTSIDERS... and that necessitates looking outward and judging others.

[NewHendoLib]

9. Bill Moyers had an interesting point on them as well - they think they are "chosen"

so have no responsibility for their actions. it doesn't matter - their tickets are already punched.

[Blue_true]

13. Yes.

I have always been disgusted at how the men (and many women) among them cheat on anything they can, sleep around, lie, are horrifically uncharitable. But, their ticket is to profess faith in Jesus Christ before they die, and they are set, none of the other stuff matters.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

15. Yes, that's another aspect of it.

It's like the lazy person's denomination in this country. Just SAY that Jesus is your savior, and you're cool! Actual behavior isn't very important because, as they'll often say, "Everyone is a sinner anyway."

And that's a very convenient way to reduce introspection and self-criticism too, keeping their congregations more focused on finding new converts.

[world wide wally]

28. They like to say they are "saved" (past tense)

When they ask me if I am "saved", I can only reply, "I'm not dead yet so I don't know"

[KentuckyWoman]

20. Talibornagain

[GulfCoast66]

11. As a Free Thinker who grew up evangelical I've said for year

People who believe the 6,000 years ago some dude built a wooden boat, put every animal on earth on that boat, and survived a world wild flood will believe anything. 25% of Americans believe that shit.

Q is rational compared to that.

[Traildogbob]

26. Got one for you.

I spent 30 years teaching Forest Ecology at college. We hired a new Wildlife Faculty 6 years before I retired. A masters degree from Tennessee in Wildlife Science. A hard core Christian, very, very smart and great at what he taught. But, he believed the Arch story, and every species here now was on the boat. Before I retired he was hired back at Tennessee as faculty in Wildlife science. Still there. There is a pattern of wildlife grads from UT that believe the same. I would go to games there, my daughter was a student. Every game day, young street preachers were on every corner with a Mike, preaching fire and brimstone. Tennessee is strange.

[cilla4progress]

12. Death

cult.

[ItsjustMe]

14. Is the cult mentality

You have the Religious cults, the Political cults, hell you even have Technology cults.

[AwakeAtLast]

16. Jack Van Impe for insurrectionists

[Xolodno]

17. When the beast and his false prophet arrive...

...these guys will be the first to accept the mark.

[Traildogbob]

27. They have the mark

Right on their forehead. MAGA. The early prophets did not know what a red ball cap was.

[PuppyBismark]

18. 19% of Democrats

What? I give up!

[Klaralven]

21. Mass politics is a psychological phenomenon, not an intellectual phenomenon

[niyad]

22. Depressing, but unsurprising.

[BobTheSubgenius]

24. I'm extremely disappointed to learn that the party divide on QAnon is as close as it is, as with the

closeness of the numbers of evangelicals. I thought Democrats would be somewhat more pragmatic than that. Hoping so, anyway.

[Layzeebeaver]

29. A certain percentage of the population are idiots

Doesn’t matter if they are republicans or democrats, religious or not.

We’ve had a “War against...” for just about everything over the last 40 years - except for Idiocy.

[BobTheSubgenius]

52. You only start wars that you think you might have a chance to win.

How could you ever win against idiocy? The numbers are in their favour, and they would never know they were losing, or had lost.

[Layzeebeaver]

53. I would propose that a substantial investment in education might help

When did winning ever feature, post Korea?

We are a nation of “forever warriors”...

[Baked Potato]

25. Natural progression.

[Initech]

31. You don't mix crazy with crazy.

That will create a literal powder keg of insanity just waiting to explode. We saw the extent of their crazy on January 6th. I mean what is to stop them from exploring again?

[Blue Owl]

40. So basically, they all live in some kind of imaginary fantasy-land

[NewHendoLib]

41. I wonder...is it miserable, or... fun!!! for them in that space?

[Martin Eden]

42. They call Trump "morally upstanding" and "honest"

Let's face it; they live on a different planet.