ED STETZER IS NO STRANGER TO WORKING WITH GLOBALIST. IN MAY 2021 HE JOINED THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS TO DEAL WITH CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN THE CHURCH OVER THE 2020 ELECTION, IMMIGRATION, COVID 19, CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM /TRUMPISM, MIKE LINDELL AND MORE.
Rev Thomas Littleton
August 30 2021
Ed Stetzer is everywhere a Christian should not be and working with organizations who have nothing to do with Christian mission. In fact many organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations with whom Ed joined to discuss “Faith Communities and Disinformation” in May 2021 are decidedly globalist and anti Christian. So why does Ed Stetzer use his influence to aid such organizations and accuse Christians of “Conspiracy Theories and Disinformation” ? What topics of conversations do the accusations cover? And who is pays Ed to continue to represent us in Christian media while misrepresenting us as conspiracy nuts to the enemies of the cross?
https://www.cfr.org/event/disinformation-and-faith-communities
WHAT IS THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS?
According to 2020 financial reports CFR has a budget of over $82 million annually and assets of over $624 million. Evangelicals like Ed Stetzer are living on the extreme fringe of irony to attempt to merge the goals of Christian Gospel mission with one of the oldest and most powerful global think tanks in existence. To mention this reality and the extreme irony of Stetzer conspiring with CFR to deal with “Conspiracy Theories ” and disinformation among faith communities and (mainly) American Evangelicals is no doubt in itself proof that conspiracy to coordinate messaging by those seeking to label Christians as the problem to globalist goals,
“The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), founded in 1921, is a United Statess non profit think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs . It is headquartered in New York City , with an additional office in Washington DC. Its membership, which numbers 5,103, has included senior politicians, more than a dozen secretaries of state , CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, and senior media figures.”
“CFR meetings convene government officials, global business leaders and prominent members of the intelligence and foreign-policy community to discuss international issues. CFR has published the bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs since 1922, and runs the David Rockefeller Studies Program, which influences foreign policy by making recommendations to the presidential administration and diplomatic community, testifying before Congress , interacting with the media, and publishing on foreign policy issues.”
SO ASK YOURSELF WHY IS STETZER’S WORK WITH EVANGELICAL LEADERS OF INTEREST TO CFR?
Stetzer is not the first evangelical to work with CFR .Richard Land and Rick Warren have both done the same. It is helpful to point out that all three of these leader claim Southern Baptist Convention membership and hold various positions in the SBC which is the largest protestant denomination in the US.
CFR’S WEBNAR MAY 2021 WAS TITLED
Disinformation and Faith Communities
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Speakers
Research Director, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy
Executive Director, Wheaton College’s Billy Graham CenterPresider
Vice President for National Program and Outreach, Council on Foreign Relations
Religion and Foreign Policy Webinars
“Joan Donovan, research director of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, and Ed Stetzer, executive director of Wheaton College’s Billy Graham Center, discuss the spread of disinformation in faith communities.”
“So we are delighted to have with us today Joan Donovan and Ed Stetzer, to talk about disinformation and faith communities. I’ll just give a few highlights of their distinguished backgrounds.”
“Joan Donovan is a research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, where she leads the field in examining internet and technology studies, online extremism, media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns. Her research and teaching interests are focused on media manipulation, and she has been showcased in a wide array of media outlets, including NPR, The Washington Post, New York Times, among others. Prior to joining the Harvard Kennedy School, she was a research lead for Data and Society’s media manipulation initiative, where she led a large team of researchers studying efforts to manipulate sociotechnical systems for political gain. “
(NOTE :This center at Harvard Kennedy School is named for the former producer of Dan Rather/CBS News . According to it’s history “Since its founding in 1986, the center has also emerged as a source for research on US campaigns, elections, and journalism.” The center also focuses on-“Combating fake news & Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review“. “
“In September 2017, First Draft News, a non-profit that works on solutions to challenges with trust & truth in news, set up a home base at the Shorenstein Center. The network includes more than 100 organizations that help newsrooms & tech companies verify news. This announcement is part of the Shorenstein Center’s broader work and research in the area of combatting fake news.”
“In February 2017, the Shorenstein Center hosted a conference on fake news, bringing together academics and practitioners to discuss solutions to the problem. The conference was co-sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, as well as Northeastern University”)
EVANGELICAL LEADER IN THE CFR EVENT ON SQUASHING CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN THE CHURCH IS HEAD OF THE “BILLY GRAHAM CENTER “.
“Ed Stetzer is the dean [of the School of Mission, Ministry, and Leadership] at Wheaton College, and he also serves as executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. He’s a teaching pastor at High Point Church in Chicago, and has been the interim teaching pastor of Moody Church in downtown Chicago. He’s written many books, hundreds of articles, planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, and trained pastors, contributing editor for Christianity Today. He is the founding editor of The Gospel Project, a curriculum used by more than 1.7 million individuals each week for bible study. And he has a national radio show “Ed Stetzer Live” that airs Saturdays across the country. So welcome, both.”
STETZER IS “HELPING CHRISTIAN LEADERS AND PASTORS DEAL WITH CONSPIRACY THEORIST IN THE CHURCH”
Stetzer is actually at a conference informing and instructing Christian Leaders on dealing with Conspiracy Theories and uses his slide power points for the CfR interview.
STETZERS PASTORAL CONSPIRACY EVENT IS :
“Confronting Conspiracy Conspiracy Theories, Media Habits, and The Challenge of Digital Discipleship”.
You can watch the video to see Stetzer’s slide show from the conference as it used in the Council on Foreign Relations webnar.
ED IN HIS OWN WORDS ON TOPICS LIKE…..
“QANONERS IN OUR MIDST”
“TRUMP”
“MIKE LINDELL “THE MY PILLOW GUY” IS NAMED AS A PROBLEM
“MUSLIMS HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM “
“EVANGELICAL ARE SUSPICIOUS OF THE MEDIA “
‘EVANGELICALS BUYING IN TO QANON’S GREAT AWAKENING”
STETZER WALKS THE CFR AUDIENCE THROUGH HIS SLIDE SHOW FOR EVANGELICAL LEADERS.
“STETZER: Happy to do so. And I guess I, by the bio, you can obviously tell I’m not just an observer, but I’m a participant in my religious tradition, Evangelicalism in particular, and the reality is Evangelicals have a problem. Now, it’s not just an Evangelical religious tradition, but that they have been disproportionately impacted in and around issues of conspiracy theories. So I actually, I’ll be talking about this today, I’m at a gathering of religious leaders here right now who asked me to address this issue. So I actually now do conferences and webinars, helping denominations and religious leaders walk through and help their communities engage some of these conspiracies and conspiracy issues. This is actually the title slide from that presentation. And you’ll notice I use some a bit of insider language, but I want to let you know my own context here.”
“So conspiracy theories, media habits, and the challenge of digital discipleship, that last few words insider language, so things that Evangelicals, and people of faith, of other Christian traditions use to describe some intentional change that’s needed. Let me tell you where I began to weigh into some of this conversation. It was actually in an article in USA Today. And Evangelicals need to address the QAnoners in our midst. And I wrote in there QAnon has been making headlines, but Evangelical Christians should not be swept up into the bizarre movement. Now, if you’ll notice the date is actually September 2020. And the first headline, the first line of the of the story, QAnon, in my editorial, QAnon has been making headlines in recent weeks, it’s going to make more, I received substantive pushback from this article. And people say no, this is not an issue. Of course, on January 6, the world saw there was an issue. And when the rioters prayed on the floor of both the House and the Senate, in Jesus name, with Evangelical language and with Evangelical feel, I think people began to realize indeed, just how big of an issue this actually was. So what I want to walk through with you is a bit of some research we’ve done, and a little bit of background, not too much, but a little bit of background, particularly focusing on “Q” and QAnon, and hopefully this will find helpful, you’ll find this helpful as well.”
“So in fall 2017, we begin, conspiracy theories have been around a long time. Chain letters go back a very long time. But technology has accelerated, and brought people together, and found more engagement in and around this issue. So if you’ll notice, here at fall 2017, let’s make sure I’m sharing the correct screen. I’m not sure I was there. Let me just make sure I am now, now I am. So in fall 2017 Q emerges, begins, I won’t go into too much details what’s called a Q drop. October 28, 2017, very much connected to the Trump administration. And I would also say that the Trump administration’s particularly high connection to white Evangelicalism actually is evident in some of this data as well. But Q claimed an impending storm was going to come. And what happened very soon is, is that events were interpreted in light of this coming storm, there’s a deep state conspiracy. Most of us are aware of these things, such as sex trafficking, global election fraud, and more. Every event, though, was soon interpreted through this lens, this two part lens of evil, global conspiracy, and an impending, impending but unexpected victory that’s often called the “Great Awakening.” So QAnon beliefs and commitments include, and again, this is a bit theological and historical, but a gnostic framework of knowledge, authority, and power, with some special knowledge that people have and share, and they share in their communities and their chat rooms, but also a cosmic binary of good versus evil. The populist suspicion of traditional government institutions, media, and corporations, and a nationalistic lens of history, political authority, and cultural power. Well, if you look at those two middle points in particular, those are already existing in Evangelicalism. And they’re existing in many religious traditions. And what I want you to hear is that QAnon, and some conspiracies, travel well on the tracks that religion has already laid. Now, again, you heard from the very beginning, I am a coreligionist, I am an Evangelical, I really do believe that there is indeed a behind-the-scenes spiritual battle between good and evil. I really do believe indeed, that there will come a time when there will be a great revealing of all things. So the language is actually so similar to Evangelical and religious language, who may be already suspicious of media and more, I’ll show you some data that points to that in a minute.”
“So Q encourages followers to look for clues, to kind of see. There was, it actually blew up on Wayfair was a perfect example of people begin to look for clues and find the clues, which I will tell you, religious people like me, actually will sometimes think and act that way in general to see, well, how is God at work here? We’ve seen God work in our lives. And so this is kind of laid on some of the tracks that are there. So the question is, how prevalent are they in the church? Now remind, I want to remind you that my audience is not normally the Council on Foreign Relations. My audience is my coreligionists. So when I wrote that article in September, trying to sound the alarm, I think people may be were as engaged or as aware had how significant the prevalence was. But we actually did a survey, that I’m going to share with you, that kind of unpacks some of these things. But I know that sometimes these memes probably seem silly to you. The meme here on the left, and I will tell you, it seems silly to me. But there’s a subtle way to capitalize on Christian language to attract Christians or people of other faiths, right. I’ve talked to Muslim imams who have similar experiences as well. There are scripture verses talking about war, and the challenge of the Christian life, and then they get reoriented. And it’s easy to take certain passages, which I won’t for the sake of time go to. So a couple things that are key: the spiritual terms, so QAnon and similar conspiracy theories, have actually demonstrated ability to subvert classical Evangelical language.”
“Now, I want to say to you, this is really important, that QAnon is a substantial influence in France that is not tied to religion, in the same way that it’s tied here in the U.S., which has a disproportionate Evangelical population, depending on how you count a third of Americans. And so there is more to it than religion. But that’s our topic today. And certainly, as to my coreligionists, I share that concern as well. Even language like the “Great Awakening” is actually language that’s very much taken from Christian religious history. And more. So many Evangelicals recognize this language, I actually take people through a museum at the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, and I show them the First Great Awakening, and the Second Great Awakening. So many of this says, trust the plan, there’s a Great Awakening coming, and more. So this can lower the fence of many Christians who also are already suspicious of mainstream media, as they might call it, and more.”
“Let me, so you might see some memes like this, “where we go one, where we go all,” that’s language that actually when I wrote the article in USA Today on conspiracy theories, I used the hashtag “where we go one, where we go all,” which I can assure you certainly alerted people to the article and led to much enthusiastic response but this idea of, “don’t tread on me, don’t mess with us.” So real quickly, and then I’ll close, half of U.S. Protestant pastors, in a survey that we did, hear conspiracy theories in their churches. Around one in eight strongly agree their congregations, or congregants are sharing conspiracy theories. We’ve defined it using Merriam-Webster here. So this is a widespread issue among congregations as well. They hear these things on a consistent basis. More larger churches are more likely to hear, older churches are more likely to hear as well. And I think one of the things we’ve got to remember is that people who are Evangelical, already have a suspicion, that the Trump administration tapped into and QAnon tapped into, and others, they already have a substantive suspicion, you’ll see non-Evangelical in yellow, Evangelical by belief, I won’t explain all that, but it’s a series of four things called the Bebbington Quadrilateral. They have a higher belief that the mainstream media puts out a lot of fake news. So we step into a situation where QAnon uses religious language, has engaged different people. When I explain to Christian pastors and leaders, I talk about different kinds of them. Some are attracted, some are advocates, some are apostles of these conspiracy theories, I won’t unpack that with you, because my time is up. But what I want you to hear is that conspiracy theories run on the tracks that religion has already laid. Furthermore, there’s already a suspicion of mainstream media, and some of these people have now found one another in echo chambers, we might say, dark corners of the internet, they’re not that dark. The most likely place somebody planned to participate in the January 6 riots was on Facebook. And it was part of what got banned, but it was Facebook, where these things were planned on private Facebook groups, where people get in echo chambers and get even self-radicalized. For me, I’m trying to teach pastors and Christian leaders how to address and how to engage this. I know many of you come from different traditions, some of you are religious scholars, I want you to hear, I think this is a big, substantial issue that still remains for us to address thanks for the opportunity to share with you.”
STETZER CONTINUES TO BROADEN THE TOPICS TO INCLUDE:
STETZERS WORK WITH THE NAE
SOCIAL MEDIA
ALOGORITHIMS TO SUPRESS CONSPIRACIES
CHANGING MEDIA HABITS AMONG CHRISTIANS
CHRISTIANS WHO WENT TO TRUMPS RALLY ON JANUARY 6TH
FREE SPEECH VS CONSPIRACY THEORIES
LEGISLATIVE ANSWERS
More of the interview
“ADDRESSING THE REAL THREATES CAUSED BY CONSPIRACY THEORIES”
“FASKIANOS: We’ll go, we already have three written questions in the queue. So let’s just start right there, and you can add any additional points you want to make. So the first written question comes from Galen Carey, who is of the National Association of Evangelicals. “How should legislators and regulators address real threats caused by conspiracy theories without harming the free speech which ordinary citizens and companies depend on as a cherished freedom?” So I don’t know who wants to take that one?”
“STETZER:Do we, is it one of us? Because I’d be happy to defer.”
FASKIANOS:Yeah, yes, you should go.
STETZER: Okay. All right. So good. Galen and I, just full disclosure, I’m on the executive committee of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Galen and I did not text one another about this question. And Galen, who works in public policy for us at the NAE, let’s say I mean, it’s a tricky question. For me, the immediate answer is, that may not be the place where we go first. I think, ultimately, two thousand years ago, Rome had hot and cold running water. And I know this sounds strange, but stay with me, they had hot and cold running water. And it had hot and cold running water, because people discovered a remarkably malleable metal, called lead. And so the lead pipes would take the hot and cold running water into the affluent of Rome. And historians would later, this is not the case. But soon there were books written that the fall of Rome was the madness created by lead poisoning and more. But what a technological revolution it brought.”
“Here’s what I would say, I think one hundred years from now, we’re going to look back at social media, and see it much like the lead pipes, it brought to us amazing things, and it weaponized so many things, and caused so much difficulty and destruction. So I think first place I would look to is how we might see those media habits changed. As Dr. Donovan mentioned, there are algorithms and algorithms, not just point to things that you like, I recently bought a backpack and I can’t stop getting backpack ads. But also what they do, is people respond more to things that they’re upset about, than the things that they’re interested in or want to dialogue about. So it creates an echo chamber where the volume goes up, up, up, up, and how could we get to a place where, I mean, there were a lot of normal people who went to Washington, DC to protest, what they thought the election that was stolen, though they were obviously misled on that. But then a subset of them, actually, many of them came home and said I can’t believe I did this. How did they get there? Well, they got there because things got normalized over time, as the anger and the fear and the echo chambers continued.”
“So I don’t know Galen, legally, what, or legislatively, what should be addressed, but I do know that social media is a huge part of this problem. Now, there have always been conspiracy theories. But boy, they have been accelerated exponentially, and weaponized in ways we haven’t seen before. Could it be that part of that is legislation related to how information gets passed and how algorithm? I don’t know. I’m very much a free speacher, and I’m very concerned about limitations to free speech. But I bet Dr. Donovan has more wisdom, she has testified to the Senate and I have not.”
“DONOVANS WISDOM “ SUGGESTIONS
TARGET MEDIA LIKE “THE MY PILLOW GUY”
“DONOVAN. ….Certain people within these networks are making money, like actual cash. And the second thing that they’re doing, is they’re building network power, they’re building amplification power, that is they’re growing their audiences, they’re gaining clout, and then they monetize it again later. So that incentive structure is something that we also need to pay quite a bit of attention to. Because if you can make money off of convincing people that their rights are being taken away from them, and that that the voting machines are flipping ballots in favor of the other party, in and you’re in that case, committing some kind of defamation or disingenuousness towards another company like Dominion Voting Systems.”
“Then we actually have to start discussing where liability falls, and for right now with the internet, liability falls on the individual poster, which is why you see Giuliani and My Pillow guy, and everybody getting sued, Fox News getting sued by this company, rather than having some kind of regulation. But we don’t actually want to normalize litigiousness around this either. “
THE MODERATOR GOES TO Q&A
QUESTIONS COME IN ABOUT
REFUGEES AND IMMIGRATION POLICY AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES HINDERING HUMANITARIAN WORK
STETZER’S RESPONSE
“STETZER: Yeah, happy to. And thank you for your work among immigrants and refugees, so essential right now. And there is a correlation, but not a complete correlation between nationalistic, anti-immigrant, anti-refugee mentality. And I don’t know the full answer to your question in the sense that, for me, on the morning of the 2018 midterms, this is the article that I ran in Vox magazine, “Fellow Evangelicals Stop Falling for Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric.” And I started the first sentence, “President Trump is trying to fool Evangelicals like me,” this time, it’s using the false that an evasion of a caravan of poor people marching through Mexico. So I don’t know, I share your concern. And I’ve tried to be a vocal advocate.”…. “we do need Christian leaders and pastors to speak up and out on immigrants and refugees. But I would tell you, that the National Association of Evangelicals has been consistently speaking in that space, and has not been listened to by many of the rank and file Evangelicals, who are being discipled thirty hours a week by their cable news choices, not by their pastors on Sunday morning. So I don’t know. I don’t know the answer. But I bemoan with you the situation.”
NEXT QUESTION DEALS WITH CHRISTIANS DISTRUST FOR “MAINSTREAM MEDIA”
“FASKIANOS:Thank you. So the next written question comes from Jay Michaelson, who works at the intersection of politics and spirituality. He’s columnist for The Daily Beast. And this is mostly for you, Mr. Stezter. “Given the suspicion that many, I think this is in your slide, 50 percent believe the mainstream media, have suspicion of mainstream media, or think it’s misinformation? Is there anything we in those institutions can do to help combat the spread of conspiracy theories? Or does this have to be entirely an inside job?”
ALSO ADDED TO THE QUESTION BY THE MODERATOR FOR CFR-PASTORS NEED TO FIX IT -WHAT CAN THEY DO?
How can pastors combat the problem ?
“And I’m just going to add on to that, what would you say to the Evangelical or Protestant pastors and what they should be doing and how they should be combating this in their congregations without turning off those who are believing it?”
STETZER’S RESPONSE
( The response of a real thinking Christians would be to ask “why Christians should trust the liberal /far left / anti Christian mainstream media.)
“STETZER: So, first question was, what can we do? And I’m not sure particularly if he was speaking in terms of the media context, but let me just answer it in that context. Do better covering religion. You know, we have things like RNA, Religious News Association, others, because when religion is covered, it’s often covered poorly. And so what happens is, people read the coverage of their religious tradition and say, that’s nothing like what I know or I’ve experienced. And so they feel you know, Rachel Zoll, actually, who we recently, we lost her battle the cancer was the AP’s religion reporter. And when this article came out, this was actually before the 2016 election, “Evangelicals feel alienated and anxious.” It was actually a fair article, it described well the idea that some evangelicals feel, this is a pastor quoted, I happen to know the pastor quoted in the article, but this pastor says, “you’ll be hated by all nations for my namesake, let me tell you that time is here.” So when you believe already that there is, that the kind of the systems of the world are stacked against you, that need leads you to places to find other information, and ultimately, I would say that, there’s a blog called “Get Religion Done” by Terry Mattingly, and quoting the famous line to press just doesn’t get religion.”
“So get religion better, and follow just basically the AP style guide. Not everyone is a fundamentalist because they believe these things, AP style guide has a certain description of how to do that. So from a media perspective, I think the media could do better and there are good religion reporters, I mentioned RNA, there’s good religious reporters doing good work and if mentioned some, I would fail to mention enough and I’d feel bad. Second, I think, reference to what pastors and church leaders can do. We surveyed Protestant pastors, I work with a lot with Protestant pastors, mainly Evangelicals. And what I would say, I did a webinar on some of these issues with the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins. And one of the conversations we had that I thought was so helpful, was that people are persuaded by people who they see as near them or like them, not by people who they see as drastically different and far away from them. So it’s unlikely that most of Evangelicals are going to be persuaded by blank or so and so.”
STETZER DISCUSSES WHAT HE AND THE WHEATON BILLY GRAHAM CENTER ARE DOING
ON COVID -Stetzer and BGC at Wheaton collaborate with CDC/ HHS/ and Francis Collins for message coordination to Christians . – (NO CONSPIRING HERE RIGHT?)
“So for example, what we’ve done at the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, is I reached out to the CDC, we work with the HHS, and I said, help me find Evangelical Christians. And again, I think science can be brought from all different contexts. But when Francis Collins, and I had Francis Collins on, I talked about it, and he shared his faith, he’s been very open about sharing his faith. He’s the head of the National Institutes of Health. Or Jay Butler, who works at CDC Infectious Diseases, or the head of or the editor of Vaccines Magazine, or Vaccines Journal, who’s actually attended the church you mentioned earlier, Moody Church and is now the head of vaccine at Mayo, I had each of them on. And pastors and church leaders told me they played that in churches around the world because, and each time I said, “tell us about your faith, tell us about your journey.” People say, okay, this person, and again, please forgive me, but we’re trying to persuade people here. These people are in us and among us, therefore, we can trust them more readily. And what I would say is pastors and church leaders can help people hear from Evangelical scientists and leaders, I have on my radio show this weekend, Dr. Emily Smith from Baylor University, and I think she tagged herself, “your friendly neighborhood epidemiologist.” Great. So, and a professor at Baylor University in this field, so each of those. Oh, and I will tell you, I expect the radio show to be filled with people calling who are upset that I’m talking positively about vaccines on a Christian radio program.”
“So, but I think that’s the key. So what I tell most pastors, just tell them to ask their doctor, because they know and trust their family doctor, but then bring in some trusted voices who they’ll, they won’t discount immediately. And they’ll listen to but who also know what they’re talking about, as like Francis Collins, I know. I know, a local church can’t call in Francis Collins, but they can just Google. He was on The Daily Show yesterday, talking to Evangelicals about vaccines and encouraging them away from conspiracy theories.”
NEXT QUESTION ON “CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM ” BLAMES TRUMP AND RACISM
“Next question -, “the scholarly discussion has shifted over the last years from talking about American Evangelical fundamentalism to Christian nationalism, the latter intersecting with a particular view of what America should be, a Christian nation, and also conspiracy theories like QAnon. What’s your take on the shift of discourse? And how does racism intersect with those issues?”
“STETZER: Dr. Donovan, I answered the last one once you jump in on that.”
“DONOVAN. America is a place in which people are proud patriots. They believe in a country. But depending upon what kind of nationalism you favor, we see white nationalist, or white supremacist elements creep into the discussion, as well as different kinds of envisioning of a nation that if there are too many religions, or too much religious diversity, then solidarity falls apart, right?”… “And Trump was really one of the only candidates in 2016 that was going to come out and say, “Make America Great Again.” And in that return, that “again,” is really important. I know there’s been a lot of debate about, it actually being code for saying, “make America white again.” But think about this, what does it mean to say “again,” right, especially in the context of people who were nostalgic for an America they may have never experienced, right, an America where they are told that there was less racial animus, and less racial strife, because there were clear racial hierarchies, and gender divides during the Jim Crow era, for instance. “
ON CHRISTIAN NAITONALISM
FASKIANOS: “Yes. Great with United Religions Initiative.”
“FREW: Right. Ed talked specifically about how QAnon uses Evangelical language and builds on pre-existing Evangelical ideas. But to what extent does QAnon spread in other religious communities, especially those of non-Abrahamic religions?”
“STETZER: Yeah, so we know QAnon has engaged in places with no religion, or with other religions, and variants of it. I would say that we shouldn’t be surprised that considering Evangelicals are the largest singular religious group, I guess other than the “nones,” or the non-practicing, but the largest singular religious group. So we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s going to be particularly prevalent in our conversation, though I do mention in my concern, that it might be disproportionately influential in an Evangelical context. I’m not an expert, for example, on QAnon’s engagement in Hindu communities or things of that sort. I’ve had several conversations with imams, who tell me that it’s not QAnon per se, but conspiracy theories take root in other religious traditions, but they often emerge from other historical factors. The other religious traditions may feel marginalized or isolated for different reasons. They may feel isolated or marginalized by other groups, that then they perceive to be this way. It’s much like the earlier question, where we talked a lot about Christian nationalism.”
NEXT QUESTION ON EDS WORK WITH EVANGLEICAL PASTORS
“FASKIANOS: Okay. I’m going to take the next question from Palwasha Kakar, who is at the United States Institute of Peace. “I’m interested in hearing more about Pastor Ed’s work with Evangelical pastors, how do you help them identify and work on deradicalization? Do you build on the international CVE, countering violent extremism, work in this area? Or how does it differ in your understanding?”
(HERE ED STETZER ADMITS HIS USE OF LANGUAGE TO ATTEMPT TO PRESEUDE EVANGELICALS )
ACCORDING TO STETZER ” PASTORS AND DISCIPLESHIP ARE THE ANSWER
“STETZER: First, we don’t call it deradicalization. First thing, but because nobody sees themselves as that. But I get exactly what you’re saying and appreciate the work of deradicalization. The language I used at the beginning, and the way, because I’ve written a lot to try to persuade Evangelicals on some of these issues. And I actually have, and I know it’s very easy for us to sit back and say, “oh, those QAnoners,” well, I actually have friends in the, who are self-identified QAnoners, in the Evangelical community, who actually text me when I’m being discussed on QAnon message boards. And they say they defend me on those message boards. But that’s another story for another day.”
“So for me, I try to frame in such a way that people can receive the message. And again, for us that often comes around in terms of discipleship. I talked about this on NPR’s Morning Edition. And the host asked me, and I kind of struggled because it’s like, it’s insider baseball language. I said, so there are things, I explained, that as Christians we want to disciple in, and things that as Christians, we want to disciple out. So what needs to be discipled in, in 2021? Well, it might be seeing yourself as a “world Christian,” seeing that men and women from every tongue, tribe, and nation are, that’s frequent language in the pages of the Scriptures. It might be helping people to see that, and language I often use is that we should not be among the gullible.”
“And I actually would point out, I mean, I do just so we’re clear, I do believe, I bet my whole life on the fact that there was a person who was dead on Friday, and on Sunday was back from the dead, and everything I believe, is framed and shaped around that reality. But I do point out how, as our Christian witnesses impacted the last slide that I didn’t get to, because I went too long in the first session, actually talks about the danger to our Christian witness. I lead the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. So I care deeply about our Christian witness. And I pointed out somebody who kept posting about this QAnon conspiracy, and this QAnon conspiracy, and this one, and then it came to Easter, and they said, “oh, and Jesus rose from the dead.” And I would just say it’s really hard to persuade a world about a supernatural event called the resurrection, when you’ve posted six other things about bizarre conspiracy theories from pizza, Comet Ping Pong, to Seth Rich, and some of you know these different references, to Wayfair, to whatever else it may be. So I do try to frame it around, I will say that Jesus literally himself says he’s the truth. And I try to remind people that the last conspiracy, so many people jumped in the Wayfair conspiracies, some of you missed that, but it became a thing for a few days. And I encourage people, go back lovingly to those people and say, listen, that obviously wasn’t the case. Or somebody showed up at the Comet Ping Pong with a gun to find a basement. And there was no basement. And so at which point, do you say I’ve been fooled four times. But yeah, here’s the thing. Me, you, that’s not going to happen, when their pastor pulls them aside, when they’re friends.”
“And so what we’ve actually done, even in my own church, had someone upset and leave, because I have been advocating for vaccines. And they said, I’ve been fooled and tricked. And I have noticed that since I took the vaccine, my 5G cell phone reception is just way better. But that’s another story for another day. Sorry. I appreciate you getting the joke there, Irina. But what I would say is, is that what we did is when that person posted,” I’m leaving the church because our teaching pastor is for vaccines.” We just had somebody go and say, and talk to them, and I think they still left mad. But they also now engage a different congregation and seem to have moderated their views. So remember that people are best persuaded by people they already trust. And I think that’s going to be a key thing for co-religionists, not just in Evangelicalism like I am, but for other religions as well.”
LAST QUESTION
(CALLER COULD NOT BE HEARD SO REPEATED BY FASKIANOS “That is just too bad. Let’s see. I’m just looking. I guess we could just look into the final questions to see, if we could maybe just end with this one. According to recent poll, over half of Republicans believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
“DONOVAN……Exactly what we discussed here today, that it’s really about the route the information takes to get to people, the sort of ambiguities that the conspiracy theory is supposed to be answering for them. Conspiracy theories really are about synthesizing information and making a simple scapegoat, so that you can kind of either make your determinations and then deal with it.”
NOTE- BY THIS DEFINITION ALONE THESE CRT SPEAKERS ARE ADMITING THEIR EFFORTS TO SYNTHESIZE INFORMAITON ABOUT EVANGELICALS .MEANWHILE THEY ARE ADMITTING TO MAKING THEMSELVES “CONSPIRACY THEORY” CONTROLLERS CONSPIRING TO PROMOTE THEIR OWN UNPROVEN THEORIES AND CONCLUSIONS ABOUT EVANGELICALS AND PEOPLE OF FAITH.
“FASKIANOS:And Pastor Stetzer, any last words from you to leave us with and what people can do.”
IN HIS FINAL THOUGHTS STETZER DOUBLES DOWN ON THE 2020 ELECTION
STETZER CALLED THE CONCERNS OVER THE COMPROMISED ELECTION OF 2020 “A DAY OF RECKONING FOR EVANGLEICALS”
“STETZER: Faith traditions, Evangelicalism, my faith tradition, has a long history of making mistakes and resetting, and making mistakes and resetting. After the January 6 riots, I wrote an article in USA Today called, “Evangelicals Face a Reckoning.” And I think that’s true. And part of that’s internal. So our hope is, my hope is, as someone who literally believes the things I’m not some outsider, I really do see how God is even at work in the world, and work in our churches, that our churches will stand up and stand out in a difficult time, many have in ways of serving their communities, in the midst of COVID, I think we need to serve our communities, through intellectual discipleship, better ways of thinking politically. And helping people. Gullibility is not a spiritual gift. And we have to help people to be more discerning in their understanding of the culture and the context around them. It’s multifaceted. We talked about actions that different parts and parties need to place, I spent a lot of time just two hours ago, I’m at a meeting in Colorado, just spoke on some of these issues.”
“One of the most controversial days for many people, many pastors who texted me, was the Sunday after the election in November. Do I pray for President-Elect Biden? This has never been a question before. Everyone always prayed, I guess during maybe Bush v. Gore, the Bush-Gore, afterwards, people were unsure. But this is a case where the election was soon called, by all main, even including Fox News, all mainstream news. Yet pastors didn’t know what to do and still struggled with it. It’s going to take some courage. But that’s hopefully, that courage comes from a relationship with the Lord that causes us to want to do what the writer of Hebrews says, and I’ll close with this. Hebrews is a book in the New Testament. The Hebrews says, to provoke one another, love and good deeds, I think that’s part of our responsibility, to tell the truth, help people understand the truth, and to make sure that the truth is the focus of our beliefs, and what’s propagated amongst our congregations. Thanks so much for the opportunity to share.”
FASKIANOS:Thank you both. This is really fantastic. ..”
CONCLUSION
As evangelical leaders like Ed Stetzer use their influential positions as hirelings and false prophets for global goals and global politicalized think tanks like Acton Institute and The Gospel Coalition and media outlets like Christianity Today it should come as no surprise that they would conspire against Christians with Council on Foreign Relations. With topics like Trumpism, Nationalism, Christian Nationalism, Covid and election integrity concerns labeled as conspiracies, men like Mike Lindell and Networks like WVW and Lindell TV are no doubt the TARGET of globalist conspirators to silence the opposition and all the concerns they are voicing for the millions of voiceless Americans and conservative Christians who know how real these concerns are.
As for Stetzer and Warren and Land and other evangelicals who are involved with CFR and the massive interest behind it -their treachery is something they should be concerned about both now and on judgement day. THE OUTSTANDING QUESTION is “who chose Ed Stetzer and who (besides the SBC supporters and Christianity Today) is paying him to collaborate with globalist?” Perhaps Ed would like to speak to that.
Pastors and Christians who follow leaders in collaboration with global ideologs are , in reality, manning the doors of the “disinformation” controllers train cars which are being loaded to carry Gospel inspired Christians into the thought containment camps of the brave new world religion of Christ-less Christianity. This false church finds it’s home in the bosom of the Great Harlot of Babylon.
thirtypiecesofsilverdotorg 