Why do white American Evangelicals believe

in the QAnon conspiracy theory?

BA Thesis Tatsuya Ishikawa Student number: 2023339 Online Culture: Digital Media Department of Culture Studies School of Humanities and Digital Sciences June 2021 Supervisor: Dr. Jan Jaap de Ruiter Second reader: Prof. Mia Stockman

Preface

This work was created as a bachelor thesis for Tilburg University's Online Culture program. Based on my curiosity about religion and conspiracy theories in general, I chose to write about this topic. Indeed, Evangelicalism, Christianity, or monotheism is something I was not very familiar with. Like many Japanese people, worshipping only one God who creates the world was an uncommon belief. On the other hand, for the three years as an Online Culture program student, I became somewhat familiar with phenomena on the Internet such as issues of social media and conspiracy theories. Therefore, I was very interested to study something very familiar and not at the same time. As long as the technology develops and we are religious, the same kind of issues would always recur in the future.

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Jan Jaap de Ruiter, my research supervisor, for his assistance during this project. Your guidance and encouragement were very beneficial to my study and to me personally. Without your support, I couldn’t have accomplished this research. Finally, my deep and sincere gratitude goes to my family for their continuous help and encouragement.

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Table of Contents

Preface ...... ii 1. Introduction ...... 1 2. Evangelicalism and Evangelicals in the US ...... 2 2.1 The origin of Evangelicalism (Neo-evangelicalism) ...... 4 2.2 Evangelicals’ political engagement in the US ...... 6 2.3 The present Evangelical leaders ...... 10 3. What is QAnon? ...... 13 4. Methodology ...... 17 5. Evangelicals and QAnon believers ...... 18 5.1 Anti-child trafficking view ...... 18 5.2 The Bible and QAnon narratives ...... 22 5.3 Spiritual warfare ...... 26 5.4 Political impact ...... 30 6. Overview of outcomes: why do Evangelicals believe in QAnon? ...... 35 7. Discussion and conclusion ...... 38 Bibliography...... 40 References ...... 41 References of websites ...... 46 References of Figures ...... 49

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1. Introduction

In this day and age of the Internet, we need the ability to distinguish right information from wrong ones such as misinformation, hoaxes, fake news, and conspiracy theories, since we have too much information. ‘QAnon’ is one of the conspiracy theories, which has developed in 4chan since 2017. However, the QAnon conspiracy theory is not only a phenomenon on the Internet, it has also an impact on today's US politics. For example, when former President Donald Trump was defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, his supporters tried to flip over the result; they attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. During the riot, at least five people died and more than 140 people were injured. As reported by Spocchia (2021), a journalist from Independent, QAnon believers were also involved in the riot. Without a doubt, some of them have a politically extreme outlook. In order to investigate what the QAnon conspiracy theory is and who believes it, I specifically targeted the white ‘Evangelicals’ in the US in this research. This is because some polls such as AEI (2021) and PRRI (2021) showed that the white Evangelicals tend to believe in the conspiracy theory more than other groups of religious people. The aim of this thesis is, therefore, to find out a reason why this specific group of people, sharing the same values and belonging to the same community - Evangelicalism -, tend to believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory. Are there any specific standards why they believe in the conspiracy theory? Is there a particular characteristic that Evangelicals firmly keep that determines their political attitude? And if so, what is it? Is this based on their religious teachings? Or, is there a specific common view on what Evangelicals and QAnon believers share? By taking the QAnon conspiracy theory as a case study here, a digital ethnographic research was conducted in order to analyze debates about this issue on the Internet.

Based on the research question - why do white American Evangelicals believe in QAnon - the project was executed. This thesis first indicates various knowledge and data to proceed to a digital ethnography. The ideas of Evangelicals and politically conservative ideologies are highly compatible, because of the history of Evangelicalism. The digital ethnographic research presents the results of evidence of how Evangelicals and Q supporters have something in common. Some teachings of the Bible become a key part of the research. Finally, the research outcome illustrates that the traits of Evangelicals that cause them to be more inclined to believe in the conspiracy theory: QAnon.

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2. Evangelicalism and Evangelicals in the US

In the United States, the presence of Evangelicals cannot be ignored, especially in the political scenes, since Evangelicals are one of the largest religious groups in the country. There are a variety of statistics on the population of Evangelicals in the US. For example, according to the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE), a program of Wheaton College, the Evangelical population of the US is estimated to be approximately 30-35% of the country, which is around 90-100 million people (2012). In another research conducted by Masci (2015) from the Pew Research Center, there are about 62 million Evangelicals in the country, which is still increasing.

In January 2021, a survey was conducted by the Survey Center on American Life, a project of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). According to the survey result (Figure 1), 27% of the white American Evangelicals believed in the QAnon conspiracy theory; they believed that former President Donald Trump has been battling child sex traffickers (discussed later). According to almost half of the white Evangelicals (49%), the violence at the US Capitol was caused by Antifa. Antifa or antifascist supporters are renowned for opposing the following ideas: fascism, nationalism, authoritarianism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. 62% of them say the 2020 election was spoiled by systematic voter fraud. And above all, the deep state, according to 55% of them, was threatening the Trump presidency. The AEI (2021) studied this trend.

Figure 1. The white Evangelicals (27%) do believe in QAnon more than other religious groups in the US (Survey Center on American Life of AEI, 2021). ©American Perspectives Survey

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Although President Trump was not an Evangelical president, he was able to attract widespread backings from the white Evangelicals in the 2016 election. According to the Pew Research Center (2018), the white Evangelicals were the strongest fans of Republican politicians; 77 percent of them voted for Trump. Indeed, Trump's popularity was particularly outstanding among the white Evangelicals (the Evangelicals made up 34% of his overall supporters) than Clinton’s (Evangelicals made up 7% of her overall supporters). Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that Evangelicals played a key role in former President Donald Trump's electoral victory in 2016. Knowing these numbers, we can ask ourselves the question what kind of specific individual can be called an Evangelical?

As stated on the website of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), one of the biggest Evangelical communities in the country today, Evangelicals are defined as people who ‘believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord’, and ‘they take the Bible seriously’, meaning Evangelicals literally interpret what the Bible says (NAE, n.d.). Their religious faith is also strengthened by their spiritual traits. For example, most Evangelicals believe in ‘born-again’ experience. Born-again means spiritual rebirth; only the born-again Christians are forgiven sins and able to have an individual relationship with God. As reported in a survey of Pew Research Center (2011), 93% of the Evangelicals claim that they have experienced being born-again. Amstutz (2014), a professor of political science at Wheaton College, pointed out that ‘spiritual formation’ was one of the aspects that has led to the rise of Evangelicalism (p. 37). Even though mainline Protestant denominations once weakened their supernatural teachings (more agreed with modernity ideas), Evangelical churches kept engaging its theological missions ‘to worship God, proclaim the good news of the gospel, and serve the temporal and spiritual needs of the world’ (Amstutz, 2014, p. 38). Precisely, the most important practice for Evangelicals is to adhere to the teachings of the Bible. For these reasons, in comparison to other Christian denominations, Evangelicals (or the Greek word Euangelion originally indicating the good news or gospel), are often seen as one of the most religious - loyal to the Bible and God -, spiritual or conservative people.

To define who an Evangelical more specifically is, according to a British scholar, Bebbington (1989), there are four qualities that constitute Evangelicalism: (1) Biblicism, (2) Crucicentrism, (3) Conversionism, and (4) Activism (Bebbington, 1989, p. 2). The term ‘Biblicism’ refers to a belief in the Bible as the exclusive source of divine power above all other sources. If a belief is found to be contrary to the Bible, it

3 should be dismissed. ‘Crucicentrism’ literally means Christ's Crucifixion. Since Jesus Christ sacrificed his life on the cross, it made it possible for all mankind to be saved. The idea of ‘Conversionism'’ is based on the conviction that life must be changed by the reality of being born-again and the lengthy journey of pursuing Jesus. Lastly, ‘Activism’ is the manifestation of the Gospel in efforts for missionary and societal change.

Amstutz (2014) also studied that the absence of a pivotal administration also distinguishes Evangelicalism from other Christian denominations (p. 41); ‘while the highly institutionalized Roman Catholic Church can foster the development of global civil society, the fragile institutions binding American Evangelicals are unlikely to do so’ (p. 70). In other words, there is no clear leader of its campaign similar to the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Strictly speaking, there exists leaders, or missionaries you can call. This is slightly different from that of the Catholic Church. In Catholicism, the pope is elected through a Conclave. On the contrary, in Evangelical’s communities, a person, who seems to have a capacity to make a greater impact on more people by presenting the Good News, is seen as a great Evangelical leader. Amstutz (2014) further explains the authority-free characteristics of Evangelicalism as follows;

Evangelicalism is flexible, continually adapting to changes in the world. Indeed, the growth and dynamism of the movement is the result of creative, entrepreneurial initiatives of pastors and lay leaders. One of the strengths of Evangelicalism is its entrepreneurial, grassroots initiatives and the spread of informal networks of communication and voluntary associations. (Amstutz, 2014, p. 42)

Therefore, it strongly depends on the person’s ability whether he/she can attract and gather more followers. As a prominent Evangelist, Billy Graham (and his son Franklin Graham, discussed later), has had a worldwide influence and is generally thought of as ‘the most influential American Evangelical of the second half of the twentieth century’ (Amstutz, 2014, p. 41).

2.1 The origin of Evangelicalism (Neo-evangelicalism)

In order to understand who an Evangelical is and what Evangelicalism is, we also need to look at its origin; unless we comprehend their origin and where they come from, we

4 are not fully able to understand the present circumstances. The American Evangelical revival is closely linked with the Great Awakening(s) in the 18th century. At that time, religious revivals took place in various places. For example, according to Gordon Melton (n.d.) from Encyclopedia Britannica, ‘Evangelical revival’ is a term to describe the 18th-century theological revivals that occur in continental Europe (‘the Pietist movement’), Great Britain (‘the Methodist revival’), and North America (‘the Great Awakening’). Particularly, in the US, the Christian revivals took place several times back then: the First Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening. Although the period of the Second Great Awakening is still a subject of debate among scholars, it would be fair to say that it occurred during the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. For example, according to Hutchinson & Wolffe (2012), ‘A conventional narrative of evangelical history places the ‘First Great Awakening’ in the late 1730s and 1740s, followed by the ‘Second Great Awakening’ in the 1790s and early 1800s’ (p. 46). Although there were some differences in the characteristics of the First and Second Awakenings, one thing remains constant between them: Evangelicalism has grown in power through the periods.

According to Hankins (2008), ‘the First Great Awakening was a series of revivals that swept across the American colonies, up and down the eastern seaboard, from the 1730s into the 1760s and beyond’ (p. 4). To the Second Great Awakening, although the expansion of missionary activity was somewhat limited, ‘the number of missionaries continued to increase rapidly’ (Amstutz, 2014, p. 49). As Melkonian-Hoover & Kellstedt (2019) pointed out, until the First and Second Great Awakenings, the number of churches in the country dramatically increased (p. 21). Although ‘the revivals of the Second Great Awakening (1800–1835) contributed significantly to the abolitionist movement’ (Hankins, 2008, p. 128), the issue of slavery immediately brought a conflict between the Baptists of South and North. In 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the country's largest Baptist group and one of the largest religious groups, was established in Georgia. The Southern Baptists condemn the Northern anti-slavery beliefs and behavior, since the people in the South were heavily relying on slavery business back then. Despite of this fact, however, the SBC had little by little started to abandon its racial discrimination thoughts, and developed into one of the most diverse Protestant churches in the country today (Encyclopedia Britannica).

In the early twentieth century, according to Amstutz (2014), liberal religious views, based on ‘secularism, modern science, rationalism, and biblical (higher) criticism’, were

5 more dominant in Protestant churches (p. 32), which are later called ‘Mainline Protestant’. There were frequent conflicts between conservative Evangelicals and progressive Evangelicals within the Evangelical community; ‘whereas traditionalists assumed that final authority rested with biblical revelation, the liberal faith was more concerned with reconciling modernity with religious beliefs’ (Amstutz, 2014, p. 32). In 1910, a set of books were released, The Fundamentals, that included the essential elements of Christianity. The series of books critiqued something that undermines orthodoxy, attacking modern science, and tried to preserve core values of traditional Protestant teachings (Amstutz, 2014, p. 32). Subsequently, at the beginning of WW2, American Protestantism had divided into the two large streams: Mainline and Fundamentalist. So then, where is Evangelicalism?

Harold Ockenga, a Boston pastor who had lived through the Fundamentalist side, highly contributed to the development of the idea of ‘Neo-Evangelicalism’. In spite of his career as a Fundamentalist, he was not comfortable with the idea of Fundamentalism, since it did not try to engage its religious beliefs with the world and science, rather it promoted separatism, or anti-intellectual thoughts, and they were quite a rejection of science, according to Vischer (2020). Indeed, the idea behind Fundamentalism seemed to be retreating spiritual ideas which are far from modernity. And then, Ockenga and other Protestant leaders were considering the way of conciliation of its strong religious faith and science whether Fundamentalist and Mainline ideas cannot be somehow combined. Isn’t there another way between the Fundamentalist and Modernism? And they found a way to solve this problem, by integrating the believers and modernity ideas, and named it ‘Neo-Evangelicalism’ (Amstutz, 2014, p. 33). As a result, this Neo- Evangelicalism simply came to be later called ‘Evangelicalism’.

2.2 Evangelicals’ political engagement in the US

The white Evangelicals have come to be a highly significant part of the American political world today, particularly in the 2016 presidential election. For instance, as reported by the Pew Research Center (2018), following the 2016 presidential election, it was discovered that 77 percent of the white Evangelical Protestant electors supported Trump, while 16 percent supported Hillary Clinton (Figure 2). The percentage of the white Evangelicals (77%) is 13% higher than white non-Hispanic Catholics (64%) and 20% higher than white mainline Protestants (57%).

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Figure 2. The voting preferences in the 2016 election were firmly divided based on their religious beliefs (2016). ©Pew Research Center

During June 16-22 in 2020, Lipka & Smith from Pew Research Center conducted a similar survey to ask whether the white Evangelicals would support Trump for the 2020 presidential election (Figure 3). The outcomes showed 82% of the white Evangelicals would vote for Trump or lean toward voting for him. However, for Joe Biden, only 17% of the white Evangelicals said they would vote for him. This survey also shows that there is a 21% difference from the mainline white Protestants (61%) (Lipka & Smith, 2020).

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Figure 3. There was a similar trend that most white Evangelicals would vote for Trump, instead of the Democrat candidate, Biden, in the election 2020 (Lipka & Smith, 2020). ©Pew Research Center

Thus, there is no doubt that the white Evangelicals strongly contributed to the Trump's victory in 2016 (although he lost the 2020 election, there was still strong backing from the white Evangelicals). However, even though former President Trump was not a religious person, why did so many Evangelicals support Trump? As reported by the Pew Research Center (2020), one of the reasons is that there has always been a solid connection between Evangelicals and the Republicans, and the partnership is recently becoming much stronger; the white Evangelical Republican support has drastically increased over the last two decades. In the 1994 elections, 61% of white Evangelicals voted for the Republican party and 31% for the Democratic Party. On the other hand, today, 78% of them support the Republican party and 17% of them support the Democrat party (Figure 4), ‘making them the most solidly Republican major religious grouping in the country’ (Pew Research Center, 2020). In comparison with other religious groups about the support for the Republican Party, it is still obvious that the percentage of white Evangelicals is the highest in 2018/19 (Figure 4).

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Figure 4. Among the white Evangelicals, there has been a slight increase for supporting the Republican Party since 1994 (2018/19). © Pew Research Center

In addition, Trump's continuing popularity among the white Evangelical Protestants, fans of the Republicans, is highly strengthened or balanced by their hostility and displeasure of Joe Biden. The report by the Pew Research Center showed, ‘A large majority of white evangelical Protestants say Biden would make a “poor” (26%) or even “terrible” (49%) president, while 16% say he would make an “average” president. Only 9% of white evangelicals say Biden would be “great” (2%) or “good” (7%) in the Oval Office, compared with seven-in-ten who say Trump has been good (34%) or great (35%) in that role’ (Pew Research Center, 2020).

Therefore, it is obvious that the white Evangelicals' conservative nature (originally Fundamentalist) and Republican support seem to have a strong affinity. According to J.S. Wong (2018), on a variety of political topics, the white Evangelicals are even more traditional than the Asian American, black, and Latin Evangelicals (p. 30). For instance, Wong studied that 20% of the white Evangelicals did not want the US government to

9 spend money on the needy, compared to 13% of the Asian Evangelicals, 9% of Latino Evangelicals, 4% of the black Evangelicals, and about half of the white Evangelicals believed that immigrants cause a bad effect on their economy (p. 24). According to Melkonian-Hoover & Kellstedt (2019), the white Evangelicals see the increase in the number of immigrants as negative, therefore, a large number of the white Evangelical agreed with Trump's anti-immigration attitude (p. 42). Regarding the social welfare policy and wealth tax, the white Evangelicals have more conservative attitudes than nonwhite Evangelicals (J.S. Wong, 2018, p. 30). The Pew Research Center (2014) studied that 83% of the white Evangelicals are conservative, while only 8% of Latino and 4% of Black Evangelicals were conservative. And most importantly, among Evangelicals, there is a certain number of people who are inclined to believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory.

2.3 The present Evangelical leaders

While proclaiming the gospel has been a paramount mission between Evangelical leaders, the contemporary preachers have begun to utilize television, or even Internet as a new missionary tool to reach out to their followers. Behind the recent political attitudes among the white Evangelicals in the US as indicated in the previous chapter, the contributions of the great Evangelists, particularly so-called ‘televangelists’, were obviously indispensable. In this chapter, some Evangelist/televangelists who had a huge impact on the development of today’s US Evangelicals are introduced. Televangelism is a combination of the words: Evangelicalism and television. One of the characteristics of televangelists is that they are often compatible with the idea of Christian fundamentalism. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, televangelical programs are ‘usually hosted by a fundamentalist Protestant minister, who conducts services and often asks for donations’.

First of all, it would not be an overstatement that Billy Graham was one of the greatest American Evangelists in modern history. Billy Graham (1918-2018) grew up on a dairy farm in North Carolina. In 1936, after he became a Christian, he decided to go to Bob Jones College. However, after he studied there one semester, he decided to leave the college, since he realized that its teaching was ‘the extreme fundamentalism’ (Balmer, 2021). As Vischer (2020) pointed out, the education of Bob Jones College, founded by Bob Jones Sr. (1883-1963) in 1927, was highly extremist, which was ‘free of both modernism and Darwinism, and black people’. After he finished studying at the Florida

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Bible Institute (now Trinity college) instead, he enrolled at Wheaton college. In 1943, he met Ruth Bell, and got married with her (Balmer, 2021).

As an Evangelist, Graham gave a considerable impact on the US Evangelical community until his death in 2018. For example, as reported by the Lifeway Research (2018), an Evangelical research firm, there were approximately 2.2 billion people who heard his teaching through broadcasts and films. From the 1950s forward, as a televangelist, Billy Graham's television programs incredibly helped him to become internationally recognized (Encyclopedia Britannica). Furthermore, Graham preached the gospel to almost 225 million at live events. According to the estimate, the total number of individuals who attended his crusades and accepted his invitations to become a Christian were about 2.2 million. During his missionary work, it is said that he visited 185 countries. Although he used to be an apolitical Evangelist (King, 2017, p. 129), his political commitment was enormous. According to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (2021), an institution that supports and extends the Evangelistic calling and ministry of Franklin Graham, he was an advisor of spiritual guidance for every president from Harry S. Truman (33rd President of the US) through Donald Trump (45th President).

Franklin Graham (born in 1952) is also the one who is imperative in understanding contemporary Evangelists. As a son of Billy Graham, Franklin Graham is widely regarded as one of the finest Evangelical preachers in the history of the US (Scribner, 2015). As the President and CEO of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, he has guided crusades all over the globe. In addition to the missionary work as an Evangelist, he is extensively interested in charitable activities as well. For example, Graham serves as President of Samaritan's Purse that has helped impoverished, ill, and suffering people in over 100 countries. According to the website of Samaritan’s Purse, ‘Franklin Graham has devoted his life to meeting the needs of people around the world and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ’ (Graham’s Profile). Graham also frequently talks about difficulties that people recently encounter in society, and urges his followers to aid those who have had a crisis (Scribner, 2015). When he preaches the gospel and talks to his followers, social media is a necessary tool. As of 15th June, 2021, Graham has almost 10 million Facebook followers, over 2.3 million Twitter followers, and over 1.2 million Instagram followers. He posts every day, frequently referring to Bible phrases, and his posts are seen and shared by his millions of followers. Hence, his impact on the community is tremendous.

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Pat Robertson is a televangelist, broadcaster, educator, and former Southern Baptist pastor who is well-known for his conservative Christian beliefs. He serves as the chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) which airs his show, The 700 Club, and the president and CEO of Regent University. For the 1988 US presidential election, he was one of the former Republican presidential candidates. According to Sonmez & Bailey (2020), from the Washington Post, Robertson played a key role in the development of the ‘religious right’ between 1980s and 1990s, and he has maintained a strong presence among religious conservatives for many years. He is indeed famous for his contentious opinions during his show. For example, according to a website of CBS News, Pat Robertson Controversies (2010), Pat Robertson invited Jerry Falwell, a fellow televangelist, to The 700 Club, two days after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Falwell claimed that God permitted the assaults because of ‘moral decay’ of people, which derives from ideas like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), abortionists, feminists, and homosexuals. Robertson agreed with his idea. After Trump's presidency started in January 2017, Robertson argued that people who were rebelling against him were in fact blaspheming against God as well (Sonmez & Bailey, 2020).

Paula White is also one of the most prominent televangelists. When she was 18, she experienced conversion (born-again) (Carter, 2019). She used to be Trump's spiritual advisor. Under Trump's administration, White played an important role to obtain support for votes from Evangelicals in the country. According to Peters & Dias (2019), from the New York Times, ‘Her new role gives her a formal seat at the table as Mr. Trump tries to ensure that evangelicals — the foundation of his political base — remain united behind him in his bid to win a second term’. When Trump made a political decision, he always had the utmost confidence in the White's advisory ability. For example, according to Glenza (2019), a journalist in the Guardian, ‘White coordinates meetings with faith leaders at the White House and with the Office of the Public Liaison on various humanitarian issues, including the Venezuelan crisis... She has advised on specific policies such as the US embassy in Israel’s move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem (she told Trump: “You’re making the right decision, sir”)’.

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3. What is QAnon?

Since 2017, there has been a mysterious and incomprehensive phenomenon on the Internet, which is called ‘QAnon’. ‘Q’ was chosen one of The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet by TIME in 2018; ‘thousands of people started to believe them - or at least, to acknowledge they might be real’. Although an ‘anon’ generally means someone who posts online without using their name, ‘anons’ is used to refer to both the ‘person or people who make the QAnon posts and the people who read and decipher them’ (Rothschild, 2019). Here in the chapter, we look into the origin of QAnon, who Q is and who the believers of Q are.

The nickname Q (QAnon: Q+Anonymous) comes from Q clearance, the US Energy Department security clearance, which suggests that Q has a certain connection with one of the highest national security clearances granting access to top secret information and documents such as nuclear weapons (Dictionary.com). As Garry, Walther, Mohamed & Mohammed (2021), the co-authors of QAnon Conspiracy Theory, pointed out, ‘Followers believe that QAnon is not one singular individual, but a small group of high- ranking military and intelligence officials with Q-level security clearances working directly with former President Trump’ (p. 156).

The origin of Q is closely linked to the conspiracy theory the ‘Storm’ in which Trump was involved. As Coaston (2020), a senior politics reporter in the Vox Media, explained, the origin of Q dates back to October 28, 2017, when one of the first posts was found from an account nicknamed Q on the 4chan message board /pol/, meaning Politically incorrect. The title of thread was called ‘Calm Before the Storm’. On October 5, 2017, Trump was attending a military dinner, having said ‘maybe the calm before the storm’ to one of the presses (Pastoor, 2020). Then, on October 28, Q posted a series of cryptic messages titled ‘Calm Before the Storm’, following the Trump’s phrase, which implies the Storm would take place soon. According to Q, Trump is covertly fighting against secret cabals such as ‘deep state’, ‘Robert Mueller’, ‘the Clintons’, ‘pedophile rings’, and so on (J.C. Wong, 2018). These figures will be soon executed. Trump is believed to bring justice to them; this series of punishment is called the Storm.

However, the entity of Q is still mysterious. According to Francescani (2020), Q ‘remains unknown whether the “Q drops” are authored by one or several people or

13 whether they live within or outside the U.S., burnishing the mystique at the heart of the phenomenon’. Q drops are meant a series of messages on 4chan. Some of Trump’s supporters even think that he is Q — ‘though others think it’s John F. Kennedy Jr., who they believe faked his 1999 death. When Trump spoke at Mount Rushmore this past Fourth of July, some QAnon believers were convinced that the occasion would mark JFK Jr.’s return’ (Coaston, 2020).

The idea of QAnon has now widely disseminated and gained a lot of popularity especially among those who support far-right political thoughts in the US. According to QAnon believers, there are Satan-worshipping pedophiles in the government, media, and financial sectors in the US, and they are plotting to control the country’s administration behind the scenes. According to Roose (2021), from The New York Times, QAnon is ‘the umbrella term’, indicating ‘a set of internet conspiracy theories... that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles’. For the QAnon believers, this ‘cabal’, a secret political group, includes variety of figures such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Soros, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, Ellen DeGeneres, Pope Francis, and even the Dalai Lama (Roose, 2021).

Believers in QAnon conclude that this conflict would proceed to ‘a day of judgment’, in which famous figures such as Hillary Clinton will be convicted and executed (Wendling, 2021). In order to understand the idea of QAnon, QAnon: An Invitation to The Great Awakening (2019) is a useful book, which was written by twelve self- proclaimed prominent scholars from the QAnon group who support QAnon, and compiled by the chief editor called WWG1WGA . As Chandler (2020), a researcher of QAnon, pointed out, QAnon: An Invitation to The Great Awakening is the book that ‘introduced the reader to the organization’s worldview and provided context to some of the ideas that became key elements of QAnon’s purpose’ (Chandler, 2020, p. 18). In other words, it is a kind of useful guidebook of QAnon for the followers written by the Q supporters. Within the book, the writers employed a variety of names in order to characterize QAnon's collective opponents such as ‘criminals’, the ‘cabal’, ‘satan- worshipers’, ‘pedophiles’, the ‘deep state’, and so on (Chandler, 2020, p. 18). For example;

One of the subjects that Q talks about in many posts is the prevalence of child and human trafficking and other forms of human rights abuse. Whether it is the sexual exploitation by pedophiles, child pornography, ritual abuse, human sacrifices, organ

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harvesting, and related crimes including kidnapping, slavery, murder and blackmail, the Deep State and many of the power elites in government, Hollywood, leadership in many corporations, the media, religious institutions and even charities are very much involved. QAnon followers are dedicated to the eradication of the exploitation of women and children and under Trump's leadership the number or arrests of criminals involved in these crimes have increased dramatically. It is also anticipated that many of the nearly 80,000 indictments that are currently sealed are for those who are involved in various forms of human rights abuse including the exploitation of children. Q has been willing to put the spotlight on many topics and crimes that the legacy mainstream media ignores, attempts to discredit or even participates in. (WWGlWGA, 2019, p. 189)

According to the book, QAnon or Q supporters claim that cabals, commanded by Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, and the country of Saudi Arabia, plan to destroy the US, which is called ‘the elites’ 16-year plan’ (WWG1WGA, 2019, p. 46). Elites such as Obama and Hillary plot to ‘destroy the economy, eliminate the Electoral College, decimate the military, and take away the Second Amendment’. Besides, ‘Population control would be implemented worldwide’, ‘Borders opened, ‘The government would control the media, silencing the opposition’, ‘The Supreme Court would be seated with globalists’, and ‘The end would culminate with World War III’. Finally, ‘The global elites' goal is an end to monogamy, God- given genders, and normal procreation’ (p. 47).

However, such theories of QAnon are already debunked as a conspiracy theory, which is called a ‘digital cult’: ‘pseudo-religious qualities and an extreme belief system that enthrones President Donald Trump as a savior figure crusading against evil’ (Boomey, 2020). For example, the Storm, as the Q drops indicated in 2017, did not take place. Although there was a riot in the US capitol in January, 2021, to stop the inauguration of Joe Biden becoming president, Trump had to leave the White house and the Storm did not come (Griffin, 2021). Facebook also removed contents and suspended accounts that were suspected of spreading false information regarding QAnon; they were engaged in ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’ (Muncaster, 2020). Those contents ‘mislead people about who they are and what they are doing while relying on fake accounts’.

So, who are the Q believers? Although, according to Shanahan (2021), a researcher of mass media effects, it is very difficult to say how many people accept QAnon's main

15 arguments; ‘devil-worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles are somehow running the world’ and so on, it seems that the followers have a certain common view regarding their political party preference. According to a survey conducted by the online polling firm Civiqs (2020), for example, 56 percent of Republicans believe in QAnon. Statistically, the 56 percent of Republicans who believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory accounts for 14% of the population. In addition, on 26th May, 2021, a survey named, Understanding QAnon’s Connection to American Politics, Religion, and Media

Consumption, was conducted by the Public Religion Research institute (PRRI) in order to investigate the religious demographic characteristics. According to the survey result, compared to other religious groups, Latino Protestants (26 percent), white Evangelical Protestants (25 percent), and other Protestants of color (24 percent) are more likely than other religious groups to believe that the US is controlled by a group of Satan- worshipping pedophiles who run an international child-sexual trafficking operation (PRRI, 2021).

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4. Methodology

Based on the foregoing, this thesis seeks to answer the following research question; why do white Evangelicals believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory? In order to come to an answer to the research question, a digital ethnographic research was conducted in the next chapter 5.

According to Boughton (n.d.), the director of Angelfish Fieldwork (a qualitative fieldwork agency), digital ethnography is one of the study methods to observe and analyze individuals ‘in their natural environment by using digital technology’. As Varis (2014) also explained, ‘Digitalisation and online communications provide researchers with unprecedented opportunities for accessing and examining people’s communicative repertoires’ (p. 2). Therefore, in order to understand the nature of how people interact and make a discourse on a specific topic, digital ethnography would be a useful procedure. During a digital ethnographic research, various websites, postings on social media, YouTube videos and comments, or blogging can be a subject of research. In digital ethnography, researchers are able to observe their natural behavior and thoughts, since participants do completely act independently without any interfering by a third party. Furthermore, by conducting an ‘in-the-moment’ research, researchers could get insights from the participants in real-time (Boughton, n.d.). Therefore, in studying the current phenomena such as QAnon conspiracy theory that has developed online, digital ethnography must be a necessary approach.

In execute my study and find information, I looked into various keywords. For example, Vischer (2020) provided a brief commentary about the origin of Evangelicalism (and Neo-evangelicalism) via his YouTube video, which also explains the fundamentalist- modernist controversy. In order to grasp the current number of Evangelicals in the US, various polls were referred, which were available online. Several websites were also used to comprehend the idea of Evangelicalism. A website of NAE, for example, provides the basic idea of what Evangelicals are supposed to do like born-again. According to numerous websites (e.g., Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), the political of Evangelists/televangelists on today’s US politics was tremendous. Besides, there are variety of articles that analyze the origin of Q and QAnon; most of them already considered it as a conspiracy theory. In the next chapter 5, the results are divided in the following themes: anti-child trafficking view, the Bible and QAnon narratives, Spiritual warfare, and its political impact.

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5. Evangelicals and QAnon believers

5.1 Anti-child trafficking view

One of the reasons why Evangelicals strongly worship the QAnon conspiracy theory is because they are strongly pro-life; they strongly advocate ideas of anti-child trafficking and anti-abortions. In history, Evangelical leaders have appealed to God to cure abortion and sex slavery in the country. Indeed, many Evangelical activists are motivated by the need to ‘save’ children, whether by adoption, anti-trafficking advocacy, or resistance to abortion (Ohlheiser, 2020). Therefore, it can be said that the ideas of Evangelicalism and Feminism have surprisingly been compatible with each other. According to Petrosky (2020), ‘In the mid-to-late 1990s, advocacy against sex trafficking was taken up by strange bedfellows: evangelicals and certain groups of second-wave feminists’. For the QAnon believers, likewise, they support similar ideas, however, the idea of what they believe is more extreme; they ‘believe that a shadowy cabal kidnaps children, tortures them and uses their blood in satanic rituals’ (Caldwell, Shapiro, Jarenwattananon & Venkat, 2021). Their mission is, of course, to save the children. As a result, according to Stankorb (2021), ‘there were natural affinities between evangelical rhetoric and QAnon’. For example, Figure 5 shows that one of the fans of Franklin Graham, @GraceZiem, implies that Joe Biden indirectly helps the child trafficking institution called ‘Child Protective Services’ in California. According to this individual, the service is officially recognized as a Pedo-traffic service that has allowed a lot of children to enter the US.

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Figure 5. A fan of Franklin Graham believes Joe Biden administers a child-trafficking service in California (2021). ©Twitter

Among Q believers, it is a widely acknowledged fact that politicians, especially leftists, are involved in child-trafficking industries. Colley (2019), one of the co-authors of QAnon: An invitation to The great awakenings, considers one of the most unforgivable things is sexual exploitation, specifically: child-trafficking. He alleges ‘the purest of pure evil… is the kidnapping, torture, raping, and sacrificing of children’ (p. 36). Those who commit these crimes are ‘Luciferians and Satan-worshippers’, he calls. Colley presumes there is a secret institution somehow facilitating child-trafficking service in the country as @GraceZiem (Figure 5) pointed out. He thinks, ‘they run pedophile networks across continents, through the Vatican, and underneath the cover of charities and child protective services’ (Colley, 2019, p. 36). Besides, ‘according to Q... the Clinton Foundation, and John McCain's foundation are heavily involved in the trafficking’ (p. 42). In the book, there is another chapter that mentions child-trafficking, which is a chapter titled Human Compromise: The Currency of the Powerful (p. 189) written by Westall. This chapter is based on an interview of Westall with Detective Rothstein who ‘was given unprecedented free reign and an unlimited budget to figure out how the child and prostitution trafficking networks work in the United States and

19 across the world’ (Westall, 2019, p. 189). According to Rothstein, Trump is the one who handles the issue. He believes ‘Trump is currently dismantling this network and soon big announcements will be made that will take down the evilest practices ever to exist in human history’ (p. 190).

The anti-child trafficking discourse that Q followers have is originally linked to the ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy theory. Here is the belief explanation of what Pizzagate conspiracy was (Figure 6). A month before the 2016 election, Wikileaks published emails which was stolen from the account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. The emails included words like ‘pizza’ and ‘Tony Podesta’, John’s lobbyist brother. A user on 4chan found the connection between ‘cheese pizza’ and ‘child pornography’ (‘c.p.’) via the message. And then, the Pizzagate conspiracy theorists claim ‘child trafficking’ is covertly ran by members of Democrats, since James Alefantis, an owner of the Washington pizza restaurant Comet Ping Pong had ties to Democratic operatives. This fake story finally disseminated on social media, taking hashtags like #PizzaGate and memes.

Figure 6. In the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, Hillary Clinton was seen as one of the main actors (Aisch, Huang & Kank, 2016). ©The New York Times

Although Pizzagate is already debunked as a conspiracy theory, Pizzagate belivers still claim ‘Hillary Clinton and her top aides were involved in various crimes… that they were running a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza parlor’ (Aisch, Huang & Kank, 2016). For example, WWG1WGA, one of the QAnon followers and a chief

20 editor of QAnon: An invitation to The great awakenings (2019) says ‘A pedophilia sex cult allegedly involving Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington DC. Despite the fact that Wikipedia (controlled opposition) claims it has been debunked, stay tuned. More to come’ (p. 262). Indeed, the conspiracy theorists think that ‘Hillary Clinton would be extradited and arrested for her involvement in a child sex trafficking ring’ (Garry, 2021, p. 157). As a result, Hillary Clinton is regarded to be one of their most dangerous enemies.

In 2020, #SaveTheChildren became a trend on Twitter, which was not a coincidence. It is indeed an undeniable fact that child-trafficking is one of the most serious social issues that we currently face. As reported by the International Labour Organization, an estimated 40.3 million individuals are enslaved across the world today, with about a quarter of them being children (2017). However, as Petrosky points out, the rise of interest in #SaveTheChildren was not simply being driven by the fact that there are many sex-slaved children in the world. Rather, it was being driven by the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that D.C. pizza joints are involved in child-trafficking by leftists such as Hillary Clinton (Petrosky, 2020). Hence, it can be said that the hashtag #SaveTheChildren, originally created in July 30 (the World day against Trafficking in Persons) was hijacked by those who believed the Pizzagate scandal was a real incident. Even worse, along with the #SaveTheChildren movement on Twitter, mainly being driven by the conspiracy theorists, the notorious hashtags such as #pizzagate and #WWG1WWGA were also appeared. As the meme in Figure 7 beautifully illustrates, it is clear that their mission is to protect children from rapists, pedophiles, and Satanic- worshippers.

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Figure 7. Q believers strongly consider they are a savor of children #SaveTheChildren (n.d.). ©Instagram

5.2 The Bible and QAnon narratives

According to the survey result conducted by the PRRI in 2021, already mentioned in the previous chapter, it turned out that the white American Evangelicals are one of the denominations who are more likely to believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory than any other religious community (25% of the Evangelicals believe in QAnon.) But why? Do the QAnon believers and Evangelicals have something in common? In this chapter, I explore the parallels between QAnon followers and Evangelicals, as well as why Evangelicals believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory through digital ethnographic research. One thing for sure is that there is a clear link between the Bible, especially the New Testament, and the QAnon conspiracy theory. Q believers often refer to some Bible teachings. Ari Shapiro, a journalist in the NPR (National Public Radio), conducted an interview about QAnon with Katelyn Beaty, a writer and theologian. According to Beaty (2020), Q believers ‘are picking up on the overt spiritual language that Q, whoever that is, is using in his messages on the Internet, and they see that as connecting directly to the Bible, to the God of Christianity and to God's hand at work in the world. So they see the QAnon messages as revealing truth in the world and that they are supposed to take up a spiritual battle to reveal truth’ (Shapiro, 2020).

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The Christian notion of fighting against the work of supernatural evil powers is known as spiritual battle or spiritual warfare. Among Evangelicals, it is believed that God and the evil somehow fight against each other in order to seize the Kingdom. As Murphy (1996) indicated, conservative Evangelical theologians and Bible teachers often teach the followers that they will witness the ‘the day of the final conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of evil’ (Murphy, 1996, p. 5). In other words, God fights Satan on our side in spiritual warfare, and we are supposed to be the beneficiaries of his victory. Above all, God has a mission to reign the Kingdom of God so that Satan and demons cannot create their Kingdom any longer. As Boyd (2001) argued and referred to the Bible, Jesus came to us ‘destroy the works of the devil’ (1 John 3:8) as well as to build the Kingdom of God on earth (Boyd, 2001, p. 36). The notion of the Kingdom of God is indeed often cited by Q believers. In a YouTube video titled Evangelical Elites React to Q Anon (2020), Jon, the YouTuber, talks about the attraction and reaction to the QAnon conspiracy by mentioning the relationship between Evangelical leaders and QAnon. Under the video, there are over 200 comments. For example, one of the Q believers (Figure 8) explains that Q or Cue is a kind of sign of God, telling us something taking place all around today. It believes Q is an indication of shining, conveying a message that the Sovereignty of God takes God to the Kingdom.

Figure 8. The individual believes there is a relationship between QAnon and the idea of God (2020). ©YouTube

This Q believer thinks the Sovereignty of God is a way to achieve His goal, which will finally bring Him into the Kingdom. According to Frame, a professor of systematic theology and philosophy emeritus at Reformed Theological Seminary in Florida, although the word ‘sovereignty’ is not often used in modern Bible translations, it

23 symbolizes ‘an important biblical concept’ (Frame, n.d.). God's sovereignty means that he is the Lord of the creation; he exerts his dominion as a sovereign. This reign is practiced by ‘God’ authority as king’ (Frame). In other words, he controls all things, with ‘his presence’ and his people, and ‘throughout his creation’. The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians is also a popular chapter among the believers. According to Murphy, Ephesians 6:10–20 is one of the most well-known passages in the Bible. The co- authored book, QAnon: An Invitation to The Great Awakening, cites the verse from Ephesians 6:12; ‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and power-rulers of the darkness of his world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Ephesians 6:12’ (WWG1WGA, 2019, p. 47).

As Murphy (1996) points out, the verses of Ephesians illustrate that ‘Paul is bringing together all of his warfare teachings’ (p, 203). In the verses, although the apostle Paul is not dealing with demonization, he is writing about the battle between the Devil and God (p. 203). As stated in the book of QAnon: An Invitation to The Great Awakening, Q is well recognized as a devout believer of the Bible. The Bible passages have been interspersed throughout the Q postings, and Q has repeatedly asked readers to pray for the nation and for President Donald Trump (Colley, 2019, p. 48). Among Q conspiracy theorists, Trump is often referred to as a hero or savior of the nation. The individual (Figure 9) below suggests that Q is a symbol of knowledge, tenet and science, and Q often refers to Ephesians 6, and highlighting verse 12, in order to figure out ‘the nature of intelligent life in our Universe’. According to this person, the message is not metaphysical, but is supposed to be understood literally.

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Figure 9. For the Q believer, Q leads to the truth, by referring to Ephesians 6 (2019).

Besides, the Tweet from @Kabamur_Taygeta (Figure 9) refers to the Armor of God. The term ‘Armor of God’ is often used among the Q followers to describe their belief of metaphysical warfare. The word Armor of God comes from Ephesians 6:11, which says, ‘Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil’ (Bible Hub). This means, by wearing the spiritual Armor of God, you will be able to overcome the Evil in order to fulfill all your goals and stand on your own two feet. Under the YouTube video, Evangelical Elites React to Q Anon, one of the Q believers called Andy Harris (Figure 10) indicates the relationship between Q and the Bible teaching. This individual says that Q actually indicates the existence of a spiritual battle between good and evil. This person claims that his/her relationship with God has been even reinforced because of the Q, and Q strengthens the Armor of God in order to fight back the evil.

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Figure 10. This Q believer implies that Spiritual battle good vs evil takes place (2020). ©YouTube

This next individual (Figure 11) also refers to the Armor of God from the Ephesians 6:10, implying the presence of the spiritual battle, and urges the necessity to prepare for it. Interestingly, he uses the hashtag ‘#WWG1WGA’ (Where We Go One, We Go All) which is a very popular slogan among the Q believers. Although WWG1WGA, the mysterious statement, has been a movement on Twitter for a few years, no one can say for certain who was the first to think of the slogan (Mustafa, 2020). By using the hashtag #WWG1WGA, although it is one of the functions of hashtags in general, the ties of the group were visualized and even made stronger among them. According to the WWGIWGA, the chief editor of the QAnon: An Invitation to The Great Awakening, ‘We know all about that working together idea. We call it “Where We Go One We Go All." So, that's who we are as a team: WWG 1 WGA. The reality that we share the same future encourages us to work together’ (WWGIWGA, 2019, p. 1).

Figure 11. This post may strengthen the ties among the believes by using the hashtag #WWG1WGA (2021). ©YouTube

5.3 Spiritual warfare

Among the Q believers, the analysis above showed that they frequently refer to some phrases and verses from the Bible such as the ‘Armor of God’ in the Ephesians and the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Satan and so on. They do not really say that Q is 26 equivalent to God, however, they think Q has a strong connection to God. For Evangelicals as well as the Q believers, it is also a common view that Satan really exists, and the world is actually in the spiritual battle between God and Satan. According to research by Barna, an Evangelical Christian polling firm, 98% of Evangelicals believe that ‘Satan is a living being, not merely a symbol of evil’ (Barna, 2017). For Evangelicals, therefore, the logic of spiritual warfare is an essential part of them. As Hain (2016) pointed out, Evangelism is ‘all about spiritual warfare’ (p. 72). According to him, it is the responsibility of those who are devoted to following Jesus to disseminate his good news all over the world. While they are spreading the gospel message and deeply understanding the teachings of what Jesus told, ‘a review of the story of Jesus reveals a clear spiritual warfare worldview present that demands to be adopted by all who follow Him’. This means, all Evangelicals who dedicate themselves to the Bible have a certain responsibility to join the battle. Based on the statement of what the Bible teaches us, we must acknowledge that spiritual warfare between God and Satan is actually taking place, which is ‘being played out within the life of Jesus and all of those who follow Him’ (Hain, 2016, p. 72).

In order to understand the teachings of the Bible, especially for the New Testament, Satan is one of the most important figures. Within the New Testament, Satan is simply depicted as an enemy of God and people. According to Encyclopedia Britannica (Satan and the origin of evil), Satan - the Devil, Belial, or Beelzebub - appears as the personification of evil throughout the Bible, namely in the New Testament. Satan ‘is the accuser, the evil one, the tempter, the old snake, the great dragon, the prince of this world, and the god of this world, who seeks to hinder the establishment of God’s dominion through the life and suffering of Jesus Christ’. In sum, Satan is the entity that prevents God from creating his Kingdom. As a devout follower of Jesus, McCall (n.d.), who believes we are in the midst of a spiritual battle, explains what the spiritual battle looks like in his blog. According to McCall, we have to distinguish it from the physical battle conducted by the nations and governments to spread their territory. These political entities simply wage a war, based on their political and economic interests. Rather, ‘spiritual warfare is the battle for control over people’s souls’ (McCall, n.d.). In these spiritual battles, Satan strives to impede people from discovering and placing their trust in God. Although techniques that Satan uses for the battle might be different, the enemy's ultimate goal is to block people from feeling ‘the love of God’ (McCall, n.d.). More specifically, when Satan wins the battle, people are no longer able to experience what God teaches us. The world without love might look like a dystopian world. This is

27 why we must strive to fight against Satan in spiritual warfare. Franklin Graham (Figure 12) is one of the most prominent Evangelists in the US as previously indicated in chapter 2.3; it turns out that he has made significant contributions to the dissemination of this idea. He tells that ‘the enemy’ really exists and we are in the metaphysical battle by referring to his father’s speech.

Figure 12. Franklin Graham frequently implies the entity of spiritual warfare (2016). ©Twitter

He often posts his ideas such as Satan and Spiritual warfare on Twitter, by referring to phrases of the Bible, and this is the trait that distinguishes him the most from other preachers. For example, according to his Tweet (Figure 13), Satan is a real entity. He indicates the verse of the Bible, Revelation 20:10, which illustrates that Satan finally lost the battle and burned to death in the fire. A Tweet from @juststeve48 (Figure 13) replies and also implies that real Satan exists. It says Satan consumes people who do not wear the Armour of God. In other words, unless you put on the Armour, you will be defeated by Satan.

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Figure 13. Towards the Franklin’s post, one of his fans claims that Satan really exists (2019). ©Twitter

Since Franklin Graham has millions of followers on his social media accounts (chapter 2.3), it is undeniable that he has a significant impact on the Evangelical community in the US. Accordingly, there are a lot of Graham’s fans who believe that the US is actually in the midst of a Spiritual battle between Good and Evil (Figure 14). Towards a Graham’s Instagram post (2021), some followers wrote comments regarding the spiritual battle. This story of the country fighting the spiritual battle is, therefore, very popular among Graham's fans.

Figure 14. They think the country is in Spiritual war (2021). © Instagram

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5.4 Political impact

So far, the idea of spiritual battle was only discussed in a theological sense; Franklin Graham does not directly mention the battle from the viewpoint of politics. In fact, however, the idea of spiritual warfare is also highly political. For example, according to the Tweet from @john14458876 (Figure 15), all Evangelicals and Republicans are supposed to vote for Trump, since ‘Trump fights like hell for me, and now its time for me (us) to stand up and fight like hell for him!’ (@RonMilnerBoodle). Anyone who disagrees with this view might been seen as a devil.

Figure 15. Evangelicals who do not support Trump are same as the devil (2020). ©Twitter

Below is another Tweet (Figure 16) that mentions Jesus actually voted for Trump, and Jesus played a significant role in today’s politics. The QAnon conspiracy is widely known that its believers claim that former President Trump was conducting a covert war on Satan-worshipping pedophile. Likewise, as indicated previously, 98% of Evangelicals believe that ‘Satan is a living being, not merely a symbol of evil’. As a Tweet from @RamonSalazar (already suspended account) points out, many Evangelical Christians are supposed to vote for Trump, since God will let Trump win and God is with Republicans. @RamonSalazar also believes that Trump was chosen by Jesus Christ and the holy ghost. Therefore, as long as Trump is elected again, the US will be saved by God. On the other hand, when Joe Biden wins the election, the US will be destroyed by these leftists and Satan.

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Figure 16. Leftists who vote for Biden will destroy the country (2020). ©Twitter

Besides, there are a lot of arguments that spiritual warfare is closely linked to politics. For example, in an article Christian Pastor Claims Biden Surrounded By ‘Demonic Hedge of Protection’ (2021), there is an individual who claims that the spiritual battle is indeed connected to political circumstances. The comment (Figure 17) below implies one of the core ideas of Evangelicalism; once you experience born-again, you will be permitted to have an individual relationship with Jesus (in Chapter 2). Unless you recognize Jesus as your personal Savior, you will go to hell where you will be reunited with Satan and his evil legions. On the other hand, when you are saved, pray in the name of Jesus Christ to shatter the foe's monopoly on the Socialist Democratic Party.

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Figure 17. Unless you pray and experience born-again, you would not be saved by God, you are supposed to go to hell, and fight back against Democrat Socialists (2021). ©Newsweek

There is another important figure that influences the Evangelical community, by mentioning that the country is indeed in the Spiritual battle against leftist Satan.

Figure 18. Pat Robertson strongly believes leftists like Bernie Sanders or AOC secretly control the world (2020). ©Twitter

Pat Robertson (Figure 18) is also the one who disseminates the thoughts that ‘socialists’ such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) plot to destroy the country, and they are a member of cabals. He claimed in the show, The 700 Club; ‘We will not surrender our nation, we will not give up this great country, and Satan, you cannot have it, in the name of Jesus’. He asks the audience to pray to God, because ‘it is not over yet’. Robertson thinks Satan ‘wants to turn this nation over to socialism’.

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‘These socialists want to control everything’, he concluded (Twitter, 2020). Because of his show, there would be certain amount of people who accept his ideas -socialists like Satan do manipulate the worlds - without questioning. According to Stroop (2020), indeed, ‘Those who grew up being taught that reality is shaped by “spiritual warfare” will instantly recognize Robertson’s language of “binding demons.” When applied to politics, such thinking is clearly incompatible with democracy’ (Stoop, 2020).

Paula White, a former Trump’s spiritual advisor, also contributes to develop the spiritual discourse. As Brumfield-Hessen (2020) points out, her view of ‘spiritual warfare’ is not merely an exaggeration. White truly believes that there is a spiritual battle, which leads to her apocalyptic view. When she condemned ‘spirits of Jezebel’ who opposed Trump in 2016, she assaulted women who were against Trump, and she connected with the opponents as the demons in spiritual warfare. She thinks the president's opponents are led by ‘territorial demons’. Although she did not have any influence to make Trump a Christian, ‘she has certainly converted many Christians to Trumpism and spread the neo-charismatic influence into mainstream spaces’ (Brumfield-Hessen, 2020).

So far, we have looked at pro-QAnon conspiracy theorists. Still, there are also a lot of discussions on the assumption why Evangelicals tend to believe in QAnon from those who are very critical of the QAnon conspiracy theory. For example, on the Reddit thread about the article titled White Evangelicals Are More Likely to Believe in QAnon Than Any Other Faith Group, Poll Finds (2021), as one of the anonymous Reddit users named TheRavingRaccoon (Figure 19) points out, the way both QAnon believers and Evangelicals follow Jesus has many similarities. For instance, both of them are supposed to follow their teachings not based on a scientific manner, instead on spiritual faith such as the narrative of Spiritual warfare between Satan and God takes place. Secondly, both members tend to create their enemy. By making up a clear enemy - Satan -, they can easily strengthen their unity as they showed their unity by using #WWG1WGA on social media. Finally, both members do swear loyalty, but it is not from something coming from inside, rather, they feel kind of a peer pressure to be acknowledged as a member of the community. For these reasons above, it seems that both Evangelicals and Q supporters have a lot in common with one another.

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Figure 19. There are many similarities between Q believers and Evangelicals (2021). ©Reddit

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6. Overview of outcomes: why do Evangelicals believe in QAnon?

According to the poll, conducted May, 2021, it turned out that a quarter of white American Evangelicals believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory; the elite Satan- worshipping pedophiles who dominate the major realms in the United States, including the media, government, and finance, operate a worldwide child sex trafficking network. Based on the research, there are several reasons why Evangelicals believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory, and QAnon believes in the teaching of Evangelicalism.

First of all, there has been a solid connection between Evangelicals and the Republicans. On a variety of political topics, the white Evangelicals are even more traditional than the Asian American, black, and Latinx Evangelicals. For example, it was found out that 20% of the white Evangelicals did not want the US government to spend money on the needy, compared to 13% of the Asian Americans, 9% of Latinx, and 4% of black Evangelicals. About half of the white Evangelicals believed that immigrants cause a bad effect on their economy. The white Evangelicals see the increase in the number of immigrants as negative, therefore, a large number of the white Evangelical agreed with Trump's anti-immigration attitude. In addition, regarding the social welfare policy and wealth tax, the white Evangelicals have conservative attitude than nonwhite Evangelicals. Finally, data showed that 83% of white Evangelicals are conservative, while 8% of Latino Evangelicals and 4% of Black Evangelicals were conservative.

Secondly, one of the reasons why Evangelicals do strongly worship the QAnon conspiracy theory is because they are strong pro-life. Both Evangelicals and QAnon believes strongly advocate ideas of anti-child trafficking and anti-abortions. For the QAnon believers, the idea of what they believe is more extreme though; they believe that a shadowy cabal kidnaps children, tortures them and uses their blood in satanic rituals. Evangelical leaders also appeal to God to cure abortion and sex slavery in America. As well as QAnon believers, many Evangelical activists are motivated by the need to ‘save’ the children, whether by adoption, anti-trafficking advocacy, or resistance to abortion. Interestingly, Evangelicals and certain groups of second-wave Feminists had a common interest to a certain extent. In 2020, Pizzagate believers hijacked the movement of #SaveTheChildren on Twitter. Therefore, it can be said that they have a certain similarity when it comes to pro-life arguments. During the digital ethnographic research, it turned out that one of the fans of Franklin Graham believed that Joe Biden

35 indirectly helped the child trafficking institution called ‘Child Protective Services’ in California. According to this individual, the service is officially recognized as a Pedo- traffic service that has allowed a lot of children to enter the US.

Thirdly, Q believers often refer to some verses and phrases from the Bible. Q believers pick up on the overt spiritual language that Q is using in his messages on the Internet. They see the QAnon messages as revealing truth in the world. They are supposed to take up a spiritual battle to reveal truth. For example, one of the Q believers explains that Q is a kind of sign of God, telling us something taking place all around today. It believes Q is an indication of shining, conveying a message that the Sovereignty of God takes God to the Kingdom. Besides, the Q believers also refer to the Armor of God. The term ‘Armor of God’ is often used among the Q followers to describe their belief of a metaphysical warfare. The word Armor of God comes from Ephesians 6:11, which says, ‘Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil’. This means, by wearing the spiritual Armor of God, you will be able to overcome the Evil in order to fulfill all your goals and stand on your own two feet. It was found out that, among the believers, Q actually indicates the existence of a spiritual battle between God and Satan. One of the Q believers claims that his/her relationship with God has been even reinforced because of the Q, and Q strengthens the Armor of God in order to fight back the evil.

Fourthly, according to the Evangelical Christian polling (2017), 98% of Evangelicals believe that Satan is a living being, not merely a symbol of evil. For Evangelicals, therefore, the logic of ‘Spiritual warfare’ is an essential part of them. As Hain (2016) pointed out, Evangelism is ‘all about spiritual warfare’. Among the Q believers, there were many people who believe that there is a spiritual battle between God and Satan. Franklin Graham is one of the most prominent Evangelists in the US, for example, and he has made significant contributions to the dissemination of this idea. He tells his followers that ‘the enemy’ really exists, and we are in a metaphysical battle by referring to his father’s speech. Besides, he often posts his ideas such as Satan and Spiritual warfare via his social media, by referring to phrases of the Bible. For example, according to his Tweet (Figure 13), Satan is a real entity. He indicates the verse of the Bible, Revelation 20:10, which illustrates that Satan finally lost the battle and burned to death in the fire. Accordingly, there are a lot of Graham’s fans who start to believe that the US is actually in the midst of a Spiritual battle between Good and Evil. This story of

36 the country fighting the spiritual battle is, therefore, very popular among Graham's fans.

Finally, a close link between the idea of spiritual warfare and politics is found through a digital ethnographic research. There was a Tweet (Figure 16) that mentions Jesus actually voted for Trump, and Jesus played a significant role in today’s politics. The QAnon conspiracy is widely known that its believers claim that former President Trump was conducting a covert war on Satan-worshipping pedophile. As the Tweet points out, many Evangelical Christians are supposed to vote for Trump, since God will let Trump win and God is with Republicans. It also believes that Trump was chosen by Jesus Christ and the holy ghost. Therefore, as long as Trump is elected again, the US will be saved by God. On the other hand, when Joe Biden wins the election, the US will be destroyed by these leftists and Satan. According to another Evangelical (Figure 17), unless you recognize Jesus as your personal Savior (born-again), you will go to hell where you will be reunited with Satan and his evil legions. On the other hand, when you are saved, pray in the name of Jesus Christ to shatter the foe's monopoly on the Socialist Democratic Party. It was also obvious that Pat Robertson contributed to the discourse of Satan; leftists such as AOC or Barnie Sanders plot to control ‘everything’. Paula White was also the one claims similar idea. She was Trump’s spiritual advisor. Her view of ‘spiritual warfare’ is not merely an exaggeration. Rather, she truly believes that there is a spiritual battle in the country, which leads to her apocalyptic view. Her view is so extreme; she thinks the president's opponents are led by ‘territorial demons’.

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7. Discussion and conclusion

Although there were a variety of blogs and news articles that mentioned Evangelicals tend to believe in QAnon, it was quite difficult to find academic sources. Since the topic of whether Evangelicals believe in QAnon was quite new, there was only a little literature regarding the relationship between Evangelicalism and the QAnon conspiracy theory. As the outcomes of the several polls showed, and the latest poll (May, 2021) revealed the tendency that 25% of Evangelicals believe in QAnon, the relationship between Evangelicals and QAnon has recently gotten public attention. Thus, this issue will soon be publicly recognized. Accordingly, most of the literature that I used about Evangelicals aside from for the background information, they were mainly about how Evangelicals believe in Satan and spiritual warfare. They did not directly mention the relationship to conspiracy theories like QAnon. Therefore, the obvious relationship between QAnon believers and Evangelicals was only found through the digital ethnographic research. Hence, I strongly believe that the approach was necessary in order to execute this project. However, as Facebook has already restricted its users to post something relating to QAnon, most QAnon believers do not often post on Facebook anymore. Twitter also indicates a similar tendency as Trump’s Twitter account is still suspended. Likewise, the Twitter account that posted ‘God will let Trump win’ in Figure 16 was also suspended in June, 2021. Therefore, it is generally invisible regarding QAnon posts in social media.

Before starting the research, I presumed the reason why Evangelicals support the QAnon conspiracy theory was based on a tendency that Evangelicals were very religious and tend to be spiritual; for example, most of them claim that they have experienced being born-again. The hypothesis was partly true.

In the first chapter, I investigated the basic characteristics of Evangelicalism and who Evangelicals are. One of the most prominent aspects of Evangelicals is that they allow spiritual teachings, which once mainline protestants essentially prohibited. The origin of Evangelicalism is Neo-evangelicalism, which used to be a fundamentalist denomination. Prominently, most of them experience being born-again and believe in the existence of Satan. One of the other traits that Evangelicals have is that they try to understand what the Bible teaches in literal ways. This is because they have a mission to convey the message of the Bible - the good news - to people. Furthermore, as indicated

38 in the first chapter, the white Evangelicals are very much compatible with the Republican political ideology. In comparison with other groups of people, it was found out that the white Evangelicals were the most conservative denomination. Therefore, it is natural they followed Trump. Their political attitudes were somehow compatible such as immigration policies.

The QAnon conspiracy theory is believed to be a secret institution run by leftists plotting to facilitate child-trafficking. For example, Q believers, mentioned in the book, QAnon: An Invitation to The Great Awakening, child-trafficking is the evilest act, and they are called those criminals ‘Luciferians and Satan-worshippers’. As a result, it was found out that Evangelicals and QAnon believers have similar tendencies, for example, they are strongly anti-child trafficking and they believe in the theory that there are Satan-worshipping pedophiles who are involved in media, politics and financial sectors in the US. Based on the digital ethnographic research, many Q believers frequently quote phrases and verses from the Bible, such as the Armour of God and Kingdom of God. These phrases are related to the notion of Spiritual warfare. Among the Q believers, it is a common view that Satan really exists, and the world is actually in the spiritual battle between God and Satan. Franklin Graham also contributed to disseminate this spiritual teaching especially on his social media. They see the logic of spiritual battle is very important to their identity. They are also anti-Joe Biden; when Joe Biden wins the election, the US will be destroyed by these leftists and Satan. Besides, like Pat Robertson and Paula White, famous televangelists, there are influential Evangelical leaders who publicly claim the existence of Satanity in politics. Their claims have certainly influenced today’s US politics, as she made many Christians into Trumpians through her spiritual narrative. In conclusion, it was found out there are similar tendencies of characteristics between Evangelicals and Q supporters. They create their enemy to reinforce their ties and they do reject scientific approach when they believe in something. In other words, people who have a tendency to hold ideas such as spiritual warfare (Satan vs. God) have a certain potentiality to believe in conspiracy theories such as QAnon.

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