Fundamentalists, the Illuminati, Freemasons, and the UN
An overlooked danger of fundamentalism is how it can indirectly result in believing absurdities, quite apart from religion. Everybody knows fundamentalists believe unlikely things about God. Less known is their propensity for believing equally implausible things about the world more generally.
Take the surprisingly widespread belief among evangelicals that they are the victims of a vast conspiracy by liberals, New Agers, Satanists, and Freemasons. Great numbers of evangelicals seriously believe in an ancient Illuminati plot to destroy Christianity. Their conversation on the subject sounds like the plot of a Dan Brown novel (and, incredibly, Dan Brown’s books are actually better written than the fundy literature), but there’s no suggestion that it’s fiction.
So, because laughing at fundamentalism is fun, and because you won’t believe the extent of the insanity unless I show you, here’s a condensed guide to Fundamentalist Conspiracy Theory (and I mean condensed. I could write books about this).
Note: This is a longer post, so for those who are pressed for time and/or attention span, I’ve included a bullet-point summary at the end. Everyone else, I do think it’s worth it, or I wouldn’t have bothered writing it.
Pat Robertson’s 1991 book The New World Order: It Will Change the Way You Live is the most direct exposition of this conspiracy theory. Robertson, remember, ran a credible bid for the 1988 Republican Presidential nomination (there’s a cheery alternative reality to imagine). He says that the Order of the Illuminati, who are devil worshippers, aims “to establish a new world order based on the overthrow of civil governments, the church, and private property.” These men have gained positions of power such that world leaders are simply their puppets, he warns:
“Indeed, it may well be that men of goodwill like Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and George Bush… are in reality unknowingly and unwittingly carrying out the mission and mouthing the phrases of a tightly knit cabal whose goal is nothing less than a new order for the human race under the domination of Lucifer and his followers.”
Masons Through History
Pat explains that Illuminati founder Adam Weishaupt infiltrated the Continental Order of Freemasons. He used this as a vehicle to put Illuminati members into key French government positions and trigger the French Revolution. They brought “satanic carnage” to France in a bid to bring about the New World Order.
Freemasons were subsequently responsible for the writing of the Communist Manifesto and funding the Russian Revolution. Not only this, but they were equally behind the rise of Nazism. Adolf Hitler was one of them, we are told, and “a man trained in the occult and surrounded by occultists.”
Since then, the Freemasons have been covertly working to control mankind through untouchable positions of influence.
Robertson claims the pyramid and eye are Illuminati symbols that show Masonic powers control the USA.
Puppet Masters of Governments
Of course, we don’t know exactly who these people are, but they are already controlling our destinies.
“Rest assured, there is a behind-the-scenes Establishment in this nation, as in every other. It has enormous power. It has controlled the economic and foreign policy objectives of the United States for the past seventy years, whether the man sitting in the White House is a Democrat or a Republican, a liberal or a conservative, a moderate or an extremist. This power is above elections, but it has been able to control the results of elections. Beyond the control of wealth, its principal goal is the establishment of a one-world government where the control of money is in the hands of one or more privately owned but government-chartered central banks.”
Robertson provides a list of the places these people work and exercise control:
“The visible home of the Establishment is Pratt House… This is the headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations, and from here the Establishment reaches out to the many powers centers. Here are just a few: the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Board, the Export-Import Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller family, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Chase- Manhattan Bank, First National City Bank, J.P. Morgan and Company, Harvard University, Columbia University, Yale University, the University of Chicago, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times…”
Today, says Robertson, 33rd Degree Freemasons have infiltrated the World Bank, the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and the United Nations. Of course we don’t know about it – they control the media. Robertson neatly anticipates criticism of his book in this way: “If anyone else criticises these people in public, XYZ Publications will polish its Establishment image by branding the critics as ill-informed, right-wing, fundamentalist reactionaries.” How did he know?
Since 1940, he continues, every US Secretary of State has been a member of the CFR, one of the Illuminati elect, working from within to control our destinies. With their attempts at world control in the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and Nazi Germany having failed, the Freemasons’ next big project is the United Nations.
One World Religion
Of course, Robertson cannot conceive of a world without religion. For these One Worlders to succeed, there will have to be a state religion. And that will be the New Age, which fundamentalists believe is an amalgamation of all religions except Christianity, with Satan as its true god.
To see why this is such a problem to fundamentalists, you need to understand something. Christian fundamentalists do not believe that gods besides theirs don’t exist. They absolutely believe they do exist, and that they are demons in disguise, plotting to drag you to hell.
Pick your religion from this list:
Islam: See Terry Jones’ book Islam is of the Devil (the title is somewhat expository). Or G. Moshay’s Who is This Allah? which argues that Allah is actually Satan.
Hinduism: From Lester Sumrall’s 101 Questions and Answers on Demon Powers: “Hindu gods are spirits. If your relative is attached to a Hindu deity… that deity is an evil spirit.”
Buddhism: Just google “Maitreya demon” and see what you get. Lester Sumrall names the “Buddhist god, Pa,” as a demon, and in The Fourth Dimension, Paul Yonggi Cho claims that Buddhist monks and the Japanese sokka gakkai perform miracles through demonic power.
Sikhism: I can’t actually find any fundamentalist literature on Sikhism, but don’t let that bother you. If fundamentalists don’t know about something, it’s definitely of Satan.
Any form of paganism/ Wicca: All your gods are demons, sorry.
Satanism: Duh.
Atheism: This doesn’t actually exist. Sorry. You’re just rejecting the God you really know exists, and therefore aligning yourself with Satan.
New Age: Satanic. The ascended masters are demons, Robertson warns. This includes Yoga.
Secular humanism: This is somehow a form of Satanism.
Anything else: The devil. Especially if it’s from the East.
Christianity: Congratulations, you have hit the religion jackpot. Only this one is true.
At the top are the Freemasons, who know exactly what’s going on, and, at the highest levels, worship the devil directly.
“To my mind, there is no more monstrous evil than to bring public-spirited, often churchgoing, men into an organization that looks like a praternal lodge, then deliberately mislead them until they are solid members. Then move them up thirty degrees to the place where they are ready to learn that Satan is the good god waiting to liberate mankind, and the Creator of the Universe (Yahweh, Elohim, Adonai) is, in their theology, the malicious prince of darkness.”
It’s not just Pat
Frank Peretti’s bestselling novel Piercing the Darkness tells exactly the same story, except novelised. The Freemasons are called The Royal and Sacred Order of the Nation, but the salient points are the same. Although it’s a fictionalised account, readers are encouraged to see it as truthful. The dustjacket reads: If you think spiritual warfare is mere fiction, think again… With contemporary settings, up-to-date religious issues, and believable characters, these unforgettably powerful novels are more than just wholesome entertainment. They’ll challenge you to open your eyes to the spiritual battle that’s raging in your world right now.
The Freemasons’ main agency for destroying Christianity, in the fundamentalist mind, is the ACLU, in Peretti’s book called the ACFA (American Citizens’ Freedom Association). This, we learn, exists to destroy freedom of religion, and to protect the interests of child molesters (You might want to read that sentence twice).
The New Age/ Freemason conspiracy is working to control the future by taking over schools, indoctrinating children, and to get them to practice meditation, which leads to demon possession.
The TBN programme Time 2 (aired in the UK/ Europe on the Christian Channel Europe, which is now the God Network) made the same claims, and this was broadcast not as fiction but documentary. Some of the talking heads from their special, New Age: The Deadly Delusion:
Eric Buehrer, author, The New Age Masquerade: “I was originally asked when I was a teacher to work on a committee to bring in global education to our schools. As I began to research that more I saw that there was an agenda, a very liberal agenda, that really wanted to mould the way kids saw the world, not just teach them about the world. These kids were being taught… to make contact with a Spirit Being and ask that spiritual being for wisdom and guidance in life. We have a number of groups breeding together in a common cause to, number one, do away with the idea that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Johanna Michaelsen: “They understand something that every would-be One World ruler and despot has understood from the beginning of time. It’s one thing to convert the adults. It’s quite another thing, however, to raise an entire generation of children who are programmed, if you will, to totally, unquestioningly accept every basic premise of the New Age.”
Yes, incredibly, fundamentalists see public schools as centres of indoctrination, which is how they justify their own propaganda factories.
Tim LaHaye, probably fundamentalism’s best selling author, makes the same claims in his book Rapture (Under Attack):
“I myself have been a forty-five year student of the satanically-inspired, centuries-old conspiracy to use government, education, and media to destroy every vestige of Christianity within our society and establish a new world order. Having read at least fifty books on the Illuminati, I am convinced that it exists and can be blamed for many of man’s inhumane actions against his fellow man during the past two hundred years.”
You are by now probably feeling disorientated and somewhat like you are in a parallel universe, but these people are living in the same world as the rest of us.
Fundamentalism works by disabling the individual’s powers of rational inquiry. It has to, because fundamentalism can’t survive even a moment’s rigorous scrutiny. And by circumventing logical reasoning and the ability to evaluate evidence, it leaves its subjects vulnerable to believing absurdities. Sometimes these absurdities are that giving money to televangelists will make you rich, sometimes they’re about the age of the earth, and, sometimes, they’re just stupid.
That promised bullet point summary
- Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, and Frank Peretti are a few of the fundamentalist authors who have promoted this widespread conspiracy theory.
- Robertson argues that all through history, the Illuminati, controlling the Freemasons, have been infiltrating positions of power.
- These Illuminati/Freemasons caused the French Revolution, and bankrolled the Bolshevik Revolution, Communism globally, and Nazism.
- Illuminati/ Freemasons control the establishment, the unelectable forces of power in the world who really control what’s going on, regardless of who’s in government.
- Their aim is to destroy Christianity and countries, and bring about a One World Government.
- The New Age Religion will be the new One World Religion, and Satan will be God.
- This is bad because Satan literally exists, and he wants to spend eternity making you quite uncomfy.
- The United Nations is the Illuminati/Freemasons latest and greatest project to make this happen.
- This has nothing to do with the Bible, but Fundamentalists are super-gullible, because their religion teaches them not to question, and not to demand proper evidence.
- Fear unquestioning faith, therefore.
Related Posts
Posted on June 18, 2012, in Book Reviews, Christianity, Education, Faith Schools, Fundamentalism, Word of Faith and tagged ACLU, Christian fundamentalism, Frank Peretti, Freemasons, fundamentalism, Illuminati, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye. Bookmark the permalink. 41 Comments.
Leaving Fundamentalism 
But the fundy literature is (unintentionally) funnier…
And talking of pop-culture, I seem to remember Steven Fry mentioning on QI that the all-seeing eye over a pyramid was adopted by the States before the Freemasons adopted it. Not that facts ever stopped a fundy in full conspiracy-flow.
Good post. Thanks Jonny.
Cheers Daz. The fundy literature is hilarious, isn’t it? I pulled six pages of unbelievable quotes out of Robertson’s book. It was hard to know what to leave out for this article.
Outside of those bits, though, his book is unbelievably boring. I thought it would be a non-stop thrill ride of insanity, but there’s page after page of Robertson droning on and on with his right-wing perspective on then-current affairs. Apparently he used a ghostwriter. That ghostwriter is crap.
Great post and blog Jonny!
Can you expand more on the ‘meditation leads to possession’ point and where this comes from?
Im a committed (but atheist) meditator, and my sister is a (New Frontiers International) fundagelical.
She is refusing to even try meditation, unless in a strictly Christian context, because, to quote her, ‘demons are real and only in a Christian context could I be sure that the meditative experiences/states you describe are NOT demonic’.
Aside from the fact that:
a) Christian meditation techniques are virtually identical, as are the states Christian mystics describe, and
b) apparently my sister thinks I’m demonically possessed, lol…..
….where does this attitude come from? Who started it, was it a book or a preacher? Is there really no awareness amongst the fundie wing of the church of the MILLENIA old traditions of Christian meditation?! My sister is extremely flakey about even trying Christian meditation – wrong type of Christianity maybe?!
Links for the interested:
http://www.wccm.org – Christian meditation
http://www.dhamma.org – my own meditation approach
Stuart
Thanks Stuart. You know, I’m not sure I can explain it. You have to be in those churches for a long time to experience the depths of fear and ignorance about Eastern religions. In the Lester Sumrall book I quoted above, he writes:
This is the attitude to all of east Asia from many fundagelicals. The other thing you have to know is the culture of gossip that exists in these churches. People are not trained to ask questions, just to respect received knowledge. So when a fellow Christian tells them something, they assume they have it on good authority, and just repeat it. Add in the possibility of Chinese Whispers-style distortions, and these rumours just spread, while the source is very hard to trace.
I realise that doesn’t answer your point about Christian meditation, but little about Christian fundamentalism makes sense. I’ll check out your links, because I am curious, as long as there’s no metaphysical flim-flam involved.
Thanks Jonny. Eastern religions are misunderstood by almost everyone in the west, so no great surprise some like the fundies get not just the wrong end of the stick but the wrong bloody forest. Eastern religious art, with all the gruesome deities etc, presumably doesnt help.
But then, neither does the subtlety of the teachings you can find there….. fundies and subtlety are not bedfellows…..
Do check out the http://www.dhamma.org link! The reason I’ve stayed doing vipassana meditation for a few years now is in no small part because it IS so thoroughly (although not quite entirely) secularised. And rational – it actually makes rational sense.
There is a bit of discussion of reincarnation, a (single) bit of earth/wind/fire/water ex-science (that was all they knew in the days of Gothama, but still, no cause to keep repeating it in this day and age), and an odd belief in ‘vibrations’ – all of which i leave well alone and lose nothing by it.
In fact you are explicitly told that if something in the theory doesnt make sense to you, reject it. Which I do! What matters is the meditation practice itself – and that really can’t be argued with. It’s astonishingly effective.
It’s not perfect, but it is by far the most rational, common sense approach to meditation i’ve found, with the least flim flam, and a consistent insistence on not believing ANYTHING from authority etc – figure it out for yourself. Or don’t, and just meditate. Oh, and don’t be an asshole.
It works for me – as a skeptic, atheist, humanist (and ex-NFI fundie) – it’s not perfect but it is very very good.:)
A gentler intro (no retreats involved, starts much more slowly) would be http://www.getsomeheadspace.com – the iiphone/android apps are really good.
But I recommend a retreat in Hereford. It’s free 🙂
I’m having a really rough time not being jealous as hell, Jonny. Damn! You’re not only an outstanding musician, but a damn good writer, too.
This is excellent work. Before I came over here, I was patting myself on the back for a review I had written. I feel a bit like Brian Wilson, who after making “Pet Sounds” to great acclaim listened to “A Day In The Life” with Paul McCartney–at the time the song was not yet released–and had a nervous breakdown from which he still hasn’t recovered.
I had a run-in with a conspiracy-believer of this nature recently — possibly my very first such “Close Encounter” (i.e., in person instead of on the Internet or in some sort of literature). He was not overtly fundamentalist, but I got some signals that he was at least religious. He was extremely nice to talk to, and he actually had some serious cleverness in some areas, but he was absolutely adamant that “the system” was totallly rigged, run by people to whom we had no direct access, and who did such things as make sure that the already-discovered cure for cancer (that’s right, he said there is already a single cure for all types of cancer) was destroyed and the scientist who discovered it was killed, because we needed a bigger population(!) for the New World Order to have enough slaves. (???) That was just ONE of his weird delusions of this sort.
When asked, he said that he had gotten his “information” from sources all over the Internet and from myriad books (including “Pale Horse,” for one), whereupon I simply asked, “If these rulers are willing to kill those who are dangerous to them and their plans, then why aren’t the people disseminating this information considered dangerous and killed and their information squelched? How are they able to publish their books with impunity, or continue writing on the Internet without being killed?” It didn’t faze him a bit; he just continued claiming that certain ones were killed, but he otherwise acted as if the contradiction I had set before him didn’t exist at all, as if no question had been asked aat all. That was what was the most unsettling about the situation: that he could hold a conversation on the subject and seemingly have no trouble hearing me, but would immediately and seamlessly filter out any evidence, question, or logical extrapolation that would have undermined his position, as if it had never even been spoken.
Sounds like your guy may not have been a fundy conspiracy theorist. I knew an alt med guy who was massive on conspiracy theories, and there was no religious basis for that. He just thought big pharma were suppressing the truth about homeopathy.
The common thread is irrational thought. You can’t argue with a conspiracy theory, because EVERYTHING confirms it.
“There’s no evidence for that.”
“Well, there wouldn’t be. It’s a secret society. They don’t want you to know about it.”
“But there are hundreds of websites about it!”
“Well, if they got rid of those websites, they’d have to show themselves.”
“But thousands of people must be in on this conspiracy. There would be some evidence!”
“There is evidence. You see this one dollar bill…”
etc etc ad infinitum.
I have a very open comments policy, but if I ever get someone that unreasonable posting here, I think I’ll block them.
Thanks as always for you bringing these issues to light, Jonny.
From my perspective, the ideas Jonny has brought to light in this post, are in the US, what I find to be the most dangerous element of Christian fundamentalism. You can feel the effects of these conspiracy theories on the level of local, domestic and international politics.
Consider the crazy Agenda 21 conspiracy theory.
This conspiracy theory has forced local governments to have to abandon plans for sustainable development based on the opposition of members of the community who believe such measures are part of some global conspiracy originating in the UN.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/is-the-soros-sponsored-agenda-21-a-hidden-plan-for-world-government-yes-only-it-is-not-hidden/
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2011/12/how-tea-party-upending-urban-planning/718/
Or consider the insanity of claiming President Obama is the anti-Christ:
This is literally the demonization of political opponents, conditions which if widespread would lead to the collapse of pluralist politics.
But, what I find to be the most dangerous effect of these ideas is that it serves as one basis for US policies in the Near East. Fundamentalist provide a broad swath of political support for the most right-wing Israeli policies. Support for Israeli settlements, claims of exclusive rights over Jerusalem, ,and more recently, aggressive policies against Iran:
http://johnclaeys.com/iran-israel-the-coming-apocalypse/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105310088
These theories are the most dangerous element of Christian Fundamentalism because they are no laughing matter, and far too often, get people killed.
I agree. I’m not quite sure how you go about solving the problem with adults. Education is the answer, but it’s difficult to get people with set opinions to read books that challenge them with an open mind. That’s partly why I’m going after the schools so hard.
See the “conspiracy theory generator” page, at Political Research Associates:
http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/generator.html
“What follows are two conspiracy theory generators. They are instructional devices used to explore how conspiracism as a genre is a structured combination of a stylistic meta-frame of tragic apocalyptic dualism merged with narratives built around the components of demonization and scapgoating.
While some of the resulting stories may be absurd (and offensive), often the result (or a very similar result) can be found in texts on contemporary internet websites. The conspiracy theory generators may appear on the surface as overly glib for the subject matter, but they are meant to illustrate that there is a paradigm, framework, or architecture to conspiracy theories.”
When I first started to write on Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee, back in 2006, I was unaware that he promoted UN/Illuminati/NWO/satanic plot conspiracy theories. See my transcript of a 1992 Hagee sermon on the 1992 UN Rio summit here:
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/4/28/11427/2154
Hagee has been courted by presidents, former presidents, and top Republican leaders of the US House and Senate. He’s not marginal.
While the writing of Robertson and LaHaye is important, this is an enormous genre promoted by literally hundreds of authors, speakers, and pastors with TV broadcast capability. These conspiracy theories are promoted in both secular and religious garb, but the root seems to be more religious than secular and can be traced back hundreds of years. See, for example, the 1853 book by Alexander Hyslop, “The Two Babylons”.
This response is so useful that I’m tempted to quote from it in a postscript to the main post. Thanks Bruce.
Bruce, this is a great resource, and I encourage everyone to check it out.
What are your ideas on the thought that one of the reasons for the popularity of conspiracy theories in the modern era is that they often grant complex events a simplistic theory of agency?
This need to find intention in events that are in fact “caused” by no one at all i.e. revolutions, economic crises or wars to me has a strong overlap with Creationist theories that project agency- intelligent design- on to the complexity of nature- what Jonny is fighting.
Perhaps, one of the reasons conspiracy theories have such traction in the modern era is that human society has become so complex it becomes necessary, for some, to explain it in reference to a purposeful design.
Oops, didn’t mean to embed the video. Why the hell does WordPress do that?
As a long time Master Mason and a 32nd degree Mason in the Scottish Rite, I can say to Robinson and anyone who wants to spread lies, is that we embrace ALL religions and work solely to “make good men better”. I have never seen anything resembling devil worship, bigotry or hatred in any manner toward anyone inside of my Lodge or any other.
You may fear the unknown ‘secret society’, but Freemason’s Lodges and Temples are all listed in phone books with meeting times and other contact information. Fundamentalists want American government to work like it did when the forefathers ran it-MOST of them were Freemasons as well as deists. Even Thomas Jefferson created his own version of the Bible, taking out all writing of miracles and divine intervention.
Regarding: “Christianity: Congratulations, you have hit the religion jackpot. Only this one is true.”, I think that could be corrected to read: “Christianity: Congratulations, you hit the jackpot, if it’s our specific brand of Christianity. Liberal Christians are followers of the Devil”. Some denominations also consider the Catholic church a tool of the Devil, created for the worship of Ibis, Horus and Set; etc.
Good point, Ilkka. I should have separated off different Christian denominations. It would have taken a while though!
What i don’t get is then, secular and agnostic theorists were the first to identify the Illuminati and its workings, NOT fundamentalists. You can take purely secular works and research without any Christian influenced ones, and find that the nice little point list is true, even though with an obvious secular view of it. And Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, and Frank Peretti aren’t even fundamentalists… they are evangelicals!
the admin is sick bcz he is the follwer of free mason
i think the world will follow one religion which is islam although i know i m christian but i knw more thn u knw
Jonny, it may be well worth looking into the other branches of Abrahamic religions, they are so similar in their ethos it’s almost like walking into a supermarket that displays different shaped and coloured packages trying to draw you into the superficial and when you rip the packages open they all contain the same tripe! I have been around people of different religious persuasions and I must admit that I have garnered some good things off them or shall I put it, ‘ been educated’ but when it takes such a twisted stance where it becomes blinkered and unbending I tend to shut off and leave them with their confabulations ( I don’t know if I spelt that correctly).
Jonny, where can I find your music?
I find this frightening, it sounds like they’ve all read Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminati books and not realised that they are fiction. The more I find out about The Fundamentalist mindset, the more they scare me. ‘Cos I know we’ll be the first poor sods they stick up against the wall, if they ever get any power in the real world!
Hi Peter,
It’s at http://www.jonnyscaramanga.com. Thanks for being interested!
Jonny,
I think you left out a major point, which is that the Illuminati conspiracy theories, specifically those from Pat Robertson’s book, come from the super-anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist Nesta Webster. This was a major criticism of Robertson’s book, so he had to distance himself from some of his claims.
Anti-Semitism was very widespread among US fundamentalists in the 1930’s, with some important fundamentalists supporting Hitler’s anti-Semitism and promoting “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (among them anti-Darwinist William Bell Riley, Gerald Burton Winrod, Arno C. Gaebelein, Elizabeth Dilling, also the conservative isolationist “mothers’ movement”, etc.) Anti-Semitic preacher Gerald L. K. Smith, who built the giant “Christ of the Ozarks” statue in Arkansas, considered Hitler a true Christian. [See Leo Ribuffo, “The Old Christian Right”, and William Vance Trollinger, “God’s Empire”, and Michael Barkun, “Religion and the Racist Right”, and Glen Jeansonne, “Women of the Far Right” and “Gerald L. K. Smith: Minister of Hate.”]
Arno C. Gaebelein was a fundamentalist who popularized Darby’s post-millenial eschatology in the US, because he was the key editor of the Scofield Reference Bible used by fundamentalists. In 1933 he wrote “The Conflict of the Ages”, an anti-Semitic book about Biblical prophecies (the Bible says, supposedly, the Jews will turn atheist and fight on the side of the anti-Christ.) He quoted “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” at length, especially the part about the Jews being to blame for Darwinism and Communism. He praised Hitler’s January 1933 seizure of power, and he cited at length several other anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, including Nesta Webster’s “World Revolution”, to prove Jews were to blame for Bolshevism. The people he listed were mostly Jews by race, not religion.
In 1937 he visited Nazi Germany and wrote back to W. B. Riley to praise Nazi Germany as a Christian country unfairly smeared by the media, and Riley read the letter to his congregation– one of Riley’s many passionate defenses of the Austrian corporal. [See William Vance Trollinger, “God’s Empire”]
In the 1980’s Gaebelein’s sympathetic biographer re-published “The Conflict of the Ages” with the “Protocols” bit bowdlerized out, so as to whitewash Gaebelein’s contributions to American racism. I own the 1934 edition. It’s a hoot. If you ever buy a copy of that book, don’t trust the whitewashed 1980’s edition.
Thanks Diogenes. I didn’t actually know about that. The anti-semitism of early fundamentalism seems contradictory with it’s current rampant Zionism – or do you see the two as related?
Well, obviously when Germany declared war on the US they had to switch sides. For example, throughout the 1930’s Willaim B. Riley fought what he called “the internationl Jewish-Bolshevik-Darwinist conspiracy”, conflating Darwinism and Judaism, and regarding Hitler as his fellow warrior against the conspiracy.
However, after Germany declared war on the US, the Roosevelt administration indicted several members of the religious right for sedition, called the Great Sedition Trial. Gerald L. K. Smith and Dilling were indicted [see “The Old Religious Right” by Leo Ribuffo.] Riley was not indicted, although he was at least as bad as the others, pro-Hitler-wise, but Riley was more popular. But Riley’s biographer [Trollinger] thinks that Riley switched to the anti-Hitler side immediately because Riley was afraid of being prosecuted for treason, as other religious righters were.
So Riley did a 180 turn and in 1941 he published “Hitlerism: or, the Philosophy of Evolution in Action” in which he blamed Darwinism for the policies of Hitler which he, Riley, had just been defending. Of course Riley never defended the Jews, whom he despised until his death, and his evidence that Hitler was a Darwinist was extremely poor. Although Riley had been supporting Hitler for almost a decade, he appeared to have amassed no real evidence that Hitler was a Darwinist. Riley just got some racist quotes allegedly from Hitler from a single newspaper article based on Rauschning’s book [an unreliable source.]
So Riley’s actual logic, in that pamphlet, was that, back in World War I, not WWII, German pastors and theologians said God was on the side of Germany. Of course that’s blasphemy, everybody knows God is on the side of the USA. So since Germans are blasphemously saying that God is on the side of Germany, the only possible person who could be to blame for that is an Englishman, Charles Darwin. That’s his actual logic.
Well it worked, Riley stated out of jail, and the myth of “Hitler the Darwinist” was born, concocted by people who had been avid supporters of Hitler moments before his declaration of war. [See William V. Trollinger, “God’s Empire” for a biography of Riley.]
A lot of fundamentalists continued to be anti-Semites until the 1960’s at least, but after all those documentaries about the Holocaust came out, they flipped sides and started to portray themselves as pro-Jewish, and Hitler as an atheist Darwinist trying to destroy Christianity. Hence, they donate money to Israeli settlers, so as to cover their asses.
So they’re covering their asses. They know Christianity is to blame for 1,900 years of demonizing the Jews. They need to whitewash that whole history.
Anyway, nowadays they have replacements for anti-Semitism: anti-atheism, and hating on the gays. (Note that the major accusation levelled by the Nazis against the Jews was that they were closet “materialists”, atheists just pretending to have a religion; and atheists are obviously destructive to society.) Old-time US fundamentalists like Riley, Gaebelein, and Dilling completely agreed that Jews were closet athiests and destructive to society.
Nowadays they can skip attacking Jews and go straight to attacking atheists, also hating on the gays and Muslims. Who needs Jews when you have atheists, scientists, gays, and Muslims to hate on?
I think this entire discussion is typical of white racism, conflating world events with the wests history, a eurocentrism that renders this discussion half baked. Diogenes talks about ‘1900 years of “christianity” demonizing jews’, Why do you forget that there was Christianity in Africa and mid east that neither demonized, persecuted nor subjected jews to genocide? Its white racism that tormented the jews and not christianity. Get over yourselves white people.
The movement for a one world government is real, and it will not be a liberal paradise but a dictatorship, flowing from that self declared fountain of goodness -the UN. The new age, new world order etc, will be more akin to stalins Russia than cosmopolitan london. It will not have freedom of conscience i.e no religion, no free artistic expression etc. Sadly people like you are at the fore front of fighting for this vision and will be the first to be sacrificed, as you know every revolution devours its own children….Like hockley predicts… liberals will be the first to be lined up against the wall.
Mjuaji’s logic proceeds NOT BY REBUKING the racism and anti-Semitism of the conservative Christian movement, but instead by EMBRACING the conspiratorial mind-set and fascist epistemology founded in the 1930’s by Christian racists and Jew-haters.
The argument that “liberalism leads to totalitarianism” was employed many times by the Nazis. The Nazis justified their dictatorship on the grounds that liberalism could not defend Germany against atheist dictatorship, consequently Nazi dictatorship was the closest to freedom that humans could hope for.
The conservative Christian variant was popularized by the influential American theologian Rousas Rushdoony, who demanded Christian totalitarianism on the grounds that liberalism led to left-wing totalitarianism, thus right-wing Christian totalitarianism was the closest to freedom humans could hope for. Rushdoony insisted ALL ideas, Christian or non-Christian, lead to totalitarianism anyway, but right-wing Christian totalitarianism would be better, and would have magical, supernatural effects like humans gaining super-longevity by Christian magic (live 900 year, like Adam!)
A typical application of this logic was Rushdoony’s opposition to civil rights for blacks, on the grounds that equality and justice for blacks would to totalitarian government (it didn’t), but to prevent the totalitarian horror of equality for blacks, he promoted racism and demanded the return of Bible-sanctioned slavery (yeah, slavery). Rushdoony also denied the Nazi holocaust ever happened, that whites were genetically superior to blacks, and that eugenics was mandatory for Christians.
Rushdoony has been enormously influential among conservative Christians and most of them copy his bizarre claims and demands for total power without knowing where they came from, or deliberately concealing their origin, because RR was a fascist racist.
Mjuaji’s claims of world conspiracy, e.g. “The movement for a one world government” are accusations derived straight from the conspiratorial world-view of William Bell Riley, who taught his mega-church parishioners about “the international Jewish-Bolshevik-Darwinist conspiracy”, and the world-conspiracy theories of the Illuminati promoted by Nesta Webster and other anti-Semites.
Mjuaji does not possess a single thought in his/her head that is not copied from racists and anti-Semitic supporters of fascism who betrayed America. It’s Nesta Webster all the way down.
We have real evidence that conservative Christians betrayed America and supported Hitler in the past. Mjuaji offers vague accusations WITHOUT evidence that liberals might do bad things in the future.
Mjuaji is like most conservative Christians infuriated by the massive amount of evidence that conservative Christians and their leadership were mostly pro-Hitler, racist and anti-Semitic in 1930’s. For some reason he/she is trying to convince us that the conservatives who betrayed America in the 1930’s and supported Hitler and fascism will somehow, in the future, DEFEND us against dictatorship. How the heck could THAT logically follow?
Reblogged this on Bohemian Glade and commented:
This summarizes the link between fundamentalism and conspiracy theories very well. It would be funny , if it wasn’t so scary.
I should like to add another point about the anti-Semitism of fundamentalists, particularly LaHaye.
Above, Tim LaHaye is quoted as saying in a 1998 book, “Rapture (Under Attack)”, that he has been a Satanic conspiracy theories for 45 years: “I myself have been a forty-five year student of the satanically-inspired, centuries-old conspiracy to use government, education, and media to destroy every vestige of Christianity within our society and establish a new world order.”
But 1998 – 45 = 1943, so LaHaye started studying anti-Christian conspiracy theories when Christian conspiracist literature was awash in, and based on, anti-Semitism. An obvious example being Arno C. Gaebelein’s “Conflict of the Ages”, which cites other books, Elizabeth Dilling’s super-anti-Semitic books like “The Plot Against Christianity”, and many others written by the right wing in the 1930’s.
Would he care to share with us his reading list back in 1943?
LaHaye: “Having read at least fifty books on the Illuminati, I am convinced that it exists and can be blamed for many of man’s inhumane actions against his fellow man during the past two hundred years.”
If he’s read 50 books on the Illuminati, then he must have read many anti-Semitic books, because a large fraction, perhaps half, of all books about the Illuminati are anti-Semitic.
The reason the pyramid and eye are one the dollar bill is because the American Founding Fathers understood something. The New World Order bunch was around, and would eventually be established as the authorities, but not yet. The pyramid represents all the world. The eye is the New World Order. It is separated from the pyramid because the NWO is not yet in authority.
Reblogged this on The Iniquitous: Church Crimes.
I beleve that these fundamentalist groups are very dangerous just like any of kind groups, who promote hatered from others, notably terrorist and other criminals. Theres been allways a conspiracies for history to ancient cultures for this age where we are living. Its like mad illness witch covers for greed, racism, phobia and many other bad things this enviroment. What kind of a people we are dealing in next term, when everybody has a nuclear weapons and dangerous techonologies to destroy every part of living things. Its realy mixed up society in globally, when there is nothing what you can do to save world, unless you are Jesus or Buddha or Krisshna example.
Just thought would mention. I have Been looking into Tim lahaye…he has very strong Masonic connections that need looked into. Some of his books have occult symbolism including hexagrams on the cover. Also he supports zion group with billy graham )a 33degree Freemason) and others and he teaches on the pre-trib rapture which in not biblical. 🙂
There’s no such thing as a masonic conspiracy. Tim LaHaye is not an occultist. He is just delusional. Look that up.
so then when you were a fundie have you ever read Johanna Michaelsen’s messed up books?
No, I saw her on Carman’s Time 2, but never read anything. I don’t believe her story about having been a satanic priest for a second.
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