Why are (some) evangelicals so stupid?

They embrace QAnon, love Trump, and wait for their Redeemer

Good Lord, get this woman a chair.

A once-respected Dietrich Bonhoeffer biographer became a staunch Trump supporter, signed onto false election conspiracies, and said:

I’d be happy to die in this fight. This is a fight for everything. God is with us.

God is with the sparrow, too, but any-who.

The once-respected biographer isn’t alone. According to a January survey, more than one in four white evangelicals embraces at least one QAnon theory. That same survey said three in five white evangelical Christians believe Pres. Biden did not actually win the election.

While you roll that around on your tongue, open your door and shout to your neighbors, “Factoring in reality and an ability to discern the truth, HOW COULD THIS BE?”

Is there something about evangelicals that make them susceptible to inanity? This essay, from Joel Lawrence, Center for Pastor Theologians executive director, says evangelical Christians are uniquely vulnerable to conspiracy theories because of:

• Faith (Bill Maher said the same thing, though he was more caustic)

• Apocalypse (a misreading of the Book of Revelation)

• Nationalism (or triumphalism, where Christians’ goal is to secure a nation for Christian values) That allows for some amazingly dexterous pretzel-twisting when it comes to issues of morality. As Lawerence writes:

Character matters when the President is a liberal, but when he is a conservative, fighting conservative battles to save America’s status as blessed, character is less important than effectiveness.

Add to those factors this scary, scary time. Deadly pandemics can render conspiracy theories attractive, because whacky, made-up nonsense gives people of weak will a sense of power. They’re looking for patterns. Conspiracy theories deliver.

Please understand none of this is an excuse. It is strictly an explanation. All responsibility for QAnon seeping into the sanctuary rests directly on the shoulders of the Christians who let it happen.

What those Christians haven’t acknowledged is that their embrace of idiocy has done immeasurable harm to their churches. It may not be evident now, but wait until the pandemic has abated. QAnon Christians will be looking out over even more empty pews than were there earlier. Evangelicals were hemorrhaging members already. Their younger members aren’t drinking this QAnon Kool-Aid. This NPR story, about a young pastor leaving his church over the flock’s embrace of these crap theories, is painful to read. It’s also part of a bigger trend. QAnon Christians think they’re preparing the world for the Second Coming. They are, instead, hastening the end of their churches.

It’s hard to choose between the many verses that could end this, but I’ll go with 1 John 4:1:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.