Why do white American Evangelicals believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory?
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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.
ii
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
iii
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.
1
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
2
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
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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
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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%).
6
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).
7Figure 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).
8Figure 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
9spend 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
10Bible 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.
11Pat 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”)’.
123. 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
13whether 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
14harvesting, 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
15arguments; ‘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).
164. 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.
175. 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.
18Figure 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
19across 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
20editor 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.
21Figure 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).
22The 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
23symbolizes ‘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.
24Figure 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.
25Figure 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
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