From large flags featuring a burning “Q” symbol to a multitude of rioters wearing the distinctive “Q” T-shirt, the presence of QAnon was everywhere during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol – and this was on purpose.
Jacob Chansley, the infamous horned helmet-wearing QAnon Shalman, made himself a prominent symbol of the insurrection. But there was also Cleveland Meredith Jr., who allegedly posted online about his desire to execute former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by “putting a bullet in her noggin on Live TV.” There was also Douglas Jensen, a menacing bearded man dressed in “Q” attire, who told investigators he “intentionally positioned himself” toward the front of the mob so “Q” could “get the credit.”
While these QAnon insurrectionists strutted for the cameras, two other rioters died on January 6. Rosanne Boyland, 34 was reportedly crushed by the crowd at the Capitol complex and Ashli Babbitt, 36, was shot and killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer while attempting to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby inside the Capitol.
January 6 was the highwater mark for QAnon and for its well-known conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election. In the case of the pandemic, the QAnon myth that the coronavirus causing COVID-19 did not exist prompted protests across the country against masking and lockdown procedures. But it was the contention that the “deep state” had interfered to steal the Presidential election from Donald Trump and the alignment of QAnon with the militia movement that brought QAnon to the forefront. Thus, in 2021, nearly one in five Americans were QAnon believers, or around 41 million people. The number jumped to 25 percent of Republicans, according to research from Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
However, when Donald Trump left office and moved to Florida, the anonymous figure, Q, who allegedly worked in the Trump administration and helped the president root out his enemies, stopped posting his cryptic messages online. It was the equivalent of “the day the music died” when the QAnon movement began to fade.
Yet, QAnon has not gone away. QAnon-like thinking is still very much alive and has become mainstreamed in the Republican party. Thus, even if political leaders no longer claim the QAnon mantle, QAnon-inspired conspiracy theories have become a belief system, infused with religion, that rejects mainstream institutions and the rule of law, belittles government agencies, detests the press corps, and alleges that the world and the US are run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles in cooperation with “deep state” collaborators.
Who is part of this “cabal”? According to QAnon ideology, the “collaborators” include President Joe Biden Jr., Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton; celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks; scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci; and religious leaders, including Pope Francis. Moreover, QAnon adherents believe that these “satanists” eat little children (not a joke) to extract a life-extending chemical from their blood.
If this shadowy cabal of pedophiles were discounted as outlandish science fiction, QAnon would be harmless. It is anything but. From its start in 2017, QAnon has been a major online disinformation source, spreading election fraud claims, embracing science denial, and telling American patriots they may need to resort to violence to save the country. Compounding the problem, QAnon is founded on racist and antisemitic narratives and uses the allegation of trafficking children to claim that schoolteachers are “groomers” of pedophilia and public schools are “grooming centers” for gender identity radicals.
But what is even more concerning is the link between QAnon, Christian nationalism and political violence. As documented by PRRI, QAnon believers share a common belief that their way of life is threatened, and they may be willing to resort to violence to defend their vision of America. Moreover, two-thirds (66%) of QAnon believers say that being Christian is important to being truly Americans and adherents are more than five times as likely as those who reject QAnon to agree with the statement that “the idea of America where most people are not white bothers me” (32% vs. 6%).
Taken together, these findings make clear that people of faith cannot ignore the influence of QAnon ideology in politics, especially since this belief system is similar to Gnosticism, an early movement that emphasized secret divine knowledge (gnosis is “knowledge” in Greek) and promises a “Great Awakening” in which society will enter a utopian age. Borrowing from the words of President George H.W. Bush to Saddam Hussein, “This will not stand.”
The message we must deliver is simple. QAnon is not Christian. It is a replacement theory unrelated to Christianity and not bound to the Bible. QAnon slanders religious and secular leaders and repeatedly makes predictions that do not come true.
To this, we have the answer from Scripture. “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8).