Recently, a movement known as QAnon has been gaining traction within the conservative circle.
Many Christian leaders including prominent conservative evangelicals have denounced the movement. QAnon was started by an anonymous online figure around 2017 and claims that President Trump is in a war against a Satan-worshipping faction surrounded by A-list celebrities engaged in child sex abuse.
This movement shrouded by conspiracy theories has been gathering a notable following within the evangelical and conservative community. Among them includes a Georgia congressional candidate and a U.S. Senate candidate from Oregon.
The significance of the topic generated enough attention by the public to cause Vice President Mike Pence to address the issue in an interview with CBS in which he stated that he had no knowledge of QAnon and denounced the fact that he had to spend time on a major network to talk about an online conspiracy theory.
Christian leaders such as President Albert Mohler Jr. of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary voiced their own opinions regarding the QAnon. Through his podcast, Mohler compared the group to Gnosticism which is a belief that a few privileged individuals are able to have access to inside information. According to him, ancient Gnostics believed that the access to secret knowledge was a key to salvation. Mohler continued to voice his criticism saying that Christianity has no relation to a secret truth. Rather, Christianity has everything to do with a public Gospel.
Another notable figure, Pastor Joe Carter added onto the conversation stating that QAnonis a political cult and satanic movement.
"The QAnon movement frequently engages in slander, which James calls demonic behavior (James 3:15-16). The QAnon movement often traffics in lies, which Jesus says are associated with Satan. The QAnon movement repeatedly sides with demonically inspired falsehoods that divide professed Christians from faithful believers,"
Carter called for Christians to protect individuals who might fall to the movement QAnon and appealed to QAnon supporters to return to faith.
