Weird Religion

Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News. To solemnly mark the end of this reporting dynasty, we rebroadcast one of our TOP 10 most popular Weird Religion episodes of all time: The 2020 election and inauguration came and went, leaving the predictions of the QAnon prophets…hanging in the air. What happens to a religious movement when its key prophecies fail to come true in real time? Are adherents disappointed? Is/was Q a “religion”? And did the biblical prophet Ezekiel make a false prediction—and then try to correct it?

UPDATED NOTES

Think this story is old news? A February 2022 PRRI poll shows that nearly 20% (!!??) of all Americans still believe in the core QAnon message: https://www.prri.org/research/the-persistence-of-qanon-in-the-post-trump-era-an-analysis-of-who-believes-the-conspiracies/

Tucker out at Fox: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/24/1171641969/fox-news-fires-tucker-carlson-in-stunning-move-a-week-after-787-million-settleme

Chris Bader, “When Prophecy Passes Unnoticed”: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1387588?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Dr. Christopher Bader: https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/christopher-bader

Cat Transcendence - limitless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwmeH6Rnj2E

“The QAnon ‘Storm’ Never Struck”: https://www.npr.org/sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958907699/the-qanon-storm-never-struck-some-supporters-are-wavering-others-steadfast

Clips of Q adherents from: CNN reporting from 2018 at a Trump rally (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dGVXmuLmEM )

Clips from “Satanic Panic” reporting from: CBC/Radio-Canada (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plEImKEIRm8)

Leah and Brian try the no-dunking challenge to talk about some weirdly religious videos by William Tapley, AKA “The Third Eagle of the Apocalypse.” First up: The Eagle uncovers Satanic messages in Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” Then, other things are REVEALED.

William Tapley, AKA “The Third Eagle of the Apocalypse” in YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thirdeaglebooks 

Some background on the obscure William Tapley: http://www.jnordstrom.ca/blog-ideas-and-updates/bill-tapley-third-eagle-of-the-apocalypse-and-co-prophet-of-the-end-times

William Tapley’s description of himself on his own website: https://www.thirdeaglemedia.com/about-me

CORRECTION: Apparently William Tapley is not against the current pope, sort of: https://www.thirdeaglemedia.com/pope-watch

The Third Eagle Takes on “Call Me Maybe”: https://twitter.com/LloydLegalist/status/1646633539645980673?s=20

The Third Eagle’s “It’s Prophesied” re: Obama: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLT66yJBYbA&t=44s

The Third Eagle’s “Doom & Gloom”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5PLf-2FYIM

Belief in modern day prophets (statistics): https://religioninpublic.blog/2023/04/10/how-many-americans-believe-in-modern-day-prophets-what-does-that-entail/ 

Megan Goodwin’s Abusing Religion: Literary Persecution, Sex Scandals, and American Minority Religions: https://www.amazon.com/Abusing-Religion-Literary-Persecution-Religions/dp/1978807783

Jason C. Bivins, Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Contemporary Evangelicalism: https://www.amazon.com/Religion-Fear-Politics-Conservative-Evangelicalism/dp/B008SLEH48

A rebroadcast of one of the top five most popular Weird Religion episodes of all time: on the embattled former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes and her attempt to create—or rather, fake having created—a futuristic blood-testing system. We end up having a gender smackdown conversation about women-on-women violence in the workplace, discussing ancient female fertility figurines and matriarchal societies, and musing on whether Holmes intentionally tried to dress like a religious leader. Longtime listeners can remember our older format and theme music; newer listeners can go back in time and hear how we were doing it in the summer of 2019 (this was S3 of the show).

UPDATED NOTES:

Holmes seems to be losing her appeals, and, barring future developments, is set to report to prison for 11 years on April 27, 2023: https://apnews.com/article/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-fraud-prison-sentence-754b44bc47eb200f032b75f45969cb07

Holmes has had two children during her trial, and since we first recorded this episode; many have criticized her for this, suspecting that she is using the babies to try to avoid jailtime: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-03-01/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-cites-baby-reason-avoid-prison

You’re flipping through the channels. On your old cable TV. You see Raiders of the Lost Ark or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade playing on a random channel. It’s in the middle of the movie. Do you select and watch? You do and you know it. Here we invoke a major debate over Dr. Elsa Schneider’s motives in the climactic grail-choosing scene, and daydream about the contents of a new book on Indiana Jones and philosophy. Join us.

Choosing the grail scene:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0TalLrtZ24 

Dr. Elsa Schneider: https://indianajones.fandom.com/wiki/Elsa_Schneider 

Marion Ravenwood: https://indianajones.fandom.com/wiki/Marion_Ravenwood

Contested objects at the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collection 

New book on Indiana Jones and Philosophy: https://www.amazon.com/Indiana-Jones-Philosophy-Archaeology-Adventure/dp/1119740150 

Indiana Jones theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTpp8PQSog 

Nietzsche on “God is dead…”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_is_dead 

When you put religion on TV, you have to get religion consultants. Why even bother being accurate? Does Jesus look at someone to be healed with compassion—or anger? We end with a conversation about the term “minoritized” (vs. “minority”).

Review of Brian’s appearance on a Travel Channel show debunking a Phoenician inscription: https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-america-unearthed-s04e05-phoenicians-in-america

“Horror Shows Like Mayfair Witches Hire Occult Consultant”: https://religionnews.com/2023/03/07/horror-shows-like-mayfair-witches-hire-occult-consultants-to-cast-their-spells/ 

Supernatural S2E18: https://www.netflix.com/watch/70223069 

The Chosen: “Jesus Heals at the Pool” (clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMj1ggINLe4 

Jesus’s anger problem in Mark 1:41 (for the opposite argument re: what Brian said): http://bit.ly/3TxyKJE

lectio difficilior: https://www.livius.org/articles/theory/lectio-difficilior-potior/

Jesus the Exorcist: https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Exorcist-Contribution-Study-Historical/dp/1610970608 

“Sister Alice” and Aimee Semple McPherson on HBO’s Perry Mason: https://slate.com/culture/2020/06/perry-mason-sister-alice-aimee-semple-mcpherson.html

On the language of “minoritized” vs. “minority”: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26894228

This is possibly the weirdest religious moment of the year so far: Buried within a legal brief about an election fraud scandal are the contents of an email someone sent to Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers, in 2020. The email makes claims about how someone might receive information about a stolen election. Those claims are surprising.

The Dominion Voting Systems vs. Fox News defamation suit: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/22/1150647042/dominion-voting-systems-1-6-billion-defamation-suit-against-fox-news-goes-to-tri

Who is Sidney Powell?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Powell

What evidence is now coming out about where Sidney Powell got some of her information: 
https://www.businessinsider.com/sidney-powell-voter-fraud-claims-headless-time-travel-dominion-fox-2023-2
and
https://www.salon.com/2023/02/17/trumpworld-conspiracy-theory-stemmed-from-email-by-internally-decapitated-ghost-filing/ 

Documents for Dominion Case vs. Fox News (see pp. 37-38 on the email about time travel):
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/redacted-documents-in-dominion-fox-news-case/dca5e3880422426f/full.pdf 

056 THE BUFFALO (Jake Angeli, QAnon, apocalypse, epiphany, and the iconography of insurrection):
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/056-the-buffalo-jake-angeli-qanon-apocalypse-epiphany/id1428037534?i=1000504839007

Sidney Powell’s website appearance request form: 
https://www.sidneypowell.com/speaker-invite-form

Moses sings a song that takes us…deep into the problem of Christian nationalism. Come for the most secretly controversial passage in the Bible; stay for Leah trying to be a therapist for Brian on the problem of hating Christian nationalism but fearing that we need it for social cohesion. And a scholarly theory on the evolution from polytheism to monotheism in ancient Israel.

Deuteronomy ch. 32: sons of Israel, or sons of GODS?! https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy%2032&version=NIV 

The new survey, showing 50% of Republicans like Christian Nationalism: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/14/1156642544/more-than-half-of-republicans-support-christian-nationalism-according-to-a-new-s 

The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover (book): https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691175119/the-gospel-of-j-edgar-hoover 

Kristen Kobes du Mez: https://kristindumez.com/ 

A past episode, 018 THE WAR: Professor James Byrd on war and social cohesion: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/018-the-war-ken-burns-vietnam-documentary-professor/id1428037534?i=1000425540100 

Psalm 82, many gods? https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+82&version=NIV

Mark Smith, Princeton Seminary, on the Origins of Biblical Monotheism: https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Biblical-Monotheism-Polytheistic-Background/dp/0195167686

Here witness the thematic collision between a dustup over a now-deleted Gospel Coalition article about sex and a new Christian dating site for men and women who want to be in what they think are biblically-traditional relationships.

The Gospel Coalition’s apology for the article / book excerpt, “Sex Won’t Save You–But it Points to the One Who Will”: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sex-wont-save-you/ 

NT Professor Michael Bird’s response to the “Sex Won’t Save You” article, with many links etc.: https://michaelfbird.substack.com/p/tgc-sex-and-christ 

NT Professor Esau McCaulley on “Sex Won’t Save You”: https://twitter.com/esaumccaulley/status/1631380537892806669?s=20 

On New Christian Dating Apps: https://religionnews.com/2022/09/27/new-dating-apps-and-in-person-mixers-target-religious-and-political-niches/

Dominion Dating member requirements: https://dominiondating.com/member-requirements/ 

Read the opening three chapters of Genesis, ye heathens: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201-3&version=NIV

Trad Wives on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tag/tradwife?lang=en

Despite not being known fundamentalist or evangelical influencer royalty, Brian scored an invitation to the 2023 National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. We discuss the sights, sounds, beliefs, dress code, costs, content, scandal, and music of the event. Was Brian inducted into The Family? We reveal.

Axios article on the new Prayer Breakfast format: https://www.axios.com/2023/01/29/national-prayer-breakfast-congress-leadership

Slate on the National Prayer Breakfast schism: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/02/national-prayer-breakfast-family-fellowship-gathering.html

Netflix documentary: The Family: https://www.netflix.com/title/80063867

Kenyan Civil War avoided through staged hug, facilitated by “The Family”? https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/kenya/b136-after-kenyas-leaders-reconcile-tough-path-ahead

Leaked emails on the Family’s continued involvement in the Prayer Breakfast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRrAtS4sjYY

Donald Trump’s “non-traditional” prayerful address to the Prayer Breakfast in 2020: https://youtu.be/XuE2Tgg0qFE

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy’s live video address to the Prayer Breakfast: https://www.president.gov.ua/en/videos/mayemo-zrobiti-vse-shob-nastupnogo-roku-mi-zmogli-pomolitisy-4129

Cathy McMorris Rodgers: ***CORRECTION: She initially said she would not certify the election, then changed her mind after the January 6th riot and did vote to certify (she did not think the Capitol Riot was “great,” apparently; but she didn’t think Trump was to blame at all; see the following links): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_McMorris_Rodgers#Donald_Trump; https://www.krem.com/article/news/investigations/mcmorris-rodgers-says-trump-didnt-give-rioters-direction-to-storm-the-capitol/293-6052edac-09fc-433f-8694-c4390a265e15; https://www.khq.com/news/mcmorris-rodgers-asks-protesters-to-stop-attacks-on-capitol-police/article_3b5f0246-5058-11eb-9496-4b48f26ee63c.html

In February of 2023 students at Asbury University—a Christian college in Kentucky—started a revival, which has gone on for weeks (the “public” phase of the revival ended around Feb. 19th). Professional revival seekers flocked in to participate. We explain what a “revival” is and talk about how observers are thinking about the pros and cons of spiritual revival on this particular college campus. Fox News also used one of Leah’s tweets on the topic (!), so we discuss that as well.

Basic info on the revival: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/asbury-university-revival-college-kentucky-going-viral-tiktok-rcna70686

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Asbury_revival 

Leah’s Twitter thread, picked up by Fox News: https://twitter.com/drleahpayne/status/1624507669238419456?s=20 

Scenes from the Asbury revival: https://youtube.com/shorts/NNhuxCFjZ00?feature=share 

Demon at Asbury shrieks out: https://youtube.com/shorts/FQ4qDYfZsdA?feature=share 

Faith leaders push back (?): https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/church/church-faith-leaders-push-back-on-asbury-revival-criticism/

Medieval dancing craze for hundreds of years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania