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Unfortunately, I am trying to understand QAnon. It is not shocking to me how much it is like church. Different god. Same practices, for example seeking out the vulnerable to evangelize them into the group. What is surprising to me...
MSM continues not to pursue this part of the story: some are possibly more susceptible to this bc they have already been indoctrinated by church. And look, I get that Q is a cult and we could draw all kinds of parallels between this political cult & religious cults, but...
A political cult on the right, comprised primarily of white people, most of whom would identify as Christian in a country where the christian church has infiltrated the right wing...
And so, it's easy for someone to post vaguely Q stuff on socials & get likes from their evangelical friends & relatives. bc they use the same language. So while Q seems so far out of the mainstream, it is right smack dab in the middle of evangelical mainstream.
When I read graphic descriptions of HRC and Pelosi tearing faces off babies and wearing them in satanic rituals....this seems absolutely batshit. These women are grandmothers who have fought for children their entire lives and careers. But then...
I think of all the insane, intentionally grotesque takes on abortion & abortion providers that I learned in church and at bible camp. I also came of age during the satanic panic. Listened to Mike Warnke on the way to church (google this guy 
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As batshit as it sounds, church people have been getting riled up by stuff like this since the middle of the last century when White Christians adult really didn't want to desegregate their schools. It is part of the culture. So if you were raised in it...
Even if you weren't a super christian, even if you left the church, these programs are latent but hardwired into your brain, easily reactivated.
QAnon is like church in that it promises community and belonging. Come as you are, my friends. Church has a lot of rules and few truly do accept you "as you are"...but believing the right thing is important.
God is the god of church. Q is the god of QAnon. God delivers messages through a book thousands of years old. Q posts messages online. The Bible can be difficult to understand or interpreted differently by different readers. I'm guessing we could say the same about QAnon's posts.
A lot of my christian life was trying to discern God's will through the Bible but also other signs like wisdom from others. I wrote last fall about a time in my life when God got quiet. For the most part, God went dark....Lo and behold, Q did the same thing after the election.
Because God never communicated directly and the Bible was cryptic...a lot of my experience of church life was a bunch of people gathering in community and trying to figure out what God wanted. Of course, some people had more power so their opinion had more weight, but...
I've read descriptions of Q people in chat rooms trying to figure out what it meant that the storm didn't happen as expected. What does this mean? Where do we go next? When "god" goes silent and god's promises go unfulfilled...a lot of chaos ensues.
