Fighting the Great Reset

Dr. Susannah Crockford: "Have the ancient gods returned?" So asked Naomi Wolf in a Substack post in February 2023. In what she calls the 'Western world,' a 'metaphysical evil' has changed 'values of human rights and decency to values of death, exclusion and hatred overnight en masse.' What does this even mean? Wolf is referring to the mitigation policies against COVID-19. In the world view of Naomi Wolf masks are child abuse, vaccines are coercion, hospitals are 'killing factories,' and the media lies to cover it up, as if following a script. Such sinister collaboration could not be achieved through normal human agency. It was all too quick and too coordinated. Wolf writes, "What we have lived through since 2020 is so sophisticated, so massive, so evil, and executed in such inhumane unison, that it cannot be accounted for without venturing into metaphysics. Something else, something metaphysical, must have done that. And I speak as a devoted rationalist." Rejecting Satan as the personification of this metaphysical evil-- too Christian-- she identifies it as the ancient Mesopotamian gods, such as Ba'al, Astarte, and Moloch. These 'ancient pagan energies' have returned to 'the West' because we have turned away from Judeo-Christianity. This explanation 'feels right' to Wolf.

Naomi Wolf: What is your thesis in the return of the gods? And let's just jump right in.

Jonathan Cahn: Well, it goes right along with what you said. The, you know, people from every background have been saying, "What is going on?" Because it's just irrational and it is not normal. It is not natural to see people doing what they're doing. And people from all walks of life, you know, are seeing this and saying this. And what 'The Return of the Gods' is saying, I mean, I generally, Naomi, you know, most of my books are about, you know, about ancient mysteries that are affecting us now. And this is probably the most explosive one. And that is that the gods, that are called gods in the Bible, that what if there was something real behind them, a real link to them? What if there is actually reality? It's not just mythology. I mean, there's mythology, of course, but there's something real about this phenomenon. And what if they were at work now? And so one of the things is that, you know, in the Torah, Moses said, when he speaks first about the worshiping of the gods, at one point in Deuteronomy, he uses a word-- 'shedim.' And 'shedim' is not, doesn't speak of, you know, a mythology, or, you know, a construct. It means a spirit or an entity with volition, with consciousness. It's linked to a Babylonian word, 'shedo,' where they also spoke about the gods, and they spoke about entities. Now, with the Babylonians, they said it could be good or bad. But in the Bible, it says, 'no, this is not good; it's only bad.'

Dr. Crockford: That's Wolf talking to Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jewish pastor and the source of her new insights. Cahn wrote a book called 'The Return of The Gods.' Messianic Jews are evangelical Protestants who incorporate some elements of Judaism into their practice. Cahn also styles himself as a prophet and claims that we are in the 'end times' because of abortion, gay rights, and the reduced public role of religion. He says that the ancient gods that the Bible repeatedly warns the Jewish people from worshiping are known as 'demons' in modern English. They are back because we have turned away from the Judeo-Christian God. Wolf translates these demons as 'energies' embodied by rampant licentiousness, domination, and what she calls 'death-worship' prevalent since 2020. She sees the symbols of these demonic energies in performances by pop musicians Katy Perry and Sam Smith, opening ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games and a Swiss train tunnel, and a statue in homage to Ruth Bader Ginsburg-- because these performances and artworks all incorporated stylistic elements of bulls, lions, tentacles, and Satanic horns. These symbols herald the fall of America and the West, because we have broken the ancient biblical covenant with God. Wolf finishes, "This may indeed be what hell itself looks like." Which is perhaps an overstatement of how bad a Katy Perry concert is.

Dr. Crockford: So have we been in more than a pandemic Since 2020, or could this spiritual war against demons be yet more misinformation? And if it is, then what-- or who-- are Wolf and others like her really fighting against?

Dr. Crockford: Welcome to Miss Information, a limited podcast series by me, Dr. Susannah Crockford, in conjunction with the Institute for Religion, Media and Civic Engagement and Axis Mundi Media. Miss Information was produced by Dr. Bradley Onishi and engineered by Scott Okamoto. Kari Onishi provided production assistance. Miss Information was made possible through generous funding from the Henry Luce Foundation. If you remember episode four, we talked about the wellness to conspirituality pipeline, and how yoga is often identified as being particularly rife with conspiracy theories. And instead, we discuss the importance of communities, the ideas and beliefs current in those communities that may go against biomedicine and also may oppose others. So this isn't necessarily a pipeline, but we're going to continue those thoughts today by talking about something similar, this idea of polarization. Are we implacably opposed; one side against another? So today, we're going to talk about something called the 'Great Reset,' a conspiracy theory that has spread since 2020 to explain the turbulent world events we have endured since then-- from the pandemic to inflation. Wolf's Substack essay highlights key themes in the Great Reset conspiracy theory. It's about an existential battle between good and evil, playing out on the temporal plane as COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures and their economic consequences. From mid-2020, reactions against COVID-19 mitigations became increasingly more extreme as it became clear that some people were determined to see policies like business and school shutdowns, mask mandates, and vaccinations, as a covert attack by political opponents. Some went further and saw a religious war between good and evil. Jonathan Cahn was just one example of a pastor in the prophecy tradition of evangelical Christianity who saw COVID-19 within the frame of spiritual warfare.

Jonathan Cahn: [Interviewer: ...signs of the times. Where are we on the prophetic time clock for these demonic spirits to return in such a major way?] Well, it's amazing you say that because this is kind of bridging the gap between what you read about in the Bible about end-time prophecy-- 'Men shall be lovers of self,' 'they shall be haters of good,' 'they will persecute Christians.' You know, that's where this is setting the stage. We are raising a generation under the influence of the-- we're raising a generation to be enemies of God. That's what we're doing, and that's why-- so that's what will happen-- is if we do not have-- if there's not a revival. That's the only hope America has. And if believers don't stand for the gospel, don't spread the gospel, if everybody's intimidated and they don't open their mouth, and they don't share God, that's when the darkness wins. You know, when the light goes out, the darkness comes in. And so the thing is that, with that... is that it leads to persecution. But then again, the Bible speaks about that...

Dr. Crockford: Charlie Kirk, the president of turning point USA and a well-known right-wing spokesperson, also talked about the Great Reset, reframing all the conspiracy theories of the New World Order.

Jack Hibbs: The New World Order, the Great Reset. Charlie Kirk and I are going to get together. We're going to break it down. The word of God as it relates to the world around us. Let's get into it.

Charlie Kirk: Well, Western values are an extension of the Judeo-Christian construct. Specifically, of Christian New Testament teaching. Western values is a belief in God-granted natural rights and separation of powers and consent of the governed. Western values reject this idea that a singular individual has a mandate to rule without any question over you. Western values are the fruits of the Enlightenment blended correctly with the truths of the Bible and things from antiquity. That Western values is why we are able to have the technological advancements, the medical advancements, the communication advancements that we enjoy. But more than anything else, Western values, this right here, what they say-- this is code. Western values? No, no. They're really saying 'Biblical values.' [That's exactly it.] Okay? Because they know that if they put 'Biblical values' on the website, boom, okay, then everyone would be talking about it. But western values, like, okay, yeah, whatever. Like, that sounds like something in a college course. What they're trying to say is they're going to try to break, by 2030, Biblical values. So more specifically, they want to break every single one of the 10 Commandments, every single one. How about this: Is there or is there not a concerted effort to try to break the bond between parents and children right now? Of course! [On steroids.] You cannot have a Great Reset if parents have strong bonds with their children. That is the only commandment that comes with a promise and involves your nation. It's the only commandment because it says...

Dr. Crockford: Former Trump advisor, Sebastian Gorka, and former Republican political aide and vocal climate denier, Mark Morano, wrote a book about the Great Reset. So what does it mean? When businesses, schools, and other activities shut down to limit the spread of COVID-19, rumors spread online that the virus was not as bad as claimed. So why was everything shut down? There had to be another reason to do something so damaging and dramatic. For some on the right, that reason was the Great Reset. The federal government, the World Economic Forum, the WHO, the UN were all in cahoots to force an economic shift to socialism under the guise of the so-called deadly virus, COVID-19. That's the crux of the conspiracy theory. Fighting the Great Reset alleges a conspiracy of a range of organizations and groups that many on the right already don't like-- the Biden administration, the WHO, the WEF, the UN-- the usual suspects trying to take America's freedom. But it is also a means to an end. It provides a way of mobilizing support for an existential battle across religious and political lines. The Great Reset is a flexible enough symbol that can incorporate crossovers with Christian nationalism, secular anti-government sentiment, both left and right wing political alignments and more. The main message is not to trust the government or scientific, medical, or international organizations, and more than distrust; fight a war to defend yourself and your children against their nefarious schemes. The Great Reset draws a 'them versus us' division, which can be equated with 'good versus evil.' It makes the fight both existential and metaphysical, with stakes beyond worldly misfortune. So once again, we ask, is this misinformation? If people genuinely believe in a spiritual war of good versus evil, then the Great Reset follows from those pre-existing beliefs. What are the boundaries between misinformation and religious belief?

Media Clip (Speaker 1): You don't want to go back to the status quo that you had before, simply because it was the status quo that got us here.

Media Clip (Speaker 2): With everything falling apart, we can reshape the world in ways we couldn't before, ways that better address so many of the challenges we face. And that's why so many are calling for a Great Reset? A Great Reset? That sounds more like buzzword bingo, masking some nefarious plans for world domination. Hands up, this kind of slogan hasn't gone down well. But all we really want to say is that we all have an opportunity to build a better world. And it's not surprising that people who've been disenfranchised by a broken system and pushed even further by the pandemic will suspect global leaders of conspiracy. But the world's not that simple. Every one of us has differing priorities...

Dr. Crockford: That was a clip from the World Economic Forum about what they meant by The Great Reset. It started as an initiative proposed to map out how the world's economies could recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and move forward in a more sustainable way to address the ongoing challenge of climate change. It was a way to realign the global economy to meet the needs of people and the environment, rather than continuing down a destructive path that is causing ecological degradation, vast socio-economic inequalities and pandemics. This all sounds not that bad? Good, even? So how did it turn into a conspiracy theory? The first thing to address is: what is the World Economic Forum and who asked them to fix the global economy anyway? The World Economic Forum is an international organization that represents multinational organizations. It's not a government body. It's not part of the UN. Most of its members are corporations with over $5 billion in annual turnover. They are known for gathering in Davos, Switzerland, for world leaders, business people, even celebrities, to discuss what they term 'global issues.' If you were going to find a caricature of 'global elites,' a picture of the Davos participants would probably do the trick. So wait, these are the people who are going to fix socioeconomic equality for the rest of us? The corporations and leaders and organizations that are currently benefiting from rapidly increasing levels of socioeconomic inequality? If you're skeptical, you're not alone. Right-wing commentators have spread conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum for a while now-- whispers of the backroom deals of 'globalists' to stitch up the economy for their own benefit. Scheming elites running the world in shadows is a conspiracy theory trope with a long-- and anti-semitic-- history. On social media, 'globalists' and 'bankers' often occur in posts alongside names in triple brackets to signal that the names are Jewish. And the idea that the WEF is part of a secret cabal of scheming elites coded as Jewish, fits into older ideas. Before there was the Great Reset, there was the New World Order. The phrase came from a speech by George H. W. Bush in 1991:

George H. W. Bush: What is at stake is more than one small country. It is a big idea, a New World Order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind, peace and security, freedom and the rule of law.

Dr. Crockford: But it posited pretty much the same thing as the Great Reset-- these people with money and power, who we barely know the names of, are in control, and the rest of us get shafted by them. You can go back further in history to ideas about the Illuminati or the Freemasons. They all basically alleged largely the same narrative. And it's a narrative that fits with the way capitalism seems to work for those of us who don't benefit from it. It 'feels right' as Naomi Wolf might say, and it's often transmitted without the explicit anti-semitism that the elites are Jewish, making it more appealing to a wider audience. Who are then introduced to the more extreme, explicitly anti-semitic parts of the theory, once they're already on board with the basic premises. You can find the ideas that the shadowy elite groups are controlling world events in most of the charismatic mega-conspiracy theories of the last 50 years or so: the JFK assassination, 9/11 was an inside job, the existence of UFOs. And they draw strength and legitimacy from instances where world leaders and their associates really did conspire to drive the course of events their way-- like Watergate, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and the claim that Saddam Hussein had WMDs in Iraq.

Dr. Crockford: And then in 2019, the World Economic Forum, already alleged in conspiracy theory circles to be part of these backroom shadow groups running everything, just happened to run a simulation of a global pandemic. Called "Event 201," world leaders discussed what they would do in case such a widespread outbreak of a novel infectious disease did occur.

Media Clip: Experts agree, unless it is quickly controlled, it could lead to a severe pandemic, an outbreak that circles the globe and affects people everywhere.

Dr. Crockford: And then, of course, it did. Conspiracy theorists went wild. 'Here it was,' they claimed, 'out in the open!' They ran the simulation, and then months later, the same thing actually occurred. And then Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, came out and said that this pandemic represents an opportunity for a 'Great Reset' to transition the economy to something more sustainable and just. Now, if you're already living in right-wing conspiracy land, words like 'sustainability' and 'economic justice' are code words. Climate change isn't real in your world, it's a hoax. You've heard about things like Agenda 21 from the UN trying to force a One World Government to solve climate change, which the UN just made up to force theOne World Government. And economic justice? Well, in your world, that just means socialism. Something that you associate with anything bad, anti-freedom, and poor people getting help they didn't earn. What Schwab announced was anathema to right-wing economic ideals and played right into pre-existing conspiracy theory tropes. And then Prince Charles, now King of Great Britain, also came out and said, we have 'no alternative' but to change the economy because of climate change.

Media Clip (Speaker 1): Have a look at this. This was Prince Charles talking to the World Economic Forum, another big globalist club. And hey, this is what he said to them in 2020:

Media Clip (Prince Charles): Ace, we have no alternative, because otherwise, unless we take the action necessary and we build again in a greener and more sustainable and more inclusive way, then we will end up having more and more pandemics and more and more disasters from ever accelerating global warming and climate change. So this is the one moment as you've all been saying, when we have to make as much progress as...

Dr. Crockford: And Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, said the pandemic offered an opportunity for a 'reset' at the UN on a video that went viral.

Media Clip (Justin Trudeau): This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset. This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts, to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change. Last week, our government...

Dr. Crockford: There they were, the elites out in the open, giving the game away, telling on themselves. The Great Reset was, in fact, a silent coup taking freedom and democracy away and replacing it with authoritarian socialism. Policies like lockdowns, school closures, limits to business to maintain social distancing, were all premised on a big lie called COVID! And the real aim was to force us into socialist global government.

Media Clip: Like many of the politically correct ideas that we hear bandied about in the media, this entire project is couched in kindness. It is presented as something that is being done or being proposed for our good and for the greater good. And that always sets my alarms and sensors going, because that tends to lead to very problematic ideology. In a very quick nutshell, the proposal out of Davos is essentially this: a group of exceptionally powerful individuals, predominantly in the banking, finance, and business sector, in alliance with government leadership, are proposing that as a result of these COVID lockdowns that have done a great deal of damage to economies globally, they perceive that they now have an opportunity to rebuild economies, but to do so In what they believe is a more enlightened fashion. And there are, generally speaking, there are problems with the idea of groups of people in power deciding the history of humanity. In the best case scenario, we are simply supposed to be free to determine our own futures, our own progress, what we want out of life. Now, in this particular case, what they're proposing is a sort of collectivist idea that takes personal ownership out of the equation. The little phrase, and it sounds so innocent, is "you will own nothing, and you will be happy." Now, if you go back just several 100 years...

Dr. Crockford: The conspiracy theory spread from the wilder corners of the internet, like 8chan and 4chan, through the more mainstream social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and into broadcast news as well via the Fox News rogues' gallery of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

Laura Ingraham: ...kick around their plans for saving the planet, and instead, the AP says their event has become a target of bizarre claims for those who believe a group of elites are manipulating global events for their own benefit. The Great Reset has become shorthand on conservative talk shows for what skeptics say is a 'reorganization of society.' Okay, hey, fellas at the AP, hate to break to ya, but the truth is not a conspiracy. Now, what is the word reset...

Dr. Crockford: Take a moment to think about this, why would an organization like the WEF that partners with corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, IKEA, Lockheed Martin, Ericsson and Deloitte, try to force us into socialism? It's not like Lockheed's business model of profiting from international arms sales would really gel with that. Later, Trudeau commented on the reaction to what he said, "I think we're in a time of anxiety, where people are looking for reasons that things are happening to them... We're seeing a lot of people fall prey to disinformation." Which...yeah...

Justin Trudeau: ...and the challenge that we have now is that increasingly misinformation and disinformation is carrying people to believe things that are untrue. And vaccinations are a perfect example of it...

Dr. Crockford: But it's more than just disinformation, more than just something wrong and clearly irrational that we can all laugh about. For those that believe it, the Great Reset represents something much more: a battle of good versus evil. This gave the theory a crucial appeal to evangelicals who believe in something called spiritual warfare. So what is spiritual warfare? To find out, I spoke to today's guest.

Jonathon O'Donnell: Hello, everybody. My name is Jonathan O'Donnell. I'm currently a visiting scholar at Queen's University Belfast. I specialize primarily in contemporary American evangelicalism and the overlap of religion and politics. I have a specific focus on what is known as spiritual warfare and contemporary Christian demologies in the United States. So spiritual warfare is a concept that has, actually, a pretty long history with it in Christianity, even going back to, like, very early Christianity, there was a very strong focus on spiritual warfare. What it is, essentially, is the belief that material society is ultimately underlied and conditioned by supernatural forces that are, like, operating underneath the surface. So, this is a primary way that this manifests, is the conflict between, kind of, good and evil; light and darkness; God and the devil; angels and demons, like, entities, kind of, of that description. Spiritual warfare, more specifically, is the idea that it is the duty of both of Christians, individually and collectively, to engage in this conflict that, kind of, underlies reality. Kind of, intervening on the side of light against the side of darkness, essentially. And this could take many forms. In early Christianity, for example, like two of the big ways that this manifested was, on the one hand, in kind of monastic discourses. You had these ideas of monks going out to the wilderness to temper themselves through spiritual combat with the devil and with temptation as a way of, kind of, forging themselves into these kind of perfect divine warriors, essentially, on the spiritual realm. The other way it manifested, or at least one of the other ways it manifested, was in, kind of, urban Christianization practices where Christians would see their convert conversion practices within kind of the cities of late antiquity, and Greece and Rome, for example, as chasing out the demonic beings that were seen as inhabiting those of the pagan society more generally. So they saw their practice as, kind of, turning society increasingly Christian, as like a form of spiritual warfare against these kinds of demonic gods that they saw as ruling the ancient world. And then chasing those out into the wilderness where the monks could presumably do combat with them later, whatever it happened to be. So that's kind of early Christian spiritual warfare. That idea continues on and off throughout most of Christian history, at least history in Christian Europe, but also elsewhere, through practices of colonialism, for example. So it's often highlighted during the early modern period, during the witch trials, for example, with the ideas of demons at large and in the world causing disease and political upheaval and religious upheaval and all of that. Demons often seem to manifest during times of, I guess, like social and political upheaval. When times are changing, and things are terrifying, seeing some kind of supernatural force underlying it can be, I guess, like one way of processing that form of societal change. What I study primarily is modern practices of spiritual warfare in contemporary America, where essentially, you'll have large numbers of mostly evangelical, but not exclusively evangelical Christians. There's also a lot of Catholic Christians and Eastern Orthodox Christians who practice spiritual warfare, and they form strange, kind of, quasi interfaith, post-denominational networks with each other.

Dr. Crockford: Spiritual Warfare moves through its own brand of interfaith networks, drawing together people across denominations and political cleavages to fight an imagined good versus evil battle embodied by the figure of the demon. And demons, as we have seen, are a remarkably flexible symbol-- the type that can stand for lots of different things, enabling people to read what they want into the word 'demon.' Naomi Wolf can read an ancient deity like Astarte into the word and then see it in a Katy Perry concert, where she appears to be standing on a lion, just like the ancient deity. But a demon can be seen in many other ways. Spiritual Warfare spreads through media ministries, the large online media presence that many evangelical churches have that includes YouTube channels, websites for sermons, podcasts, broadcast media to disseminate their online message, social media posts, and email newsletters. The importance of a broad and high subscriber online presence cannot be understated. For evangelical ministries, it's part of how they evangelize in the contemporary world, part of how they reach more people.

Speaker 1: Spiritual Warfare is a biblical phrase used to describe the battle for control over people's souls. Whether you believe in God or not, God has created you for a reason. He created you to know Him, worship Him, and to experience his love. And God has an enemy who is the devil. And this enemy is competing and fighting to destroy your soul. His tactic...

Dr. Crockford: Prayers like this show how spiritual warfare can be made meaningful to people in their daily lives. Yes, the battle against demons can form a narrative for interpreting current events, like the Great Reset. But it can also be personal as well as politics. What's going on in your own life can be down to demons as well. You could be fighting a demon when you're an alcoholic. You could be fighting a demon when you want a promotion at work. You could be fighting a demon when you're running for the school board. The demons are enemies, obstructions, difficulties or challenges. Writ large and small, it's demons all the way down.

Dr. Crockford: So what this sounds to me, as an anthropologist who has studied the way mythical figures of evil appear cross-culturally-- whether it's demons, witches or aliens-- is an explanatory model for misfortune. We all deal with misfortune, and even when we know how it happened, we often still have questions as to why. Why did this specific bad thing happen to me, specifically? That's something that science doesn't answer, but religion does. These are questions of meaning, or what theologian Paul Tillich would call 'ultimate concern.' Something we heard about in episode two about vaccine history. And in spiritual warfare, if something bad happened? It's demons.

Jeff Kinley: ...there's going to be, essentially, a 10 nation Confederation that's going to represent the nations of the world in the end times. It's going to be ruled over by one single man called, the antichrist. And that, essentially, will control everything that goes on in the world-- everything socially, economically, religiously, morally. And eventually he's going to require them to worship him, which is Satan's ancient ambition, anyways, to be worshiped. So he's going to receive that worship through antichrist. So what we see right now is simply the infrastructure of that one world government, their calls for that. And it's interesting, as you said, you know, these are not pastors who are saying these things are going to happen, these are people that are in the secular world, even pagans themselves, these global elites saying, 'we want this to happen now,' and so they're actively pushing for it. And they have representatives in most every government on the planet. Our own President, Joe Biden, ran on a World Economic Forum's motto called, 'Build Back Better,' the idea that we tear it down and we build it back better. So it's all coming together nationally, internationally, to bring about the Great Reset.

Dr. Crockford: So when the COVID-19 pandemic happened, a whole lot of people experienced a whole lot of misfortune. You didn't need to catch COVID to be affected by the mitigation policies put into place to try to limit its spread. And a lot of people were searching for meaning amid all this suffering. Why did I get sick? Why did my child's school close? Why did I lose my job? And we don't have to put these questions on a scale from bad to worse to understand that people will still search for meaning, even when what one person endures seems relatively minor compared to another. That search can be powered by something as huge as, "Why did I lose the person I love?" as much as something seemingly trivial like, "Why can't I go to Olive Garden when I want to?" So when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, how did evangelical and charismatic Christians involved in spiritual warfare interpret that?

Jonathon: Initially, it was kind of interesting, because they felt that initially there was more ambiguity in how to take the pandemic as, like, an event. So very early on you had some that were casting it as this kind of demonic, or satanic kind of event. There were also quite a lot that were more in the neutral zone of treating it as just a virus, like as a thing that was happening that didn't necessarily have some kind of supernatural or spiritual meaning. This changed, I think, quite rapidly as time went on, especially as things like masking measures and lockdown measures. So, basically, once the social ramifications of what the pandemic meant for people's lives started to come into effect the narrative, very much lurched towards it being this kind of demonological, or satanic kind of event. I'd say there were a few levels that this manifested on. On the one hand, you had casting of the virus itself as something demonic. So probably the best example that went viral around the time was a video of, I think, Kenneth Copeland, the preacher, basically, blowing the virus away with the Spirit of God in this breathing exorcise-style sermon slash ritual that he was performing. He very much passed the virus, itself, as this demonic entity, or this demonic force that was causing sickness and plague within the population.Which I mean makes sense. I mean, there's a very, very long history of associations of images of plague and pestilence with the demonic and with demonic influence, going all the way back to the ancient Near East. This has been a very long comeback. So for, like, for Copeland and others who were processing it in that way, at least early on, the virus itself was this demonic attack on the people, and it could be cast out or exorcised through the invocation of the Spirit of God and the use of God's protective and healing power to fight off this demonic invader, essentially. There's a lot of 'invasion' language that goes into contemporary demonology that was drawn on there. On the other hand, you had, I guess, what might be termed the, kind of, 'COVID denialist broad spectrum.' Well, the virus itself either didn't exist, or at least didn't matter in terms of the discourse. The actual reality of the virus just became secondary to the social and political changes that were undergone in response to it. I'd say that as time went on this is, actually, where the vast majority of spiritual warfare, language, and writings tended to focus on. And partly that's because it fit a pre-existing paradigm that was very prevalent within conservative or right-wing or reactionary evangelicalism, which was the story of government overreach, of government corruption, of the US government itself as a demonic puppet government, essentially. All of these things as stepping stones towards the New World Order, this satanic global super society, super state that they believed is going to kind of rise and take global control at some point in the nebulous future.

Dr. Crockford: So there were a range of responses from evangelicals who used the frame of spiritual warfare. Some used the idea of pestilence as demonic-- another very old and well established association-- to use their prayers to attack COVID. But others engaged in what became known as 'COVID denial,' the idea that the disease was fabricated. It was a hoax. There was no sickness, only crisis actors and lies. Or that the disease wasn't as serious as people, especially the government, were saying. That it was just a bad cold. The specific nature of COVID made these theories more meaningful. How could some people be hospitalized and die, but others had mild symptoms or even asymptomatic? People weren't affected the same? So why, some asked, if it wasn't that bad, were businesses and schools closing? Why tank the economy over that? Something else must be going on.

Dr. Crockford: And we also see the return of one of the boogeymen discussed in episode number two on vaccines-- pharmaceutical companies. Despite being, in many ways, a paragon of global capitalism working as intended, no one likes Big Pharma. And in spiritual warfare, pharmaceutical companies can be seen as demonic or as unwittingly aiding demonic forces through manipulating bodies and their products. Then there is that perennial bete noire of conspiracy theories-- the government. The pandemic needed big government to tackle it because it was a public health crisis. Individual solutions weren't going to cut it. We had to have mandates for wearing masks or closing businesses, and we had to have vaccine development programs funded, and yes, economic stimulus packages. And all this took the type of large scale government policy and coordination that small-government conservatives and conspiracy theorists alike have hated and feared for decades.

Media Clip (Alex Jones): The technocracy is in place. The New World Order is now officially in 2016, that's what the Supreme Court Justice was telling Rudge, 'Get ready, it's all going to start next year.' And it is. And it is. They're going from beta to 1.0. That means New World Order. This is it. We are in the New World Order. We have crossed the line.

Dr. Crockford: So in this context, it was easy for those groups to see the government as demonic, that it was attacking people under the ruse of this disease. Fears about the government and pharmaceutical companies mixed with pre-existing evangelical themes to produce the Great Reset. It was a way to navigate both personal and collective trauma in a way that was legible to an evangelical worldview that held spiritual warfare as a meaningful category of explanation. It's not just evangelicals that the Great Reset theory appealed to though. There was also considerable uptake of this theory in New Age spirituality, especially those prone to conspirituality, which we discussed in episode four. What many may not realize are the curious overlaps between evangelical Christianity and New Age spirituality, where both feel beset by dark energies they have to ritually cleanse. These overlaps persist despite a well established rejection of New Age spirituality by evangelicals as 'witchcraft,' even though they may do very similar practices or adopt similar theories, such as the Great Reset. There's a certain amount of boundary policing that goes on, of what is or isn't proper Christian practice, of what is real spiritual warfare and what's 'witchcraft.' New Age spirituality may be seen as a demonic counterfeit by some evangelicals, but from an external perspective the practices and even some of the language are very similar. And these similarities can help draw in diverse audiences, for example by clarifying that by 'demons' you mean 'negative energies,' much as Naomi Wolf wrote. During 2021, Clay Clark, an Oklahoma-based entrepreneur launched the ReAwaken America tour, which pitched the 'Great Awakening' against the Great Reset. The Great Awakening is a term used in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which sees a battle of good versus evil in terms of the deep state fighting former President Donald Trump and the 'Patriots.'

Media Clip (Speaker 1): Have you ever wondered why we go to war, or why you never seem to be able to get out of debt? Why there is poverty, division and crime? What if I told you there was a reason for it all, fellow slaves, it's time to buckle your seatbelt...

Media Clip (Speaker 2): The QAnon conspiracy theory has taken off around the world...

Media Clip (Speaker 1): ...we were all enslaved by a hidden enemy....

Media Clip (Speaker 2): The bizarre ideology has attracted millions of believers worldwide, including a large number in Australia....

Dr. Crockford: The Great Awakening is when people see the truth that these conspiracy theories are real, and everything the media and government says is a lie, or like a movie, in QAnon terms. The term 'awakening' is also used in spirituality for the moment when people realize they are on a spiritual path and leave their old life behind. It has older roots in the evangelical revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries, with periods named the first and second Great Awakening, where traveling preachers would hold revival meetings in tents across the country, speaking in tongues and converting people to Protestantism en masse. So Clark was tapping in some strong themes in spiritual warfare when he named this tour. NPR reported that the tour combined conservative Christianity with conspiracy theories and included speakers who were preachers and prophets, as well as pro-Trump political figures. The tour encapsulated the unholy alliance of evangelical Christianity and right-wing politics that has become the hallmark of an aggressive Christian nationalism in the US in recent years.

Media Clip (Speaker 1): Thousands of people came together at Spooky Nook on Saturday for the latest stop in the ReAwakening tour. The tour is organized with the help of Michael Flynn, promoting Christian nationalists and American first ideals.

Media Clip (Speaker 2): I stand against atheistic globalism. I'm a Christian, and I'm in favor of this nation.

Media Clip (Speaker 1): Guest speakers throughout the event spoke out against COVID restrictions throughout the pandemic, vaccines and the 2020 election. The tour has been criticized for peddling conspiracy theories associated with QAnon, which has been labeled as an extremist group by the FBI.

Media Clip (Speaker 3): Get rid of the deep state to get out there and vote. It is not only the federal government. It is at the state level.

Dr. Crockford: However, the online presence of spiritual warfare ministries was limited around the time of COVID-19. YouTube channels and Instagram accounts were shut down because the platforms labeled them as misinformation. But if you believe it, is it still misinformation?

Jonathon: I think it's quite interesting, in this context as well. Obviously, these people were spreading their, I guess, 'world view' to use that term, for years prior to these points.And it was only, arguably, when those world views were seen to have a direct negative public consequence that they became misinformation. Whereas before it may be, presumably been, categorized almost as a form of private belief, even though it was being disseminated in public spaces and public platforms, it wasn't seen as impacting the public broadly. Yeah. So you have this, like, interesting dynamic around the policing of information and the policing of world views relative to the perception by entities with power. Like about how those start impacting or shaping the public sphere, and like the way that the public sphere operates.

Dr. Crockford: Right. Because, in a way, I mean, if you want to be like a real, kind of, materialist atheist about all religion, is a form of misinformation, right? If people are going out there saying, "Jesus is the Son of God," well, can you empirically substantiate that? No. Would that then be misinformation? And you know, a lot of the claims within spiritual warfare work within the worldview. Like, if you're using the logics of evangelical Christianity, then they make sense and they follow one... COVID caused by a demon, or it is a demon. Or, you know, the, you know, the government is a demon because, you know, they're trying to make us wear masks. How dare they.

Jonathon: Like, this is, this is something that I actually touch on a lot when I'm talking to people because people often, I mean, because I deal with demons, a lot of people react when they find out about my area of study with, "Isn't that... it's all like, why are you studying that? Isn't that all nonsense?" I describe the things that the people I study believe, and that makes no sense. I'm like, no but it does, within their worldview, this is all entirely coherent. There is a logic underlying the paradigm in the world view that dictates how things fit. I mean, I think a good example is the casting of the government COVID mandates and processes as part of a, kind of, satanic New World Order style conspiracy. That is a belief system that operated pre-existingly within that framework, and so when the government does something that seems to fit within that framework, they're like, "Ah, yes, we are validated. Evidence is validating our claims."

Dr. Crockford: If you do not accept the existence of demons, then spiritual warfare content would fit a basic definition of misinformation. Demons are not real. Talking about them online would be spreading online misinformation. But if you believe in demons, it forms part of your religious worldview. And as previously mentioned, the search for meaning in times of misfortune is a habitual human occupation, and it forms the basis of much religious thinking and practice. Should people be prevented from explaining personal or political events in terms of demons? Do we ban demon talk? How would that even work?

Dr. Crockford: So at what point do tech companies feel like they have to intervene? This discourse was going on before COVID and YouTube has been full of conspiracy theories for a long time. Then public reaction to the level of COVID conspiracy theories, like the Great Reset, made tech companies do something. Suddenly it impacted them. No one cared if evangelicals thought a demon caused 9/11. But with COVID, if large groups of people are not getting vaccinated or not wearing masks because they think it's all a demonic government conspiracy, suddenly that affects everyone else. It means the disease will continue to spread. The key switch is when worldviews impact people outside of that worldview negatively, then the tech companies will be forced to do something, and then the label of misinformation comes into effect. But to many evangelicals and charismatics, it feels like censorship by these tech companies, because to them, what they are posting online is not that different from what they have posted in the past. It seems like a double standard, and then that reinforces the conspiracy thinking, even legitimizes it, because now they can claim that they are being silenced by the powers that be. They are being censored. So they must be telling the truth, right?

Media Clip (Graham H. Walker - Interview with Naomi Wolf): Free thinkers question authority. Remember that whole thing?

Naomi Wolf: I mean, I take it one step further, sadly. I see insular and cult-like thinking primarily on the progressive side right now. And I say that with a lot of sadness. I've always been proud to be a classical liberal. You know, often been proud to call myself a progressive, and to me that has always stood for a great tradition dating back to the 19th century, and actually to the enlightenment of human rights, freedom of speech, critical thinking, real science, you know, interrogating science, criticism of authority, the right to protest, openness of thought and freedom of association, tolerance, right? I mean, that really is what liberalism, classical liberalism was, especially in Europe in the 19th century. It literally meant tolerance. And, you know, I'm Jewish, it meant that, you know, people who were excluded should have civil rights, should have opportunities in society, should be part of the larger community, and should be judged on merit. And never, never in a million years, would I recognize what I believe 10 years ago, that so quickly, these errors, you know, this tribe of people who are supposed to stand for these civilized norms, you know, with this great lineage, would do a volt face in less than two years. That reduces them to lock-step, cult-like, rigid policers of other people's choices. Rigid supporters of what has become a two tier society. I mean, I'm literally on the phone with my kids, you know, right before I got on this call, trying to find a restaurant in New York City where we can sit indoors because I'm not vaccinated...

Dr. Crockford: Naomi Wolf called out the 'cult-like' policers of other people's choices. She claimed that being unvaccinated has become a basis for discrimination. She calls herself an 'apostate to the left' who is just a critic of inequality and subservience to authority. What we can see in the way Naomi Wolf positions herself is a collapsing of left/right/conservative/progressive distinctions. Instead of these political binaries, the sides are reframed as good versus evil. What this draws in sociological terms, is a distinction between an 'out-group' and an 'in-group.' It's not relevant that Wolf was a prominent feminist writer in the 1990s, or that she is Jewish, or that she was once known as a left-wing thinker. What's become relevant is that Naomi Wolf is on the side of good, the people fighting authoritarian control, the people fighting inequality and injustice. She is on the side of the righteous. And everyone who does not agree with her, well, they are on the side of evil. This is the sound of battle lines being drawn.

Dr. Crockford: The Great Reset is a conspiracy theory about where power lies in global capitalism. It posits that those most piously claiming to support economic change and transformation are actually working for their own mercenary and nefarious benefit. And when the opponent is a group like the World Economic Forum-- the most powerful world leaders in politics and business and culture-- well, you can see why the conspiracy theory might be believable. This conspiracy theory points to a wider social truth-- that most people do not trust elites like the WEF, and that most people do feel like their welfare is not supported by the way the global economy works. But it points to those truths and then walks off in a totally different direction and ends up in conspiracy-land, where masks are child abuse and the hospitals are charnel houses. The Great Reset as a term was repurposed from the WEF to fit pre-existing narratives common across evangelical culture, also to appeal to secular conspiracy theorists with anti-government and anti-international cooperation sentiments, and people involved in New Age spirituality. Thus, conspiracy theories create a broad church. It's a way to build a wide ranging, if unstable coalition across religious and political boundaries that mobilizes against a common enemy that can be symbolically and flexibly defined as 'demons.' Who fits into the demonic category? Anyone who opposes them. Even people who were on the same side at one point. It's a symbol that can be used against anyone deemed to be in the out-group, while providing an explanation for those within the in-group as to why we are living in such dark times. It can also provide a way out of dark times by removing the source of the trouble, by fighting the demons, by expunging the out-group.

Dr. Crockford: Next time, we'll talk about a new front in online misinformation and conspiracy theory land-- 15 minute cities. Why would it be bad to have a short commute? Find out next time on Miss Information. Thank you so much for listening. I've been Susannah Crockford and remember misinformation matters.