Survey examines belief in election fraud, the Deep State, and other theories on American politics.
A new survey reports more than a quarter of white evangelical Protestants believe a QAnon conspiracy theory that purports former President Donald Trump is secretly battling a cabal of pedophile Democrats, and roughly half express support for the debunked claim that antifa was responsible for the recent insurrection at the US Capitol.
Experts say the data point to a widening ideological divide not only between white evangelicals and other religious groups in the country, but also between white evangelical Republicans and other members of their own party.
The survey, which was conducted in late January by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, reported 29 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of white evangelicals—the most of any religious group—believe the widely debunked QAnon conspiracy theory is completely or mostly accurate.
QAnon has infiltrated other faiths as well, with 15 percent of white mainline Protestants, 18 percent of white Catholics, 12 percent of non-Christians, 11 percent of Hispanic Catholics and 7 percent of black Protestants saying they believe it.
In addition, large subsets of each group—ranging from 37 percent of non-Christians to 50 percent of Hispanic Catholics—said they “weren’t sure” whether the theory was true.
According to Daniel Cox, director of AEI’s Survey Center on American Life, the report suggests conspiracy theories enjoy a surprising amount of support in general, but white evangelicals appear to be particularly primed to embrace them.
“There’s this really dramatic fissure,” he said.
There was also significant support among white evangelicals for the claim that members of antifa, or anti-fascist activists, ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
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