Jesus Doesn’t Want You to Watch Rebel News or Read Angry Clickbait

Alt-Right Conspiracy Theories and Freedom Rage Aren’t Christian

While both reputable and fringe media depend on sparking emotions to bring readers to their sites, it’s the click bait tabloid, alt-right sites, and alternative media flooding the Internet that depend most on stoking fear, resentment, and outrage. At best they twist theology, at worst they trade in rage. No Christian should be supporting these sites.

Yet conservative Christians are increasingly abandoning what they term ‘legacy’ or mainstream media to become viewers and paid subscribers of hard right sites and online publications. It started in the US. It has spread to Canada and the Commonwealth.

Right wing media and a few Christian activists co-opted believers across Canada to attend and fund the Freedom Rally in Ottawa and they cheered on border blockades at Coutts Alberta, Windsor Ontario, and Emerson Manitoba in February 2022. American tabloid media pundits and YouTube sites fuelled domestic and international rage with misinformation about the intention of the protest organizers — equating our Westminster Democracy with a dictatorship. Even a few UK tabloids — they know better — got into the act.

Shofars and Jericho walks figured prominently in the recent Ottawa Occupation. Christian activists who participated in them seemed to believe that regime change could be accomplished by performing pseudo-ancient rituals. (Or was it witchcraft?) Yet, for all their claims of peaceful transformation, the organizers allowed QAnon conspirators, including the fake royal, Romana Didulu — who burned the Canadian flag — to rant on their makeshift stages.

Yet media influencers, independent broadcasters, and online sites promoting the event failed to mention that the Canada Unity Memorandum of Understanding behind the protest quoted an architect of the American revolution. The stated intent of the protest was to force a ‘peaceful’ overthrow of the federal government and convince the Governor General to end a Parliament elected by Canadians on 20 September 2021 and replace it with a ‘committee.’ The memorandum was rescinded on 10 February, when the organizers claimed, in contradiction to the actual content of the Memorandum, that they never intended to bring down the government. As they told The Fifth Estate, Canada Unity Founders, James and Sandra Bauder, are devout Christians. They view their activism as a divine calling.

The click seeking alternative, tabloid media as well as a few Christian media news organizations ignored the fact that activists tied to a known far-right organization were arrested on Conspiracy to Murder Charges at the Coutts Blockades in Alberta. They played up the fact that there were hot tubs and protesters were having fun while residents of Ottawa were unable to get to work and million of dollars in trade couldn’t get through the Canada/US border. They equated freedom with defying court orders.

The movement had nothing to do with Canadian conservatism or the Great Commission. It was all about getting control of the legislative process. Getting Canadians, churched or unchurched, riled about a so-called loss of freedom in Canada was critical to its success. It was a failure on all counts: Despite the portrayal of the movement as a popular uprising in support of Freedom, more than 70% of the Canadians opposed the blockades.

Cultural Imperialism and the American Right

The birthplace of the modern Christian right is the United States. As a kid, my Sunday School papers touted American Exceptionalism and cultural imperialism. They celebrated George Washington, the American revolution, and bringing American culture not just to Canada but to third world countries. Our black and white tv beamed in messages from American tele-evangelists who continually mixed up the American Revolution with the escape of the Children of Israel from Eqypt. George Washington was Moses. Poor old George III — too sick to rule for much of his reign and always hamstrung by his Parliament — was Pharaoh. According to them, no other country, but the US was free. There could be no other dream, but the American one.

Then, as now, they mixed up the American state with the Kingdom of God. If Americans wonder why evangelicals only make up eight percent of the Canadian population, they only need to look at the messages their church leaders have been sending to the Great White North for over 200 years.

Canada was founded by refuges from the American Revolution —people who lost homes, businesses, land, and friendships fleeing the rebels, often for religious reasons. In the early 19th century Canadian Methodists again rejected American Circuit Riders who equated the US system of government with righteousness and the Kingdom of God.

They might not complain much, but the vast majority of Evangelical Christians in Canada, just like their neighbours, have always viewed American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny as heretical bunk. They learned to love their American brothers and sisters without accepting their Dominionist, Manifest Destiny, flag waving theology.

Canadian Conservatism and Evangelicalism Isn’t Republicanism

Traditionally, Canadian Christians have been active members of all three main political parties in Canada. As late as 2017, only 50% of Canadian Evangelicals voted Conservative. Another 20% voted for the Justin Trudeau led Liberals. Even the social democratic New Democratic Party got 10% of the evangelical vote. In fact, the the father of the CCF (later the NDP) and what the Americans call socialized medicine was an Evangelical Baptist Minister from Saskatchewan — Tommy Douglas (He was also as Kiefer Sutherland’s Grandpa). What Americans refer to as Conservative is either Liberal or Libertarian in the Canadian context.

American branch plants or not, almost no churches in Canada officially support conspiracy theories such as QAnon or political movements such as Trumpism. Only a tiny minority like Pastor Henry Hildebrandt’s Church of God Congregation in Alymer, Ontario are skeptical about modern medicine and openly support the anti-vax movement. Hildebrandt, who styles himself as an Apostle, preached his brand of Christianity to the protesters in Ottawa.

Canadian conservatism has been more aligned with the UK definition of the term — preserving the best of the past while moving cautiously toward reform when needed. For example, it was Conservatives in Canada who most vigorously opposed apartheid in South Africa, created the Canadian Bill of Rights, and enfranchised First Nations Peoples’ voting rights. They also supported other political parties in the creation of universal public health care. The populists and social conservatives found their home in smaller parties such as the defunct Social Credit and Reform Parties or even the early versions of the CCF and NDP. Libertarianism was an even more marginal philosophy very few Canadians endorsed.

It’s only in the last 30 years that populists and liberatarians have been a significant force in the national Conservative movement in Canada. There are a few reasons for this. The rise of Dominionist Charismatic churches in Canada with ties to so-called Prophets and Christian Broadcasters in Canada and the US have made political organizing inside churches worthwhile for the power brokers. Simultaneously, alternative media and websites have targeted disenfranchised sections of society — inside and outside the faith community — as sources of funding and viewership.

Christians are the Perfect Demographic to Fund Your News Channel

Conservative and charismatic church congregations are fertile grounds for activists/prophets preaching American Libertarianism and dystopian end of times/conspiracy theories. For one thing, they are used to tithing 10% of the income. This makes them well practiced in giving away money to further messages, but that’s not the only reason they are make great donors and recruits.

The failure of mainstream Canadian news sources to embrace the conservative evangelical community as essential to the Canadian mosiac has prompted many members of those communities to turn off CTV and CBC. Even worse, too many mainline Christians erroneously assume that evangelical Canadian churches are simply branch plants of American churches and that they are filled with American Tea Party or Moral Majority types with dubious loyalty to Canada. The NDP and Liberals have also marginalized evangelical members by demanding that they abandon their beliefs on social issues such as abortion.

Some Conservative Christians have sought refuge in Charismatic churches as well as the Conservative Party of Canada, after it was created by merging the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and the Reform Party of Canada.

With the exception of the Harper era, during which ‘bozo interruptions’ by politicians touting intolerance or ideas Canadians won’t vote for were kept in check by the Prime Minister’s Office, the result of has been election loss after election loss.

The Conservative Party of Canada continues its battle contain US style Libertarianism in order to get back mainstream PC votes it lost to the Liberals when the parties merged. It will not return to power until it does. However, the hard right seems content to listen to angry voices that lay the blame solely on ungodly mainstream Canada for their failure to get elected. Some have even left the CPC for the upstart Peoples Party of Canada.

Pushed to a Fringe: How the Alt-Right Co-opted Some Churches

The growth of sites like Rebel News, which grew up after the failure of its more mainline predecessor — Sun News Network — in Canada would have been a lot slower without the support of evangelicals looking for a news source seems to want their business.

Like its predecessor, Rebel, has largely been abandoned by mainstream Canadians, including fiscal and social Conservatives. But is still plays a critical role in politicizing and indoctrinating some groups of Christians in Canada. It touts itself as a defender of Canadian conservative values, including the rights of Christians. It promises to tell the other side of the story. It fails the public interest on all three counts:

Its libertarian viewpoint is not conservative in the Canadian context. The flood of angry tweets it lets loose upon its readers’ minds every day is not aligned with Christian doctrine. Finally, it is the job of a news organization to tell the whole story — not just the other side of the story. Half truths are not the truth.

Let’s consider the Truckers’ Convoy coverage again. Rebel, like many right wing sites, not just in Canada, but in the US and UK, neglected to publish critical facts that don’t align with its narrative. For example, they insisted that Artur Pawlowski, a Polish born street preacher based in Calgary Alberta was arrested and denied bail because he preached a sermon to the truckers at Coutts. This is at best a half truth.

In fact, Pawlowski is alleged to have told the truckers that ‘This was their Alamo’ and urged them to hold the line in contravention of The Province of Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act. He didn’t go to jail because of his Christian beliefs, because he preached a sermon, or because he is a pastor. He went to jail for violating the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act and for breeching his previously agreed to bail conditions. In late March, a judge granted him another chance at bail on some charges, but he remains in custody while additional bail conditions are sorted out on probation issues. No matter what the Rebel, Fox, or the Daily Mail tells you: Pawlowski is not a political prisoner.

At least Rebel News is honest about the reason it needs your money — it’s a for-profit online site that needs clicks and subscribers to stay in business. And it not the only so-called ‘grassroots’ news source indoctrinating Christians.

So-called prophetic ministries including Springs Church, Bridge City News, Faytene.tv, and the Miracle Channel promote a strange blend of theology/politics that equates Libertarianism, a Canadian version of Dominionist theology, and populist ideology with the Will/Kingdom of God. All the while, some of these broadcasters/ministries claim to be charities adhering to Canadian Revenue Agency requirements for charitable status.

What’s Wrong with the Message — It’s not just Theology

The scriptures are filled with examples of the people whose rage, defiance, and ambition destroyed their lives: Cain, Absalom, even Judas.

Jesus disappointed a lot of people because he wouldn’t support revolution or outrage. He called people to love God above all else, and then to love their neighbours as they loved themselves. He also said this:

‘Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7: 21-23

Freedom should have an entirely different meaning to Christians than what was being preached by the alternative news sites, including some of the content on Christian sites. It is not found in insisting on your rights, but in laying down your life. It is not found in drinking, tooting your horn, or making your neighbours miserable. It is found in love and in putting others before yourself. It is about rejecting selfish willfulness and receiving the power that changes you from the inside. It is about how God ‘working in us can accomplish more than we can ever ask or imagine.’

The problem with many tabloids and online new sites isn’t that they stoke emotions. Good writing and reporting should make you feel something. It may even bring up righteous anger and a desire to end injustice. It may move you to call your Member of Parliament, it may even motivate you to protest. But it won’t motivate you to carry F*ck Trudeau signs, blockade neighbourhoods and borders, or call for the overthrow of a democratically elected Parliament. It won’t leave you angry at your ‘political enemies.’ Why?

Tearing things down, sowing fear, hyperbole, half truths, resentment, self-pity, and personal attacks are not fruit of the spirit. What is? ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.’ Galations 5: 22–23

So, the choice is simple. It you are a believer, rage based click bait, and half-truths are last things you should be reading, watching, or sending money to support. And if you are not? It’s probably not good for you, either.