The 1980s and 1990s saw a surge of “charismatic” preachers in the west, particularly in parts of Canada and the southern United States. Faith “healings,” “holy laughter,” “speaking in tongues” and being “slain in the Spirit” came to be evidence of one’s “holiness.”
Of particular note were the faith healings. Preachers would bring the desperate sick onto the stage, ask them questions, engage in impassioned rhetoric, “cast out the Devil” and “rebuke demons of infirmity,” and declare the targets “healed,” sometimes with demonstrations where they would remove crutches or wheelchairs (nearly all of which were supplied by the churches or “revival festivals,” themselves) to show the “power of the Spirit.” All this, of course, before passing the plate for the “offering.”
In cases where the healings failed, there would be invectives about a lack of faith or an abundance of sin preventing the healing from taking place. The prospect was win-win for the preacher: either he performed a miracle and looked like a hero, or he didn’t because of something entirely the fault of the subject of the healing.
This brings me to QAnon. All the flowery promises, the calls to “trust the plan,” the dubious “proofs” baked into current events or cryptic Nostradamian “predictions” that are left open to debate and interpretation, and most importantly, the burden being placed on the faithful, that if they don’t believe strongly enough, how if they doubt, it can undermine the “healing” process Q keeps promising is just around the next corner, all reeks of the same charlatanism and parlor tricks of Benny Hinn at the peak of his fame and popularity.
There’s no substance other than that provided by the believers who attempt to make sense of nonsense. There’s no action other than a call to wait for somebody else’s action. There’s no consequence for a prediction going unfulfilled, because either the faithful misunderstood or “the people weren’t ready, yet.” Four years in and there hasn’t been an indictment for any key player.
There is evidence that Biden directly threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine to prevent his son from being investigated, bragged about it on camera, and when Trump simply asked a question of the Ukrainian President on the matter, he wound up impeached for his trouble while Joe and Hunter walk free and Joe scores political points off of Trump’s “abuse of power.” This is “draining the swamp?” This is striking fear in the deep state? This is “all part of the plan?”
Here’s a prediction of my own, in 2025, as Trump’s successor is sworn in and nothing substantive has changed, QAnon’s followers will still be watching and waiting, “trusting the plan” and believing their healing is only just over the next hill.
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[–] goatboy ago
Do you understand how close we are to mutually assured destruction? Waking the sleeping dragon has consequences.