Help us counteract

religious right wing bigotry

(including anti-Pagan bigotry)

 

within nonreligious political movements.

 

 

 

Nationally syndicated radio talk radio show host Alex Jones and his followers believe that the U.S. government is run by evil Pagan occultists with a plan to kill off most of the Earth’s human population as a mass human sacrifice to ancient gods. And he has written, on his prisonplanet.com website, that "the Pagans, the Wiccans and the Druids" are a "new religion of death,” “spreading with little protest while Christianity is riddled with infiltration and corruption, fostered by the same elite who belong to these new age cults."

 

Here in New York City, Alex Jones’s anti-Pagan bigotry is confined to the Internet and shortwave radio, whereas he can be heard on quite a few AM/FM stations in the Bible Belt. Yet, even here in New York City, there are people who promote Alex Jones.

 

His promoters aren’t just fundamentalist Christian religious right wingers, as one might expect them to be. His promoters, here in New York City, are active in nonreligious political causes such as the 9/11 Truth movement. Ideologies similar to Jones’s, involving claims about “the Illuminati,” are also promoted on the fringes of otherwise progressive political movements such as the anti-war movement and the anti-torture movement, and in popular culture, e.g. some hip hop lyrics.

 

“Illuminati” claims are very similar to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , a notorious anti-Jewish forgery produced by the Russian secret police back in the 1890's. However, instead of Jews, “the Illuminati” are usually alleged to be atheists, “Satanists,” occultists, and/or Pagans. “The Illuminati” are alleged to be the secret rulers of the world, and they are alleged to practice human sacrifice and other ritual atrocities on a massive scale. Some folks have even claimed that the 9/11 attacks were a “Wiccan” human sacrifice! “Illuminati” claims are often accompanied by other false claims, e.g. about the Federal Reserve System, based on writings of notorious Jew-haters such as Eustace Mullins.

 

Progressive political movements, such as feminism, the gay rights movement, and the environmentalist movement, are alleged to be plots by “the Illuminati” to destroy civilization. Thus, “Illuminati” claims are an attack on the humanistic values of modern secular democratic society, as well as an attack on the specific religious minorities that are scapegoated and demonized - in much the same way that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were intended as a royalist attack on democracy, as well as an attack on Jews.

 

At the present time, here in the U.S.A., “Illuminati” claims are largely confined to the political fringes. But, even now, believers in “Illuminati” claims play a key role in more prominent forms of organized bigotry. For example, major religious right wing leaders such as Pat Robertson and Tim LaHaye have espoused "Illuminati" claims. Belief in “Illuminati” claims can inspire fanatical devotion to bigoted political movements such as the religious right wing, in much the same way that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion fueled Nazi hatred of Jews. Hence the spread of “Illuminati” claims outside the religious right wing may be a serious potential longterm threat to Pagans and to the other minorities that are vilified.

 

New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry

 

New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry (NYARBB) aims to counteract religious right wing ideologies - including anti-Pagan bigotry, as well as bigotry against other religious minorities and bigotry against gays.

 

NYARBB now has a project of counteracting the spread of “Illuminati” claims and related bigotry within the 9/11 Truth movement and on the fringes of the anti-war movement and the anti-torture movement. NYARBB supports at least some of the aims of all the above political movements, as part of our opposition to bigotry against Muslims. (Regarding the 9/11 Truth movement, we do not endorse any claim about the U.S. government’s role on 9/11, e.g. “9/11 was an inside job,” but we do endorse the call for a new investigation of 9/11, along the lines of what the 9/11 Commission was supposed to be.) NYARBB aims both to (1) work within these movements to support the aims we agree with, and (2) educate activists in these movements about the falsity and harm of “Illuminati” claims and related bigotry.

 

We invite interested Pagans to join us, to be a visible Pagan presence within one or more of the above-mentioned political movements, and to help us educate believers in “Illuminati” conspiracy claims about modern Paganism. We will work together not only with Pagans but also with other categories of people who are vilified by “Illuminati” conspiracist ideologies (e.g. feminists and gay rights activists, as well as religious minorities other than modern Pagans, including law-abiding Satanists and Luciferians), to educate people about the other groups too.

 

 

 

 

Committee Against Satanic Panics

New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry

nyarbb.org