Ed Stetzer Tells CFR: In 2021, A "World Christian" Identity "Needs To Be Discipled In"

Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College, speaks to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in May 2021 about conspiracy theories such as QAnon in a webinar titled "Disinformation and Faith Communities." When asked about "deradicalization" of U.S. Christians, Stetzer straw-mans believers who prefer the sovereignty of their home nations to global governance, accusing them of not desiring their faith to be seen in all cultures a la Revelation 7:9.

—TRANSCRIPT—

IRINA FASKIANOS: Okay. I’m going to take the next question from Palwasha Kakar, who is at the United States Institute of Peace. “I’m interested in hearing more about Pastor Ed’s work with Evangelical pastors, how do you help them identify and work on deradicalization? Do you build on the international CVE, countering violent extremism, work in this area? Or how does it differ in your understanding?”

ED STETZER: First, we don’t call it deradicalization. First thing, but because nobody sees themselves as that. But I get exactly what you’re saying and appreciate the work of deradicalization. The language I used at the beginning, and the way, because I’ve written a lot to try to persuade Evangelicals on some of these issues. And I actually have, and I know it’s very easy for us to sit back and say, “oh, those QAnoners,” well, I actually have friends in the, who are self-identified QAnoners, in the Evangelical community, who actually text me when I’m being discussed on QAnon message boards. And they say they defend me on those message boards. But that’s another story for another day.

So for me, I try to frame in such a way that people can receive the message. And again, for us that often comes around in terms of discipleship. I talked about this on NPR’s Morning Edition. And the host asked me, and I kind of struggled because it’s like, it’s insider baseball language. I said, so there are things, I explained, that as Christians we want to disciple in, and things that as Christians, we want to disciple out. So what needs to be discipled in, in 2021? Well, it might be seeing yourself as a “world Christian,” seeing that men and women from every tongue, tribe, and nation are, that’s frequent language in the pages of the Scriptures. It might be helping people to see that, and language I often use is that we should not be among the gullible.

And I actually would point out, I mean, I do just so we’re clear, I do believe, I bet my whole life on the fact that there was a person who was dead on Friday, and on Sunday was back from the dead, and everything I believe, is framed and shaped around that reality. But I do point out how, as our Christian witnesses impacted the last slide that I didn’t get to, because I went too long in the first session, actually talks about the danger to our Christian witness. I lead the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. So I care deeply about our Christian witness. And I pointed out somebody who kept posting about this QAnon conspiracy, and this QAnon conspiracy, and this one, and then it came to Easter, and they said, “oh, and Jesus rose from the dead.” And I would just say it’s really hard to persuade a world about a supernatural event called the resurrection, when you’ve posted six other things about bizarre conspiracy theories from pizza, Comet Ping Pong, to Seth Rich, and some of you know these different references, to Wayfair, to whatever else it may be.

Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L12Q4Qsfid4
Transcript source: https://www.cfr.org/event/disinformation-and-faith-communities

WPC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WokePreacherTV
WPC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wokepreacherclips
WPC on Gab: https://www.gab.com/wokepreacherclips