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  1. Theocentric Christian Conspiracists and Holocaust Denial on the Web

Theocentric Christian Conspiracists and Holocaust Denial on the Web

The following section makes several features of Anderson’s Holocaust denial evident. First, Anderson is not alone in making theology central to his Holocaust denial. Anderson exists as part of a connected but still diffuse group of theologically-focused, antisemitic Christian conspiracists who deny the Holocaust. Second, Anderson and those of his ilk draw from (at least) two discursive traditions—Christian theology and antisemitic conspiracy theories. Naturally, these discursive traditions sometimes intersect and sometimes do not. In this particular section, it is important to show how they intersect in the case of Anderson and like-minded Christian conspiracists since it will remain a relevant theme throughout this study. Third, a window of opportunity has emerged for Anderson and similar antisemitic Christian conspiracists to adapt Holocaust denial discourse to their needs in ways that might not have been as readily apparent in the recent past, a product of changing Holocaust denial networks and new technologies.

holocaust-denial/514974/; also see Deborah Lipstadt, “Holocaust Denial: An Antisemitic Fantasy,” Modern Judaism 40, no. 1 (2020), 75, accessed March 1, 2020, doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/mj/kjz019. For Lipstadt’s influential early work, see Deborah Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory (New York: Free Press, 1993). Some scholars refer to Holocaust denial as “negationism” and Holocaust deniers as “negationists.” I have decided to use “Holocaust denial” and “Holocaust denier.”

9 Anderson jumped onto YouTube soon after the site appeared and developed a media strategy where associates posted a daily dose of his sermon clips online, see clip Steven L. Anderson, “Hardball Interview with Pastor Steven Anderson,” YouTube video, 00:09:16-00:15:23, posted on June 29, 2017, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=280&v=SYWUt6k_Eog. As of August 2019, several of Anderson’s videos I analyze in this article have been removed from YouTube or listed as private because of the site’s changing policies. See Paris Martineau, “YouTube is Banning Extremist Videos. Will it Work?” Wired, June 5, 2019, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.wired.com/story/how-effective-youtube-latest-ban-extremism/. Many of his videos and films can still be found at Archive. org. Where applicable, I reference timestamps for Anderson’s videos according the versions uploaded to Archive.org.

10 David G. Robertson, “Conspiracy Theories and the Study of Alternative and Emergent Religions,” Nova Religio 19, no. 2 (2015), 8, accessed July 1, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2015.19.2.5.

11 Paul Wittenberger, dir., Marching to Zion (Phoenix, AZ: Framing The World Productions, 2015), 101 mins., accessed July 30, 2019, https://archive.org/details/PastorStevenAndersonMarchingToZion.

12 Texe Marrs died while this article was being reviewed and edited for publication. I have decided to maintain the present tense when talking about his writing and thought. Dignity Memorial, “Obituary: Texe Marrs, July 15, 1944-November 23, 2019,” Dignity Memorial, accessed August 5, 2020, https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/austin-tx/texemarrs-8938309.

Anderson is an example of what I call theocentric Christian conspiracists. 13 By “theocentric,” I am not referring to the term’s use within Christian theological discourse, but as the word commonly appears in English dictionaries, typically a variation of “centering on or directed toward God as a focus of interest, source of authority, etc.”14 As scholars have noted, many conspiracists address religious issues in some fashion, but theocentric Christian conspiracists, I submit, focus their conspiracy narratives first and foremost on religious texts, theology, or divine prophecy. Secularlyoriented conspiracists, on the other hand, generally do not make religious texts, theology, or divine prophecy central to their conspiracies.15 As a fitting example, the above-mentioned Marrs, a close associate of Anderson’s and the conspiracist “star” of Marching to Zion, aptly summarized the centrality of Christian scripture in directing his personal knowledge of conspiracies—“[t]hough I sought the counsel of men wise to the ways of the world, experts in the field of conspiracy science, only the Bible, I found, is able to grant me access to the key that would unlock that heavy door to find the ineffable mystery of iniquity.”16

Scriptural references abound in the work of Marrs, Anderson, and other theocentric Christian conspiracists, and their theological rationale is always forefront. Though I will not delineate the extent of its boundaries here, the concept of theocentric Christian conspiracists is flexible enough to encompass groups and individuals as diverse as Christian Identity and Pat Robertson, which means that theocentric Christian conspiracists can include antisemites and Holocaust deniers and those who are not.17

More specifically, I suggest theocentric Christian conspiracists like Anderson advance theologically-focused “superconspiracies.”18 As Michael Barkun defines superconspiracies, they are “conspiratorial constructs in which multiple conspiracies are believed to be linked together hierarchically… At the summit of the conspiratorial hierarchy is a distant but all-powerful evil force manipulating lesser conspiratorial actors.”19 Once again, superconspiracy is not only evident in the films, preaching, and blogposts of Steven Anderson, but is shared by a group of likeminded, antisemitic theocentric Christian conspiracist writers, such as Marrs,20 Edward Hendrie,21

13 Michael Barkun defines conspiracy as “the belief that an organization made up of individuals or groups was or is acting covertly to achieve some malevolent end,” see Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), 3. There are legitimate concerns with Barkun’s notion of “conspiracy belief,” but I still find “superconspiracies” particularly helpful. On drawbacks to “conspiracy belief,” see Lance deHaven-Smith, Conspiracy Theory in America (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013), 37.

14 Collins English Dictionary, s.v., “theocentric,” accessed March 1, 2020, https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/theocentric.

15 Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 68.

16 Texe Marrs, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star: Eye-Opening Revelations and Forbidden Knowledge About Israel, the Jews, Zionism, and the Rothschilds (Austin: RiverCrest Publishing, 2011), loc. 7772, Kindle.

17 Without referring to it as such, Barkun offers an example what I call theocentric Christian conspiracism when addressing the writing of Texe Marrs and Pat Robertson on the Illuminati. On Marrs, Robertson, and the Illuminati, Barkun states, “[i]n the majority of [recent Illuminati literature], the alleged Illuminatist attack on revealed religion is a secondary motif, but in the works of Texe Marrs and Pat Robertson, it emerges as a central theme.” See Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 52. Barkun on Marrs again, see Michael Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement, revised edition (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 288-289.

18 Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy, 6.

19 Ibid.

20 Several relevant works by Texe Marrs include: Texe Marrs, Blood Covenant with Destiny: The Babylonian Talmud, the Jewish Kabbalah, and the Power of Prophecy *(Austin: RiverCrest Publishing, 2018), Kindle; Texe Marrs, *DNA Science and the Jewish Bloodline (Austin: RiverCrest Publishing, 2013), Kindle; Marrs, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star; Texe Marrs, Feast of the Beast (Austin: RiverCrest Publishing, 2017), Kindle; Texe Marrs, Holy Serpent of the Jews: The Rabbis’ Secret Plan for Satan to Crush Their Enemies and Vault the Jews to Global Dominion (Austin: RiverCrest Publishing, 2016).

21 Edward Hendrie, Solving the Mystery of Babylon the Great: Tracking the Beast from the Synagogue to the Vatican, 2nd ed. (Great Mountain Publishing, 2012), Kindle; Edward Hendrie, Bloody Zion: Refuting the Jewish Fables That Sustain Israel’s War Against God and Man (Great Mountain Publishing, 2012), Kindle.

Michael Hoffman,22 and Peter Christian.23 While they do not hold exactly the same conspiratorial or theological views, they exhibit notable family resemblances, their theologically-focused antisemitism and Holocaust denial being most important for this study. For Anderson and similar antisemitic theocentric Christian conspiracists, they generally recognize Satan as the hidden force driving sinister world events. Satan uses very willing co-conspirators, “the synagogue of Satan” (i.e. Jews, referencing Rev. 2:9 and 3:9, King James Version [KJV]),24 who in turn create or manipulate a number of secret societies, governments, organizations, ideologies, and individuals to do their bidding. Marrs again offers a helpful example, this time of a superconspiracy in action:

The Synagogue of Satan! That’s the evil group that God names. Not the Moslems [sic], not the Mormons, not even the Communists, the Masonic Lodge, or the Bilderbergers. Although each of these groups and others are, at some level, involved and culpable, God says it is the Synagogue of Satan that drives the conspiracy locomotive. The Synagogue of Satan is identified by Almighty God as the blasphemous and murderous entity which is the chief engineer of planetary chaos in the last days.25

It is important to note that Anderson is not at the center of any assortment of like-minded, antisemitic theocentric Christian conspiracists, if it even has a center. Marrs is much more attuned to the work of other theocentric Christian conspiracists than Anderson. However, Marrs and Anderson show their personal connections and family resemblances in Marching to Zion and media about Marching to Zion, as shown below.

Anderson’s Holocaust denial is interesting, albeit disturbing, for the fact that he places theological convictions at the fore. While Christianity in particular has played and continues to play a role in the antisemitic rhetoric of many individuals and movements who deny the Holocaust, direct reliance on Christian scriptures and Christian theology has been rare in Holocaust denial discourse. A helpful example of this case can be observed in Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), an internet forum for Holocaust deniers, which recently hosted a thread about Anderson’s Holocaust denial.26 An experienced participant on the site, Rmbrmb21, brought up Anderson’s Holocaust denial, but also opened the discussion with a notable caveat, “I don’t know how much theology we want to get into on this forum, or how many of us are religious in any sense.”27 Rmbrmb21’s caveat demonstrates how, on one of the premier forums for Holocaust deniers, participants hardly ever address any connections between theology and Holocaust denial. In fact, Rmbrmb21 is entirely unaware of how many fellow forum participants are even religious “in any sense.” Another experienced forum member, borjastick, responded to the thread in a similar fashion, “I hope the Mods allow your post to remain as it does show a wider understanding of the influence jews and I think israeli jews [sic], who I see as somewhat different, have over the Christian masses in the US.”28 Once again, the fact that an experienced forum participant was uncertain whether theological discussions would be welcome on CODOH shows just how few of these discussions take place on the forum. Interestingly, a number of CODOH members appear to have religious convictions, as the thread attracted commenters who affirmed Anderson’s theological views.

In light of the CODOH discussion referenced above, it is important to understand Anderson’s place in the history and structure of Holocaust denial online. Aside from scholarship on the legality of legislating Holocaust denial online, few scholars have dealt seriously with Holocaust denial in cyberspace.29 In 2017, however, William Allington published a noteworthy journal article on

22 Michael Hoffman, Judaism’s Strange Gods, 2nd ed. (Independent History & Research Co., 2000); Michael Hoffman, Judaism Discovered: A Study of the Anti-Biblical Religion of Racism, Self-Worship, Superstition and Deceit, 3rd ed. (Independent History & Research Co., 2008).

23 Peter Christian, Lucifer’s Army: An Exposé of Talmudic Tyranny (Barnes Review, 2017); Peter Christian, One Nation Under Zion: Zionist Influence on America (Barnes Review, 2013); Peter Christian, The Work of All Ages: The Ongoing Plot to Rule the World from Biblical Times to the Present (Barnes Review, 2010).

24 Marrs, Blood Covenant with Destiny, loc. 482, Kindle; Marrs, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, loc. 751, Kindle.

29 William Allington, “Holocaust Denial Online: The Rise of Pseudo-Academic Antisemitism on the Early Internet,” Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism 1, no. 1 (2017), 35, accessed July 15, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/1.1.4; also

Holocaust denial online, particularly its structural growth in the early days of the World Wide Web.30 In this article, Allington focuses on “the general hierarchy of the movement; the differences between the creators and consumers of material.”31 His hierarchy divides specifically between what he calls organized Holocaust denial and casual Holocaust denial. Defining organized Holocaust denial, Allington states, “[o]rganized Holocaust denial resembles a school of political or historical thought, with named and identifiable figures at the center and the creation of an infrastructure behind the movement.”32 Put more simply, organized Holocaust deniers are “the writers and original distributors of [Holocaust denial] material.”33 Early organized Holocaust deniers on the web, like their pre-internet counterparts, were obsessed with appearing rational or reasonable. Hence, organized Holocaust deniers have been those who “establish institutions, publish journals, hold conferences, and defend their theories in the public sphere and, if necessary, law courts.”34 Casual Holocaust deniers, on the other hand, tend to be the “anonymous promoters of Holocaust denial” in cyberspace. They “take the material from organized Holocaust deniers and spread it on message boards and via emails and social media so the movement can grow.”35 Casual Holocaust deniers may diffuse Holocaust denial online for a variety of ideological reasons, and Allington does not concern himself with guessing at ideological rationales.

While Allington uses the organized versus casual framework in describing the early stages of Holocaust denial online, another scholar, Nicholas Terry, has focused on Holocaust denial in “web 2.0.” Though it might seem that web 2.0, identified by expansions in social media and usergenerated content, could be a godsend for Holocaust deniers, in fact “‘Revisionists’ have found it difficult to compete for attention in a crowded marketplace for fringe ideas, and have been eclipsed by a number of new internet-based conspiracy theories.”36 Terry states further,

despite the return of conspiracist anti-Semitism after 9/11 and a rise in anti-Zionism since the start of the Second Intifada in September 2000, Holocaust denial has been unable to profit from these trends and has failed to attract intellectuals or activists in significant numbers in Western societies. Thus, while Holocaust denial continues to have great brand recognition, it now has surprisingly few customers.37

Even one-time stalwarts of Holocaust denial have backtracked on former positions or have ceased contributing to this increasingly unpopular cause. Hardcore Holocaust denial has also become less popular in many far-right circles. Promoting it could prove publicly damaging and would probably interfere with practical political goals.38 Instead, “Holocaust denial has been cut loose to fend for itself as just one of many fringe conspiracy theories peddled on the internet.”39

It is worth considering Anderson’s place in Allington’s relationship between organized and casual Holocaust denial, as well as Anderson’s place in Terry’s description of Holocaust denial in web 2.0. In terms of Allington’s schema, Anderson resembles casual Holocaust denial in many respects. Anderson isn’t invested in sculpting the infrastructural aspects of Holocaust denial and doesn’t talk about Holocaust denial at every opportunity. He is a pastor with a variety of concerns about the state of the contemporary world, and he promotes a number of conspiracy

see Terry, Holocaust Denial in the Age of Web 2.0; Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman, Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009).

30 Allington, Holocaust Denial Online, 36-37.

31 Ibid., 37.

32 Ibid.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid. For more on pseudo-academic Holocaust denial, see Lipstadt, Denying the Holocaust, 120, 142.

36 Terry, Holocaust Denial in the Age of Web 2.0, 34.

37 Ibid., 34-35.

38 Ibid., 37-53, especially see 44-46.

39 Ibid., 53.

theories.40 Anderson has actually been far more invested in propagating broader antisemitic tropes, such as Jews are liars, Jews control the media, Jews own the banks, etc., than talking specifically about the Holocaust. Anderson’s Holocaust denial is bound to his antisemitism and anti-Israel agenda, which emerge from his interpretation of the Bible.41 Likewise, Anderson’s pseudoscientific arguments are taken directly from the writings of prominent Holocaust deniers who put forward the image of being rational, reasonable, and academic. Anderson takes the pseudoscientific work of these organized Holocaust deniers and owns it, so to speak, blending it into his theologicallyfocused antisemitism and reframing it for his largely Christian viewership. As a public figure with an established audience and lines of communication, he is a casual Holocaust denier who, unlike the casual Holocaust deniers Allington describes, does not rely on the anonymity offered by the internet to spread Holocaust denial. Anderson blurs the lines between the roles historically played by organized and casual Holocaust deniers. He is not one of the “writers and original distributors”42 of Holocaust denial material, but he assumes a more public role than anonymous casual Holocaust deniers.

The fact that, as Terry states, “Holocaust denial has been cut loose to fend for itself as just one of many fringe conspiracy theories peddled on the internet”43 offers an explanation for why Anderson can take such a public role in supporting Holocaust denial. With the declining authority of a prior generation of diehard, organized Holocaust deniers, due to infighting, organizational failure, and age, new proliferators of Holocaust denial have begun to fill the vacuum they left behind. Especially notable has been the prominence of conspiracists in filling this void. Terry finds that “The conspiracist scene has in fact become one of the few potential growth areas for negationism in recent years.”44 Further, a number of Holocaust deniers and Holocaust denial websites obsessed with appearing rational, reasonable, and scientific have been willing to risk that image by welcoming Holocaust deniers who present their denial as one of many other “crank” conspiracy theories, such as moonlanding conspiracies, 9/11 conspiracies, JFK assassination conspiracies, etc.45 This is not to say that appearing rational, reasonable, or scientific is not important. Like other conspiracists who peddle Holocaust denial, Anderson clearly feels the need to appear rational or reasonable by citing the work of “scientific” Holocaust deniers. Likewise, like pseudo-academic Holocaust deniers, many conspiracy theorists generally adopt a “quasi-academic style” for “a plausible appearance and an aura of respectability.”46 Anderson is no different in these regards. Yet, as a theocentric Christian conspiracist, Anderson is invested in illuminating the supernatural, which, at least in the eyes of diehard pseudo-academic Holocaust deniers, does not appear rational, reasonable, or scientific. He mixes the supposedly rational, reasonable, or scientific discourse of previous generations of organized Holocaust deniers with the prophetic. I now briefly turn toward examining his theology and connections to other Christians who espouse antisemitic conspiracies and Holocaust denial, exemplified in the film Marching to Zion.

40 Anderson is the visual head of what is called the New IFB, a group of IFB pastors who share particular theological views. He is often engaged in theological infighting with IFB pastors who oppose his teaching. See “What is the New IFB Movement?,” The New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement, accessed July 30, 2019, https://web.archive.org/web/20191211161128/https://www.thenewifb.com/what-is-the-new-ifb. As of February 2020, infighting may have temporarily halted or permanently damaged the movement, and the New IFB’s website has been shut down. The link I have included is a screen capture dated December 11, 2019. Also see Hatewatch Staff, “In the Midst of Infighting, Anti-LGBTQ Church Network’s Website and Social Media Disappear,” Hatewatch (blog), Southern Poverty Law Center, February 21, 2020, accessed April 15, 2020, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/02/21/midst-infightinganti-lgbtq-church-networks-website-and-social-media-disappear.

41 See, for example, Anderson’s blog: Steven L. Anderson, “Muslim Hate and Pro-war Propaganda,” Steven L. Anderson (blog), October 9, 2014, accessed July 30, 2019, https://sanderson1611.blogspot.com/2014/10/muslim-hate-and-prowar-propaganda.html; also see Texe Marrs and Framing the World, “Texe Marrs Interviews Steven Anderson About ‘Marching to Zion’ Part 1,” interview by Texe Marrs, May 5, 2015, YouTube video, 1:03:12, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbUkXm8K3g.

42 Allington, Holocaust Denial Online, 37.

43 Terry, Holocaust Denial in the Age of Web 2.0, 53.

44 Ibid., 48.

45 Ibid.

46 Jovan Byford, Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 89; also see Barkun, *A Culture of Conspiracy, *187.

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