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  1. Framing the World, Marching to Zion, and Texe Marrs

Framing the World, Marching to Zion, and Texe Marrs

The following section considers the 2015 film Marching to Zion. It reveals Anderson’s antisemitic theological views, his association with Texe Marrs, and how he frames Jews, Judaism, and Israel before ever talking about the Holocaust. As noted above, if “Holocaust denial has been cut loose to fend for itself as just one of many fringe conspiracy theories peddled on the internet,”47 this means that Holocaust denial in its most recent iterations and contexts should be understood in relation to relevant conspiracy theories. Furthermore, while Anderson and Marrs might have some nuanced differences on particular theological issues, they showcase significant family resemblances in matters of theology and approach to Jews, Judaism, Israel, and, ultimately, the Holocaust. It is important to understand Anderson’s theology, media, and networks since they are vital to the messages relayed his Holocaust denial video.

Since Anderson and Wittenberger teamed up, Framing the World has produced a number of “documentaries” (read: propaganda films).48 Marching to Zion was the first of their films to fully tackle their views on the intersection of Christianity, Jews, Judaism, and Israel. According to Anderson, Marching to Zion is a film that “exposes the fraud of the modern-day nation of Israel and the fraud of the religion known as Judaism.”49 In terms of theological views, Anderson’s Faithful Word Baptist Church is opposed to Christian Zionism, which scholar Stephen Spector broadly defines as “Christians whose faith, often in concert with other convictions, emotions, and experiences, leads them to support the modern state of Israel as the Jewish homeland.”50 Anderson often slips into equating Christian Zionism with dispensationalist theology. Though the two are wedded in the popular imagination, and often in American geopolitics, they are not synonymous.51 Anderson also cares little about the nuanced developments of dispensationalism over time.52 That said, the various iterations of dispensationalist theology have, as academics indicate, generally emphasized “the uniqueness and importance of both Israel and the Church”53 in God’s divine plan. By theorizing a special, ongoing Jewish relationship with God, “Dispensationalism enhanced the conviction that the Jewish people are the apple of God’s eye, set aside for the Lord’s blessing.”54 Opposed to dispensationalist theology, Anderson promotes supersessionism, also known as replacement theology, the belief that the New Covenant of Jesus Christ has superseded the Old Covenant made with Israel. Many who hold to replacement theology generally believe that modern Jews do not constitute God’s chosen people.55 Rather, the Christian church took on the mantle of God’s chosen people with the New Covenant’s inclusion of gentiles into the people of God. Marching to Zion is constructed around a series of arguments against dispensationalist Christian

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

48 “Framing the World Store,” Framing the World, accessed July 30, 2019, https://framingtheworld.com/store/ols/categories/dvds. The New IFB is heavily invested in using “documentaries” to reach fellow Christians and the unsaved. See YouTube, “New IFB Documentaries,” YouTube Channel, accessed May 18, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN5OBnOh1-QGZ1sQqOxfIbg/videos.

49 Anderson, Did the Holocaust Really Happen?, 00:00:00-00:00:24.

50 Stephen Spector, Evangelicals and Israel: The Story of American Christian Zionism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 3; also see Yaakov Ariel, “An Unexpected Alliance: Christian Zionism and its Historical Significance,” Modern Judaism 26, issue 1 (2006), 74-100, accessed July 10, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/mj/kjj005.

51 On the problem with rigidly coupling Christian Zionism and dispensationalism, see Matt Westbrook, “Broadcasting Jesus’ Return: Televangelism and the Appropriation of Israel through Israeli-Granted Broadcasting Rights,” in Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison, eds. Göran Gunner and Robert O. Smith. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014), 79-82; also see Samuel Goldman, God’s Country: Christian Zionism in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018), 4-11.

52 Mark S. Sweetnam, “Defining Dispensationalism: A Cultural Studies Perspective,” Journal of Religious History 34, no. 2 (2010), 192-194, accessed July 20, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9809.2010.00862.x.

53 Ibid., 202.

54 Spector, Evangelicals and Israel, 112.

55 Hillary Kaell, Walking Where Jesus Walked: American Christians and Holy Land Pilgrimage (New York: New York University, 2014), 37-38; Yaakov Ariel, An Unusual Relationship: Evangelical Christians and Jews (New York: New York University, 2013), 8, 19-20; also see Yaakov Ariel, “Israel in Contemporary Evangelical Christian Millennial Thought,” Numen 59, no. 5-6 (2012), 471, 481, accessed July 1, 2019, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341235.

Zionists, attempting to prove that their support for the State of Israel is theologically misguided.56

To prove Christian Zionists wrong, Anderson and Wittenberger interviewed seven Baptist pastors, the owners and operators of a DNA testing company, Texe Marrs, and four Jewish community leaders and rabbis in Arizona (Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, and Humanist).57 Why interview Jewish community leaders if the film focuses on theological debates within Christianity? By interviewing rabbis, Framing the World hopes to demystify, for Christians, what modern Jews believe. Anderson wants to show viewers that Jews are far from being “the apple of God’s eye” because Judaism hardly shares any theological beliefs with fundamentalist or conservative Christians. Framing the World assumes that dispensationalist Christian Zionists have an ossified view of Jews and Judaism. Throughout the film, Anderson and Wittenberger essentially highlight the historic dynamism of Judaism from the Talmud to modern times. The intent, however, is not to show the religious vibrancy of Judaism over millennia, but to show how Judaism became mixed with satanic ideas and practices, as well as how Jews conspired against Christians and the church. Marching to Zion, therefore, exhibits a dual program: (1) deconstructing what many fundamentalist or conservative Christians might believe about Judaism, and (2) reconstructing what Jews and Judaism are from an antisemitic theocentric Christian conspiracist point of view. Because the Jews rejected Jesus, Judaism is the aforementioned “synagogue of Satan.” The synagogue of Satan is a conspiring cabal of Jews attempting to manipulate world affairs, particularly at the end of days. In terms of the interviews with Jewish community leaders, Anderson used these four Jewish figures to speak for all Jews everywhere. According to these interviewees, Framing the World duped them into participating in Marching to Zion. 58 Anderson disputes this account and claims that he provided all the interview questions in advance. Nevertheless, he admits to not being forthright about the intentions of the film.59

Anderson and Wittenberger spend considerable time in Marching to Zion talking to Marrs. Marrs, who personally calls his work “conspiracy science,” has long sought to expose the “mysterious ‘they’” directing nefarious world affairs.60 Using the Bible, but undoubtedly influenced by other conspiracists, he personally came to the conclusion that the “synagogue of Satan” (i.e. Jews) was behind the forces of evil in this world.61 In his thought, Jews are part of a cosmic dichotomy.62 In this dichotomy, Christianity professes a spiritual kingdom while Judaism maintains a carnal kingdom, sentiments drawn from a long history of anti-Jewish and antisemitic thought in Christianity.63 Sharing this view with Anderson, they call contemporary Jews “Israel after the flesh.”64 With

56 It is important to note that replacement theology does not necessarily lead to delegitimizing the State of Israel and is not necessarily opposed to Christian Zionism. Again, see Westbrook, Broadcasting Jesus’ Return, 79-82; and Goldman, God’s Country, 4-11.

57 Steven L. Anderson, “New Documentary—Marching to Zion,” Steven L. Anderson (blog), July 27, 2014, accessed July 30, 2019, https://sanderson1611.blogspot.com/2014/07/new-documentary-marching-to-zion.html.

58 Haaretz, “US Pastor Dupes Rabbis into Anti-Semitic Film,” Haaretz, January 1, 2015, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www. haaretz.com/jewish/u-s-pastor-dupes-rabbis-into-anti-semitic-film-1.5346628. Anderson references his interviews throughout a sermon series as well, see Truth in Genesis, “The Jews and Their Lies Part 1 of 2,” YouTube video, 1:04:11, uploaded July 5, 2015, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml-x4VaEaK0; also see Truth in Genesis, “The Jews and Their Lies Part 2 of 2,” YouTube video, 1:05:43, posted July 12, 2015, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYrQXn9IUlM&t=3073s.

59 Steven L. Anderson, “Live Phone Q&A with Pastor Steven L Anderson (11/25/14 6:00pm),” YouTube video, 3:00:10, uploaded November 25, 2014, accessed July 30, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFhxXngZ2i8, 02:00:50- 02:03:11; also see David Neiwert, “Arizona Pastor Boasts about Tricking Rabbis into Participating in Anti-Semitic Film,” Hatewatch (blog), Southern Poverty Law Center, December 12, 2014, accessed May 18, 2020, https://www. splcenter.org/hatewatch/2014/12/12/arizona-pastor-boasts-about-tricking-rabbis-participating-anti-semitic-film.

60 Marrs, Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, loc. 7705, 7742, Kindle.

61 Ibid., loc. 7775, Kindle; also see loc. 751.

62 Ibid., loc. 8664, Kindle.

63 On Christianity and the understanding of Jews as materialistic rather than spiritual, see Stephen H. Norwood, “Convergent Anti-Zionisms: The American Far Left and Far Right,” in Anti-Judaism, Antisemitism, and Delegitimizing Israel, ed. Robert S. Wistrich (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016), 119.

64 Anderson used the words “Israel after the flesh,” see Marrs, Texe Marrs Interviews Steven Anderson About ‘Marching to Zion’ Part 1, 00:44:07-00:44:27; Marrs asserts the same, see Conspiracy of the Six-Pointed Star, loc. 347, Kindle.

Christianity and Judaism locked in cosmic battle, the State of Israel is the latest realization of a Jewish carnal kingdom on earth. Because Christianity seeks a spiritual kingdom, Judaism’s desire for a carnal kingdom means that it must be aligned with Jesus’ opposite, Satan. Marrs sees all nonChristian religions as satanic, but Judaism appears particularly pernicious in his writings. Anderson is similar on this account. On the one hand, he claims Islam is “just as satanic as Judaism”65; on the other hand, he considers Jews to have a special relationship with Satan. In an interview with Marrs, Anderson affirmed this notion:

Israel after the flesh is an abomination today. You know, they’re wicked. They are the most blasphemous people toward our Lord Jesus Christ. When it comes to the religions of the world, the religion that is the most blasphemous is Judaism. And that’s why God identified Judaism as the synagogue of Satan.66

In Marrs and Anderson’s understanding of Jewish history, Judaism’s embrace of satanic elements can be recognized in anti-Christian sentiments in the Talmud.67 Through various means, such as Kabbalah and Zionism, Judaism spread its pernicious, pagan-inspired practices and materialism into other religious groups, ideologies, social movements, political institutions, and secret societies, like post-Vatican II Catholicism, the New Age movement, the Masonic Lodge, and even dispensationalism.68 Secular Jews are not necessarily exempt either. Rather, there is a sense in which secular Jews still do Satan’s work. Marrs and Anderson suggest that secular Jews inherit the sinful heritage of Judaism through their connection to supposedly evil ideologies and movements inspired by Judaism, such as socialism and Zionism. They believe Jews control the publishing industry, Hollywood, the news media, and much of global finance.69 These two theocentric Christian conspiracists make sure to claim that not all Jews knowingly participate in the global Jewish conspiracy; many Jews might be duped by Jewish leaders, e.g. rabbis, the Israeli government, Jewish socialists, Jewish philanthropists, etc.70 Despite attempting to hedge their bets, Anderson and Marrs often utilize all-encompassing antisemitic rhetoric to demonize all Jews who have not accepted Jesus as messiah, the one way Jews can disentangle themselves from Judaism’s satanic tentacles.

By now, it should go without saying that Anderson is clearly an antisemite. He fits the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) “working definition of antisemitism” in “making stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective.”71 He especially fits the working definition in two ways I explore in the next section, namely by “denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust),” and by “accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.”72

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