The press is focusing on the manifestations of hatred by white supremacist groups as opposed to the narrative through which they teach their hateful obsession with Jews. This "New World Order" narrative, as well as the process through which this narrative is transmitted to others, is an important part of understanding the growing epidemic of paranoid conspiracy theories.   The narrative is not just about indulging in hatred of "the other" but a cohesive storyline about the battle between good and evil in society.  This narrative can be disseminated in religious or secular versions, and can be told in an anti-Semitic or "philo-Semitic" millennial frame.  But the basic storyline of world control by an interconnected and demonic cabal remains the same.  Understanding this narrative can help to explain a question that numerous commentators posed this week, as they wondered why the election of our first African American president could bring about an increase in anti-Semitic violence.

This is not an attempt to compare Christian Zionists to white supremacists, but to address a question brought to the attention of the public through recent shootings by paranoid conspiracy believers.  What is New World Order conspiracy and how is this conspiracy theory growing so rapidly in our society?  Even with the internet, white supremacists have a limited audience due to their overt hatemongering.  James von Brunn's writing, for example, could only appeal to someone who is already an overt anti-Semite and racist.  So, how does this New World Order narrative reached a much larger audience?  Is this nation filled with latent anti-Semites?

I do not believe that.  I think that millions of the people exposed to this New World Order conspiracy are well intentioned and are being drawn into this paranoid conspiracy in the name of defending all that is holy and good from an attack by demonic forces.  This is why it is so important to look at the parallels of the New World Order conspiracy theory narrative and not just its current manifestations.  This includes looking at the remarkable similarities between the New World Order conspiracy of white supremacist groups and that of Christian Zionist end times prophecy, however unpopular this may be.  And we need to look now, while well intentioned Americans can learn where this conspiracy originated and where it leads.  It is too late to pretend that it is only flourishing with white supremacists.

While it may sound counterintuitive that Christian Zionists would embrace the same basic narrative as overtly anti-Semitic white supremacist groups, the storylines are indeed parallel and sometimes almost identical.  Both anti-Semitic and philo-Semitic versions of the narrative are increasingly being marketed side by side and even from the same organizations.  One compelling example is The Prophecy Club where people claiming to be Christian Zionists, some even pictured in tallitot,  market their products on the same website and participate in the same speaking tours as known anti-Semitic writers. These include Fritz Springmeier, author of the 13 Bloodlines of the Illuminati, and Texe Marrs.   All of it is marketed as prophecy.  The Prophecy Club is the original source of many hundreds of online videos about the New World Order conspiracy theory, some of it quite virulently anti-Semitic.

Millennial philo-Semitism is an obsession with the role that Jews are required to play to bring about the end times.  An irrational obsession with Jews as supernaturally controlling the destiny of the world is dangerous, regardless of how it is framed, even when it comes cloaked as "pro-Israel" Christian Zionism.  

What is New World Order conspiracy?

This conspiracy theory is a well defined narrative in which a satanic cabal controls the world through the manipulation of the financial markets, and intentionally orchestrates the destruction of Christian society.  Depending on the speaker, this may be a reference specifically to white Christian society, but today this is often not the case.  This narrative is indeed a prominent feature of racial supremacists; however, the conspiracy is increasingly being made accessible for people of different race, ethnicity, and nationality, and is rapidly becoming an international phenomenon based on religious supremacy.  The terminology parallels that of racism with ideas of "spiritual DNA" or DNA that has entered the society through the lineage of God or the devil.   Due to this, it would be a mistake to look at New World Order conspiracy solely as a racist or white supremacist narrative.

Not all paranoid anti-government conspiracy falls into the category of the New World Order narrative, and those with vociferous objections to the policy of various governments should not be automatically lumped with New World Order believers.  This particular conspiracy has specific and identifiable traits, such as the claim that the cabal is linked internationally and has a genetic relationship. The lineage is traced back many generations and often into biblical times.

This narrative is not secular, nor is it new.  It can be told in a secular frame, but those versions of the narrative closely parallel and are often blended directly with the antichrist narrative of the end times. The particular narrative that is becoming so prevalent is an updated version of the conspiracy narratives of the 1920s and 1930s, sometimes repeated almost word for word from the major tomes of that period.

The early 1900s narrative was disseminated through publications like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the works of British writer Nesta Webster, and Henry Ford's serialization in the Dearborn Independent, later published in book form as The International Jew.  The latter was published repeatedly in Nazi Germany and was described in the Nuremberg trials by Baldur Shirach, first leader of the Hitler Youth, as having greatly impacted German young people including himself.  Hitler recognized Ford by name in Mein Kampf and Ford was awarded, and accepted, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from the Nazi government in July, 1938.

Then, like today, the virulent anti-Semitic conspiracy theory narrative was blended with end time prophecy narrative and stories of the antichrist.  Leading fundamentalists of the 1920s embraced The Protocols of the Elders of Zion claiming that it supported their end time prophecy narrative.  This group included William Bell Riley, co-founder of the World Fundamentalist Association in 1919, and a leader in the anti-evolution movement of his day.  His biography at the Billy Graham Center Archives describes him as "a major, if not the major leader of American fundamentalists."   Those embracing The Protocols included editors of the 1917 edition of The Scofield Study Bible, the primary training tool for dispensational theology for generations, and the president of Moody Bible Institute, one of the leading centers of dispensational theology.  Dispensational theology and its detailed end times prophecy narrative are recognized as the foundation of modern American Christian Zionism.

This satanic cabal in the paranoid conspiracy narratives is credited with inciting the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution, and for funding both sides of the World Wars. One of the most prominent and consistent components of these conspiracy narratives concerns the Federal Reserve and the intentional manipulation of international financial markets.

Both the historical and current narrative focused on the cabal as being formed of Jews, Freemasons, and the Illuminati.  This last group is described as a continued line of the Bavarian Illuminati organization founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776.

Some versions of the narrative include Jesuits and attack the Roman Catholic Church as the apostate church of the end times.  This narrative of a centralized satanic cabal controlling society has often intermingled with other conspiracy narratives like that of Alexander Hislop, author of The Two Babylons.  Hislop claimed that occult powers from a "Mystery Babylon" religion had been passed down to the present day. He published a pamphlet in 1853 claiming that the Roman Catholic Church followed this "Mystery Religion" and is therefore engaged in devil worship and is the apostate church of the end times, or the "whore of Babylon."  My copy of the book is a 1959 edition.

John Hagee is one of the "prophecy experts" who still spouts this particular conspiracy theory as part of prophecy.  One specific example is his sermon "The Great Harlot of Mystery Babylon" which is sermon three in his Prophecy in the 21st Century sermon series and was delivered on May 18, 2003 and marketed through John Hagee Ministries.  Hagee's denials to Roman Catholic leaders are demonstrably false.

Some Jewish leaders and writers defended Hagee on the basis that there really has been anti-Semitism in the Roman Catholic Church.  However, this example also demonstrates the need to know and understand a prophecy narrative before defending it.  That includes the source and villain in the story - this particularly "Mystery Babylon" conspiracy is also used against Jews.

Christian Identity, a white supremacist group mentioned frequently in the news this week, evolved from British or Anglo-Israelism, with the ideology that Anglo-Saxons (and sometimes Germanic and Scandinavian peoples) are the descendants of the biblical tribes of Israel.  Christian Identity preaches that Jews are imposters.  In Religion and the Racist Right  Michael Barkun explains how Christian Identity appropriated Hislop's "Mystery Babylon" but applied it to Jews instead of the Roman Catholic Church.  The "Mystery Babylon" religion, or devil worship, is the source of the occult powers with which they claim Jews control the world.  Christian Identity is the parent group of The Order, Aryan Nations, Phineas Priesthood, and their ranks have included domestic terrorist like Eric Rudolph, Buford Furrow, the shooter at the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center, and the murderers of Alan Berg.

In the most virulent versions of this conspiracy narrative, the Illuminati and/or Jews are portrayed as not quite human, and as part of a bloodline that descended from Esau, "whom God hated," or from the devil himself. Christian Identity publications often refer to Jews as "Esau-Edomites" or pseudo-Jews, since these groups believe they are the true Israel and even celebrate a Christian version of Jewish holidays such as the Feast of Tabernacles.  (Many other philo-Semitic and Christian Zionist groups also celebrate Christian adapted versions of Jewish holidays and should not be confused with Christian Identity.  However, a growing number of these Christian Zionist groups are now claiming that they are actually the Israelites and some are asking for rights to land in Israel.)

Various non-Jewish families that are included in the conspiracy's "Illuminati Bloodlines" are considered to be "crypto-Jews" and genetically related.  This is how the Rockefellers become grouped with the Rothschilds, and how Rupert Murdoch becomes part of the list of Jews who supposedly control the media.

While white supremacists are open about their anti-Semitism, other toned down versions remove the overt hatemongering.  Jews are implied as running the cabal through references to families like the Rothschilds and terms like "European financiers."  

The New World Order is claimed to be dedicated to the formation of a one-world government and the destruction of national sovereignty.  Secular versions of the narrative replace the description of the one-world government of the anti-Christ with a one world government that is planning to dramatically reduce the population of the earth.  Commonly the narrative claims that this cabal is operated through the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, The Trilateral Commission, and other organizations that they claim to be controlled by the Illuminati.  Through these groups the Illuminati are supposedly planning to reduce the earth's population by 80% using the hoax of global warming as an excuse to carry out this plot.

Many videos and broadcasts, including those peddled by groups that present themselves as Christian Zionists, claim that millions of foreign and United Nations troops are now hiding out in our national parks, ready to attack on command.  Some of the people advancing this conspiracy are well respected and prominent individuals - not white supremacist and not fringe.

No leader is free from accusation of being part of this satanic cabal, whether they or Democratic or Republican.  Pat Robertson's 1991 best seller, New World Order, was partially a response to a quote from George H.W. Bush.  Robertson's book was a watershed moment in making a virulent anti-Semitic conspiracy theory again acceptable as a religious narrative, something that had not been acceptable in religious discourse in our society for decades.  Robertson only slightly toned down his version of the early 1900s conspiracy and actually cited major overt anti-Semitic writers including Nesta Webster and Eustace Mullins.

For instance, on page 177 of New World Order Robertson states,

"In earlier chapters, we have traced the infiltration of Continental Freemasonry by the new world philosophy of the Order of the Illuminati, and its subsequent role in the French Revolution.  We then were able to find clear documentation of the occultic-oriented secret societies claiming descent from Illuminism and the French Revolution played a seminal role in the thinking of Marx and Lenin."

On page 258 Robertson states,

"In fact, the Bible refers to Mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots.  It is this stream of humanity that asserted itself in the French Revolution, in Marxist communism, and now appears again in new world order planning."

Clearly Robertson is not referring to Roman Catholicism as inciting the French Revolution but is tapping into the Jewish version of this conspiracy.  Also, Robertson quotes Nesta Webster, author of writings accusing Jews of inciting the French Revolution.

John Hagee's 1997 Day of Deception focused on the Clintons, with chapters titled "Witchcraft in the White House" and "Who Controls America."  In this book Hagee graphically claims that satanists are killing thousands of babies and children in satanic rituals which are covered up by police, hospital staff, and other authorities.  Other writers are even more graphic than Hagee in their descriptions of sacrificial killings of Christians by satanic cabals.

Hagee's Federal Reserve conspiracy is tamer than Von Brunn's but based on the same basic storyline.

American Dolchstoss from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

Hagee's narrative is directed toward unsuspecting audiences of people who, one could assume, were not looking for anti-Semitic conspiracy theory when they tuned in to the broadcasts of this well known Christian Zionist.  Tragically the publicity last May about Hagee's 2005 sermon with the "Hitler as hunter" quote, produced discussion on the single broadcasted quote alone, and failed to initiate a larger dialogue on anti-Semitic conspiracy in Christian Zionist prophecy narratives.  The larger story is about "fishers and hunters" and the apocalyptic events that must take place to bring Jews to "spiritual life" as described by Hagee and other Christian Zionist leaders.  These Christian Zionist believe that they are the "fishers" with the task of encouraging Jews to fulfill their role in the end times drama.  But they also believe there must be "hunters" to force Jews against their will.  Christian Zionists can not be the hunters, of course, but they widely disseminate a narrative in which there must be hunters and a recurrence of virulent anti-Semitism for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

These apocalyptic events that must take place are described as "far exceeding the Holocaust" by Christian Zionist Richard Booker and as "beyond the horrors of Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz - all the death camps combined" in a best selling fictional portrayal of Jewish history by Kay Arthur.  Arthur serves on the International Board of the Women's Council of the Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus.

See No Debate on Hagee, written by this author and posted a year ago.

 Hagee not only preaches to his large Cornerstone Church congregation in San Antonio, but is broadcast around the world daily.  He is the founder of Christians United for Israel and his biography on that site states,

"Currently Hagee broadcasts on eight major networks, 162 independent television stations and 51 radio stations throughout the globe, broadcasting in over 190 nations."

Hagee not only reaches a much larger audience than white supremacists, but it is reasonable to assume that his New Word Order conspiracy narrative is more believable because he is viewed as "pro-Israel" and endorsed by some Jewish and Israeli leaders.  Hagee could even be considered by his audiences to have secretive inside information thanks to these ties and his frequent claims of knowledge of privileged military and intelligence information.  The bottom line is that Hagee's Federal Reserve conspiracy theory audience is much larger than Van Brunn's, or that of any other white supremacist.

And Hagee is one of many.

GodTV is a popular Christian network founded by Wendy and Rory Alec and transmitted from Jerusalem.  They recently broadcast a multi-week series titled "Apocalypse and the End Times" that featured issues stated as,

"ranging from the Second Coming to the Rapture, Illuminati, the antichrist, mark of the beast; as well as issues such as UFOs and Aliens, bird flu and the current economic meltdown."

The series featured Chuck Missler, Mike Evans, Grant Jeffrey, Larry Bates, Paul McGuire and Gary Kah and and a preview can be seen here.

Paul McGuire was introduced by hosts Wendy and Rory Alec as,

"a commentator on Fox News, CNN, and an internationally recognized biblical prophecy expert.  He has written several books including The Warning and Are You Ready, covering many subjects on the end times including globalization, the Illuminati, New World Order, and much, much more.  He's interviewed many celebrities, politicians, senators, and generals from the Pentagon, and is a professor at Jack Hayford's King's College Seminary on Israel and Bible prophecy."

Jack Hayford is the cofounder and co-chair of the Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, the largest single Christian Zionist event in the world.  His King's College Seminary has recently added a new division called The King's Jewish Voice.  This is for charismatic Jewish Messianic studies in order to "best reveal Yeshua to all Israel" as stated on their logo.

One of McGuire's conspiracy laden websites can be seen here. McGuire participates in conferences on prophecy and "intelligence" with other Christian Zionists such as Walid Shoebat, Chuck Missler, Tim LaHaye, and Joel Rosenberg.

Another well known Christian Zionist is Jack van Impe who announced his own video on the Illuminati in a recent broadcast of Jack van Impe Presents.

"My video on this subject will be ready in April...it's shocking!

But I discovered that the originator of this New World Order was Adam Weishaupt.  On May 1, 1776, sixty-five days before the birth of the United States of America, (he) said we're going to create a New World Order.  Out of that sprang another six organizations pushing for the same thing, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderbergs, the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, the United Nations, and finally the New Age Movement.  Wow, wait until you get this video."

Ignoring the New World Order conspiracy narratives of Christian Zionism may be an easier path for Jewish leaders to take at this moment. But the massive dissemination of New World Order conspiracy, even framed as philo-Semitic or pro-Israel, is validating the more virulent anti-Semitic version and mainstreaming this conspiracy theory both in this country and around the globe.  Much of the dissemination is possible because of Christian Zionist activities and networks.

I am not advocating censorship or even challenging Christian Zionists.  They have a right to preach and teach as they please.  John Hagee has a right to spew conspiracy theory from his pulpit as long as he wishes.  But others have the option of not supporting or defending Hagee and other Christian Zionists who spread this conspiracy.

The price for their brand of "pro-Israel" support is too great.

(Many more specific examples of New World Order conspiracy in the guise of prophecy will be featured in upcoming posts on Talk2Action.org.)

[ed: this story continues in part two, Col. Jim Ammerman, Apostle & New World Order Conspiracy Theorist]