The Epstein Files, Conspiracy Theories, and the Church with Emily Belz & Pete Wehner

Good Faith

News, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

5 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Jeffrey Epstein to QAnon, Why Do Conspiracies Thrive in Churches?

The Atlantic’s Pete Wehner, Christianity Today’s Emily Belz, and host Curtis Chang dive into QAnon, conspiracy theories, and the MAGA movement’s influence on American politics, culture, and the church. From Donald Trump’s messianic image to the shadows of Jeffrey Epstein, they reveal why conspiracies thrive in times of distrust—and how faith communities can fight back with truth and resilience.

(01:58) - Understanding the QAnon Conspiracy Movement

(04:10) - The Impact of QAnon Beliefs

(10:55) - The Role of Jeffrey Epstein’s Death

(17:13) - Christian Vulnerability to Conspiracy Theories

(25:13) - The History of Christianity and Conspiracies

(30:14) - The Grip of Trump on MAGA

(40:36) - Challenges Facing Church Leadership Today

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Mentioned in this episode:

Emily Belz: How QAnon Lives On Under Trump 2.0
Pete Wehner: Trump Discovers MAGA Has No ‘Off’ Switch
Wired: All The Times Kash Patel Promoted QAnon
FOX News: AG Pam Bondi on Epstein files: 'The public has a right to know' (March 3)
Politico: Outraged Trump supporters not placated by DOJ’s actions on Epstein
New York Times: Trump Embraces Conspiracy Theories He Only Winked at Before
Life Way Research: 50% of U.S. Protestant Pastors Hear Conspiracy Theories in Church
American Enterprise Institute: Findings from the January 2021 American Perspectives Survey
Nicholas Carr's The Shallows
More about Historical Antisemetic Conspiracies: Blood Libel
More about William Miller & the Millerites

Transcript

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0:00.0	When it comes to your algorithm, you're not really controlling what's being fed to you.
0:05.6	People do find themselves down these wormholes that they're not expecting.
0:09.5	And they might not know where some of this content is coming from,
0:12.2	which is why I think it's so important to understand QAnon,
0:14.8	to understand that this narrative comes from some really dark parts of the internet.
0:19.8	I think the algorithm is acting on people
0:22.1	and they're not acting on the algorithm.
0:41.0	Welcome to the Good Faith podcast.
0:43.0	I'm your host, Curtis Chang.
0:50.1	And the Good Faith podcast is where friends who follow Jesus help each other make sense of the world.
0:57.0	And one of the odd things happening in our political world is something of an emerging tension between Donald Trump, his MAGA base, and Q&ON conspiracy theory movement.
1:04.0	That's a tangled web that's like so complicated and I think kind of strange that we couldn't
1:10.0	do this with just one guess. We needed
1:12.4	two guests to help unravel this. So to do so, our first guess is one of our favorite
1:18.8	historical Good Faith guests, Pete Wainer, who's a columnist at the Atlantic and recently composed,
1:25.3	I thought a very insightful article entitled,
1:30.6	Trump discovers MAGA has no offswitz.
1:33.5	Pete, welcome back to the Good Faith podcast.
1:34.8	Great to be with you, Curtis.
1:36.0	It's always a delight.
1:36.9	Thanks for having me on.
1:42.6	Well, the second person to help us figure all this out is somebody new to the Good Faith podcast,
	...

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