• Pastors are trying to fight conspiracy theories and disinformation that have taken hold of churches.
• Insider spoke with two pastors who left their congregations after seeing members radicalize.
• Some research has found disproportionate support among white evangelicals for the QAnon conspiracy theory.
• See more stories on the Insider business page.

The morning of Riot at the Capitol, Vern Swieringa told his wife while out for a walk with their dogs: “Something is going to happen today. I don’t know what, but something is going to happen today.

The Michigan Reformed Christian Church pastor had watched the growth of some members of his congregation for months. captivated by QAnon conspiracy theory videos on social media, openly discussing sex trafficking and Satan-worshiping pedophiles.

He had watched like other spiritual advisers, including the self-proclaimed “Trump prophetMark Taylor, incorporated QAnon’s savage and dangerous beliefs into their sermons on YouTube and as Christian Jericho March organizers gathered in Washington, DC, days before the insurgency, urging supporters to “pray, walking, fasting and rallying for electoral integrity. “

So when hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol hours after his premonition, Swieringa was shocked, but not surprised.

“I think some of the signs were there from the start, and it all turned into a perfect storm,” Swieringa told Insider.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

The pastor said he was worried about the so-called Christian nationalism since Trump was elected in 2016. (Neither Swieringa nor any of the other pastors interviewed for this story say who they voted for in 2016 or 2020.)

He became even more concerned when, in 2018, some older members of his own congregation started sending him what he described as “disturbing” QAnon videos. When Swieringa brought them to the attention of his superiors, he said, they were mostly dismissive, telling him they didn’t know what QAnon was.

But when the Coronavirus pandemic hit last year, the problem has become bigger and much more personal.

Swieringa grew increasingly uncomfortable when much of his congregation called the pandemic a hoax.

The 61-year-old pastor was taking the pandemic very seriously, he said, in part because his wife was considered at risk. A pneumonia attack in 2019 had left her with permanent scarring in the lungs.

“That’s when I put my foot down and said, ‘I’m not going to preach to a congregation that wants to sing and not wear masks,’” Swieringa said. “But they still wanted me to preach in front of them without wearing a mask.”

He said the church gave him a plexiglass barrier to preach behind, but felt that wouldn’t make much difference in an enclosed space.

“We agreed to go our separate ways at that point, so it was pretty cordial at the time,” Swieringa said. “But I found out later that there were some very hard feelings among the congregation, and many of them felt like I had abandoned them. It was heartbreaking.”

Swieringa left the church in December after eight years of service.

He now works part-time at Kibbie Christian Reformed Church in South Haven, 30 miles from his original job. His new church has a mandatory mask rule.

Inordinate belief in QAnon among white evangelicals

Swieringa is not the only pastor fighting the rapid spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation in his congregation.

A survey published in January by the Christian research organization Lifestyle research found that over 45% of Protestant pastors said they often heard worshipers repeat conspiracy theories about nationally current events.

Another investigation by the curator American Institute of Business found that more than a quarter of white evangelical respondents believed in QAnon, and three in five believed President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election was “not legitimate.” These rates were the highest of all religious groups.

The trend has prompted hundreds of evangelical pastors and religious leaders to speak out. In February, more than 1,400 of them published an open letter condemning “radicalized Christian nationalism” and the “rise in acts of violence committed by radicalized extremists using the name of Christ”, The Washington Post reported.

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Among them is Jared Stacey, a young Baptist pastor from Southern Virginia who ended up quitting the church altogether after QAnon and other conspiracy theories began to divide his congregation.

He moved to Scotland in December, where he is now studying theology at the University of Aberdeen.

He told Insider he left to “create space,” adding that pastor in 2020 was “a struggle” for many religious leaders.

“I think a lot of pastors are overwhelmed right now and need a friend,” Stacey said. “It’s not easy looking at the people you’ve invested the time to radicalize so quickly in front of your eyes.”

He said that while some people might say politics shouldn’t be discussed in churches, there comes “a time when refusing to talk about politics is a false facade to protect the political sensibilities of your stakeholders.”

“This is why there is a theological need to address what the Bible would describe as lying or having a false God,” he added.

But keeping up with news online isn’t always easy, and Stacey worries the church is falling behind in the race to bring Christian messages to a world that spends most of its time online.

“The church is going through the biggest change in information since printing,” Stacey said.

The road to QAnon recovery

Derek Kubilus, senior pastor at Uniontown United Methodist Church in Ohio, is trying to use technology to reach more Christians who have been affected by QAnon.

Kubilus directs the “Cross Over Q” podcast, which offers “healing for QAnon followers and family members from a Christian perspective.”

The pastor started the podcast after the Capitol Riot and received a wide range of listeners, including former QAnon believers who told him the podcast was part of their recovery.

“When I saw crosses being carried next to QAnon banners and a noose as these people walked on the Capitol, I knew I had to do something, but from a Christian point of view,” he said. Kubilus told Insider.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

While some pastors, including Stacey and Swieringa, have opted for private conversations with their followers to warn of the dangers of disinformation, Kubilus is doing so publicly.

In his podcasts, he demystifies theories, talks about their dangerousness and preaches the importance of unity.

“Members of the clergy are expected to maintain a certain distance from secular politics (…) both to preserve the unity of our congregation and to ensure that we do not unduly influence the elections,” said said Kubilus.

“But I don’t believe QAnon is inherently political. It starts with politics, but it’s people’s lives, in relationships, that we’re talking about.”

Kubilus is aware that recovery from QAnon’s radicalization is by no means short-lived, but he hopes his efforts will eventually bring Christians home.

“It takes a lot of courage, time and patience,” he said. “But when you hear the stories of people being hurt, in families that are falling apart, you recognize that it is absolutely necessary.”

Art Basel 2020 may have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Miami’s design district is still going strong. The Magic City hosted a new Louis Vuitton Men’s installation curated by artistic director Virgil Abloh. This temporary fixture follows many of Abloh’s most creative pop-ups and installations, including the slime-green store showcasing the Fall/Winter 2019 collection.

The installation was unveiled last Friday and features creations from the Louis Vuitton Men’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection. The exhibit brings the world and characters of Abloh’s animated film to life. Zoooom adventures with friends, which premiered at Digital Paris Fashion Week 2020. The short film follows a cast of animated characters hiding as stowaways in LV shipping containers traveling through Paris.

Located at Jungle Plaza, the outdoor experience features larger-than-life balloons from Zoooom with friends characters, bespoke LV shipping containers and sculptures, collection showcases, and a Snapchat augmented reality experience. The event is open to the public and guests will be able to pre-order models from the collection.

The curated experience will be on display in Miami until January 25 and will continue in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico City.

PARIS – Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield on Thursday rejected requests by a shareholder consortium that includes French billionaire Xavier Niel to drop its € 3.5 billion rights issue plan and get rid of it instead. its American shopping centers.

The supervisory board, which met on Thursday, “expresses its deep disagreement with these proposals, which add significant uncertainties and risks in the current complex environment,” URW said in a statement.

Niel, a well-known telecom entrepreneur in France, has teamed up with Leon Bressler, former CEO of Unibail, and they together own 4.1% of the company’s shares.

Shareholders said the planned rights issue would be “severely dilutive”, calling it “a misguided act on the part of management which remains trapped in a failed strategy that began with the Westfield acquisition”.

Shareholders want the company to refocus on its core European shopping centers and sell its US stakes.

“Removing URW from its US portfolio will generate superior performance over the long term, to the benefit of all stakeholders,” they said.

URW’s supervisory board fired back, saying it unanimously supported the real estate company’s strategic plan, dubbed “reset”, which, in addition to the capital raised, involves the sale of € 4 billion of real estate in Europe – half shops and half offices – by the end of next year. He cited the recent sale for 620 million euros of an office building that houses Nestlé’s head office in the Paris suburbs as proof that he is moving forward with his plans.

“The reset plan is about immediate action to ensure the operational and financial flexibility of the group,” said the real estate company.

URW was formed when the French real estate company bought Westfield for nearly $ 25 billion in 2018. At the time, mergers were seen as a key form of defense for shopping center operators struggling to cope with the drop in foot traffic as consumers turned to digital means to shop. The struggling industry has suffered another blow with the coronavirus pandemic, which has spooked shoppers in physical stores and sped up online shopping.

Since purchasing Westfield and its properties in London, New York and San Francisco, Chief Executive Officer Christophe Cuvillier has steered the company to prime locations, keeping them alive with new brands and frequent renewal of tenants. He also promoted mixed-use sites and consumer data, collecting it globally, which helped expand the business of local malls.

The company reported € 1.06 billion in rental income in the first half, a decrease of 15.1%.

URW will hold its annual meeting of shareholders on November 10.