Holy Hell: A Conversation With Derek Kubilus patheos.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from patheos.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
51:25
Last May, a Public Religion Research Institute survey found that nearly one in five members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in QAnon placing them just about in the middle of the Christian denominations polled.
Scholar Matthew Harris traces conspiracy beliefs among LDS church members back to the influence of church president Ezra Taft Benson (1985-1994), who was convinced that Communism was running rampant through the American government. His political leanings influenced his religious rhetoric, which found a home in LDS teachings and beliefs. But what accounts for the quarter of white evangelicals who the PRRI survey found also subscribe to the QAnon conspiracy? As with LDS church members, the answers are complicated. To help us untangle the relationship between religious conviction and conspiracy theories, we’ll talk this Friday at noon with Harris,
Derek Kubilus serves as vicar of Uniontown United Methodist Church in Uniontown, Ohion (Photo by Brian Koch)
Derek Kubilus is no cookie-cutter United Methodist minister.
He has the dynamic voice of a talk radio host, brings his two Great Pyrenees to Bible study, and calls himself “vicar” rather than “pastor.”
Though he has historical and theological reasons for using that title, Kubilus acknowledges it’s also a way of standing out a rhetorical bow tie.
“Honestly, I just like to be different,” he said.
Kubilus, leader of Uniontown United Methodist Church in Uniontown, Ohio, stepped out even further in late January when he launched a podcast called