Diana Butler Bass Profile picture
Sep 18, 2020 12 tweets 4 min read Read on X
A global cabal kidnaps children & teens to have sex w/power-hungry men in secret locations, men who are also involved in a traitorous plot to undermine democracy.

Where have I heard that before?

Kidnapping, Pedophilia, and the End of America dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
It isn't QAnon. It is the plot of a book published in 1836: The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, or, The Hidden Secrets of a Nun’s Life in a Convent Exposed.

In the book, the "cabal" was the Catholic Church & claimed this happened in a Montreal convent.

dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
The book stirred outrage. The Canadians investigated it (Monk was Canadian) & found it to be a hoax. Even Protestants who wanted to believe it dismissed Monk as a fraud.

dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
What happened to Maria Monk?

She moved to Philadelphia. Americans embraced her book (it was one of the most popular books of the late 1830s, 1840s). She wrote a sequel.

dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
Americans didn't think it was a hoax. They thought it was real. To Monk's lurid tale, they added all sorts of gruesome details including rumors of cannibalism and international sex trafficking.

dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
But it wasn't just a ghastly sort of fan fiction. The story moved off the pages of a book to the streets.

Convents were burned, churches attacked, priests assaulted, and Catholic neighborhoods besieged by Protestant militias.

dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
That's bad enough - but the anti-Protestant gangs coalesced into a political movement: the American Party. In the early 1850s, they sent 70 adherents to Congress.

Their platform? Only native-born Protestants should be able to vote.

dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
I’m not entirely convinced that history repeats itself. But here we are: Joe Biden is a Catholic, one of the few Catholic candidates for president in American history. And what do we have?

Maria Monk, 21st century version.

dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
QAnon is American conspiracy theory at its worst. But it isn’t terribly original. We’ve been here before.

dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/kidnapping-p…
*Anti-Catholic Protestant gangs!!!!!!!!!

WHY IS THERE NO EDIT BUTTON ON TWITTER?
The 7th tweet in this thread should read "Anti-Catholic Protestant gangs"
(This makes me want to move to Canada.)

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More from @dianabutlerbass

Apr 11
With all due respect & gratitude to the ELCA, y'all gotta take "evangelical" out of your formal name in the US. It is the source of endless confusion. Sorry sorry sorry but you can't redefine it here apart from American evangelicalism. (I know what it means in Greek, German, yes)
I wish I've had $1 for how many times I've explained your name to a group of 1) Lutherans who can't understand American evangelicalism; and 2) Evangelicals who can't figure out why mainline Lutherans would call themselves "evangelical."

And even after explaining, no one gets it.
Two entire questions after my conversation w/Sarah McCammon today on her fine new book, Exvangelicals, were wasted on this ridiculous confusion.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 23
This is an important "man in a diner" article. For me, it underscores an often-overlooked reason why white evangelicals support Trump.

Both their form of "religion" and his "politics" want to destroy things. They are not content w/any sort of difference or diverse choices.
The point is to make everyone miserable. In evangelicalism, the first step to salvation is making you miserable.

You must see that you have led a miserable life, made miserable choices, are a deeply miserable person.

Misery is the door toward you being saved.
Here's the article: politico.com/news/magazine/…
Read 6 tweets
Nov 6, 2023
Re: Mike Johnson porn story:

30 yrs ago, I knew a librarian at a prominent evangelical seminary whose sole job was going thru personal papers of ministers donated after they died. Her responsibility? Removing all the porn from such collections BEFORE they reached the cataloger.
In the 80s, there was a very famous, anonymous article in Leadership magazine (a CT publication) on porn and sexual addiction among evangelical clergy & leaders. It was rampant. That article was secretly passed among male evangelical seminary students & clergy like a banned book.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 1, 2023
I'm hearing anecdotally that a number of progressive mainline churches are seeing a post-pandemic steady influx of ex-evangelicals looking for new spiritual homes.

This doesn't mean that all ex-evangelicals are making this shift, but it suggests that at least some are.
In the 1990s and early aughts, the progressive mainline attracted mostly disaffected Catholics - a trend that strengthened congregations & attendance.

That the next disaffiliation wave might come from disgruntled & deconstructing evangelicals isn't surprising.
Mainline types: Don't expect this is a trend where folks will knock down your doors. You're going to have to prove yourselves trustworthy, open, loving - and you'll need to overcome years of stereotypes these folks learned in evangelicalism - you'll need to earn their respect.
Read 14 tweets
May 31, 2023
A guy got mad at my newsletter today - a post abt roses, summertime & poetry that included a “btw” line abt climate change.

He wrote a nasty note about how there’s no such thing as climate change, etc.

I can't believe that anyone would jump on a writer for reflecting on roses.
Literally, some dude attacking me for . . . flowers.
Are roses "woke"? And I just didn't know....?
Read 4 tweets
May 9, 2023
There’s no way a Catholic college can host Trump and ever hope to attract another student. .@SaintAnselm
Can you imagine? With the Catholic Church’s history of sexual abuse hosting a former president now found liable for sexual abuse?

If I were @Pontifex, I’d be on the phone right now.
If you didn’t know the @CNN town hall is scheduled to be at St Anselm College.
Read 6 tweets

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