Christian extremists make up all sorts of things about evolution and science in order to push their theocratic agenda, but one of the most disturbing is the idea that evolution is part of a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. It's bizarre, but then again all conspiracy theories are pretty bizarre.

Dave Neiwert specializes in covering the racist and anti-Semitic propaganda in the American Right and he quotes a news report on Kent Hovind's anti-evolution efforts in the Dover, Pennsylvania area:

Michael Marcavage, whose Philadelphia-based organization Repent America is sponsoring Hovind’s visit, said the accusations of anti-Semitism and extremism are unfair.

“He believes that people are from one race, the human race,” Marcavage said.

He said some Jewish organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the American Civil Liberties Union, are targeting Christians because of their faith.

“Those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh are under the spirit of anti-christ,” Marcavage added, a reference to 1 John 4:2-3.

So, instead of targeting Jews directly, they instead target organizations which are Jewish (ADL) or which can labeled as Jewish (ACLU). The problem with Jews, apparently, is their failure to convert to Christianity — and this puts them in league with the anti-Christ.

Neiwert also quotes a Southern Poverty Law Center report on Hovind:

Opened in 2001, Dinosaur Adventure Land sprung from Hovind’s Creation Science Evangelism ministry, which began to evolve in the late ‘80s. CSE sells videos and audiotapes of Hovind’s lectures and his debates with evolutionary scientists, along with books on “Evolution and the New World Order.” (At least one of them, Fourth Reich of the Rich, alleges a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.)

Are Kent Hovind and Michael Marcavage anti-Semites who believe that the Jews are trying to take over? Maybe not; at a bare minimum, though, their beliefs are compatible with that and the arguments they make help encourage such anti-Semitism. The popularity of their arguments is, as Neiwert notes, helping pull American conservatism even further to the extreme right where anti-Semitism and violence live.

 

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