Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Carrie Prejean Boller (“The Three Cs”) are probably the most exceptional examples of the renewed Christian theological opposition to Israel and Zionism that has always been lurking in dark corners. There are, of course, the “normal” fanatical Jew-haters—Nick Fuentes, Ana Kasparian and Myron Gaines (pseudonym of the Sudanese Amrou Fudl). And now, even conservative media personality Megyn Kelley is queuing up.
All claim not to be antisemitic but, to varying degrees, express a rhetoric of such intense dislike and animosity to the idea of a Jewish nation renewed in its national territory—a state acting with full sovereign political status—that Jews as individuals are becoming targets of their vitriol.
They are creating an atmosphere that indirectly and perhaps even directly encourages those who feel they are entitled to harm Jews.
Shootings at Jewish schools and synagogues in America and Canada, and bombings in Europe, setting Jewish ambulances afire in London, beating and browbeating Jews in subways and igniting Jews marching for Israel, as happened last summer in Colorado, are acts of violence that can no longer be detached from the propaganda “The Three Cs” and company are promoting.
What cannot be denied is that most of these persons are seeking to champion a mutation of an upgraded Christian nationalism. They seek to root themselves in “traditionalist” theological catechisms, even if they are not all Catholic.
The conspiracy theorist Owens has gone medieval poison well, blood-libel mad. She has begun to accuse Jews of worshipping Baal, paralleling Karl Marx, who described Jews worshipping Mammon in his 1843 article, quoting Thomas Hamilton. Marx’s conclusion was that there is a need to emancipate society from Judaism, a “huckstering religion.”
In profound and savage imbecility, former Fox News host and current podcaster Carlson sees the war with Iran revolving around the rebuilding of the Third Temple, adding the Chabad-Lubavitch movement into the mix. His Judeophobia is unique in that he seems to fully embrace political Islam while still presenting himself as a Christian.
As British journalist Douglas Murray has noted, “Carlson has spent 100% of his time trying to turn the MAGA base against Israel and in favor of Islamist regimes. His podcast has become a remorseless roll call of Holocaust deniers, antisemites, Islamic extremists and World War II revisionists. While attacking Trump, Carlson eagerly softball-interviews people who love both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.”
We are now witnessing an increased downward spiral.
Like Owns, Boller, a recent convert to Catholicism, was interviewed by Carlson on March 13, an episode titled, “Are Christians Required to Pledge Loyalty to Bibi Netanyahu?” She was described as one who “just stuck right to the Christian case,” for which he admires her.
She is following in Carlson’s pattern of abuse, who had lashed out at Christian Zionists, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mick Huckabee, as “seized by this brain virus,” adding, “I dislike them more than anybody.” Another theologian, Matthew Tsakanikas, published: “Huckabee contradicts Christ regarding Abraham’s descendants in Tucker interview.”
Along with Carlson, Boller later termed Pastor Paula White, who has had a role in the first Trump administration, as “a Christian Zionist evangelical heretic … a crazy person.” Carlson chimed in, stating that she is “saying things that bear no resemblance at all to Christian doctrine.”
Later on, Boller highlighted her subjective feeling of being persecuted for his religious beliefs. Relating to her removal from the White House Commission on Religious Liberty, she asked rhetorically, “Am I not allowed to have my religious freedom while serving on this religious liberty commission? Or do I have to be a Zionist who supports a genocide?”
She also described a conversation she conducted with a fellow member on the commission. When told she was being removed, he inquired why. Her response was, “I have no idea, other than I’ve been criticizing Israel and talking about the genocide in Gaza. Sorry, I’m a pro-life Christian. I can’t sit here while children are being starved and bombed.”
The person on the other side of that conversation was Robert Emmet Patrick Barron, a theologian who serves as bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. In a follow-up post on X, he was more explicit in his opinion about Boller.
He wrote on March 20: “Boller … has called out myself and other Catholic members of the commission for not defending her. This is absurd. Mrs. Prejean Boller was not dismissed for her religious convictions but rather for her behavior at a gathering of the commission last month: browbeating witnesses, aggressively asserting her point of view, hijacking the meeting for her own political purposes.”
He also clarified the Catholic position on matters of “Zionism.” For Barron, the State of Israel has a right to exist, though the modern nation of Israel does not represent the fulfillment of biblical prophecies and hence does not stand beyond criticism. He ended, writing: “To paint herself as a victim of anti-Catholic prejudice or to claim that her religious liberty has been denied is simply preposterous.”
These people, righteously raging their Christianity, may be suffering from a form of persecutory delusion. That mental and psychological framework has led them willingly to be accused of irrationality as an element of modern-day martyrdom. They feel, for some strange reason (unless it’s all about the greenbacks), that being in a minority—one that is ridiculed—is actually “proof” of the truth of their convictions. They are pig-pen delighted to exist in their unique in-group status as champions of an outlier view of Jews.
Owens, and specifically, Boller, display the obvious new convert fervor that forces them to be so overtly extroverted in their disgust of fellow Christians and hate for Israel and Judaism.
Social psychology researchers have found that people can form self-preferencing in-groups, even if they are in a significant minority position. In doing so, while experiencing feelings of exclusion, they nevertheless achieve a higher awareness of their identity. In the case of “The Three Cs,” this perception excites them and provides a form of self-justification. They resist the obvious evidence of their irrationality and reject sensible, contrary logical arguments that disprove their beliefs.
And why do we not hear what Carlson, Boller and Owens have to say about the actions of Arab terror groups and Islamist countries against Israelis and Jews? Or about the persecution of Christians in Muslim lands? Why the dichotomy? Why sound the one note?
The danger is that their lack of any real success—beyond temporary media fame and, possibly, fortune—is that their anger only increases. While all they are doing is talking, the true evil is emboldening all those others who hate, channeled through computers and online instruments.
