Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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   You get drivel about aliens, abduction etc from all sorts of people, not just Christians – there are atheists, agnostics…

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   […] last time I had had occasion to write about Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, above, was three years ago…

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   Whatever is presented on the BBC, and I must admit I do not watch the TV, the fact is that…

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   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

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   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

SHORTLY after his release last month from prison for his part in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, Jacob Chansley, aka Jake Angeli, 36, tried to explain his potpourri of religious beliefs to a crowd of Christian nationalists at a “welcome home” gathering in Phoenix, Arizona.

But the “QAnon shaman”, who served roughly a year and a half of his original 41-month sentence, found enthusiasm among the crowd begin to wane when he introduced chubby Buddha into his speech.

Religion News Service (RNS) quotes him as saying:

I felt a certain silence when I mentioned the name of Buddha, but Buddha’s a good dude, too, you guys.

In the recording of the event, a woman can be heard yelling back at him, “He’s not our Lord!”

In an interview with RNS, Angeli spoke at length about religion, politics and his aim to “facilitate the ascension of humanity and spread mass enlightenment.”

Angeli now describes himself as a practitioner of what he calls “Shamanism,” the “oldest religion,” insisting people he describes as shamans could be found in all faith traditions —whether or not they use the term shaman.

Angeli said he sees Jesus, whom he called “my idol,” as “the ultimate shaman” and suggested that Jesus achieved a higher form of realisation, referred to as “Rainbow Body”—a concept most often found in Buddhism.

Angeli, pictured above at the Phoenix event without his paint, horns and fur, also suggested that Jesus may have eaten psychedelic mushrooms.

I suggest that, as a kid, he fell out of a tree and hit his head hard on every branch on the way down.

He hopes to spread his wackadoodle beliefs via a new podcast, an online store and a website—“Forbidden Truth Academy”—that charges $500 for consultation on religious and political matters.

Angeli, who also goes by the name “Yellowstone Wolf,” said he does not have a teacher or mentor.

God is my mentor and the angels are my instructors.

New Age spirituality and conspiracy culture

His beliefs, says RNS‘s Jack Jenkins, have been characterised as a form of “conspirituality,” or what Hugh B. Urban, professor of comparative studies at The Ohio State University, calls:

A complex mix of New Age spirituality and conspiracy culture. I would call it ‘neo-shamanism’ in the sense that it’s a modern re-imagining of shamanism that has relatively little in common with any historical practices [he] clearly inhabits the zone where the New Age and conspiracy theory worlds partially overlap

Jenkins pointed out that people who engage in forms of neo-shamanism have long been accused of appropriating other faiths’ practices.

Angeli is no exception: In the aftermath of the Capitol attack, many members of the heathen and wider pagan community condemned Angeli’s tattoos of Norse symbols. One writer expressed outrage at his headgear, which Angeli immediately returned to wearing after his release, calling it a ‘perversion of the horns’.

Senate chamber prayer

Angeli has also been criticised for a prayer he led with fellow insurrectionists in the Senate Chamber, which has been linked to Christian nationalist rhetoric.

Invoking Jesus Christ, he thanked God for allowing him and others to send:

A message to all the tyrants, the communists and the globalists that this is our nation, not theirs.

He left behind a note on the Senate dais that read, “It’s Only A Matter Of Time. Justice Is Coming!”

Angeli declined to discuss the prayer and said:

I’m not a Christian nationalist. I’m a shamanic practitioner that understands that all labels are cognitive in nature, and through labeling other people or groups of people, that is the first step to dehumanizing them.

He’s now planning a “‘”spiritual retreat” in Arizona and continuing what he says is the work of a “spiritual warrior.”

It is my intention to ensure that the planet Earth and humanity are saved.

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