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Candace Owens, others rebuke Jordan Peterson for co-authoring study against ‘Christ is King’

Among those who are rebuking Jordan Peterson for his role in attacking the statement 'Christ is King' include prominent Catholics like Michael Matt, Candace Owens and Jack Posobiec.

Stephen
Kokx
Stephen Kokx
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(LifeSiteNews) –– Jordan Peterson has been on the receiving end of a tidal wave of criticism for co-authoring a controversial study released by an organization aligned with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).  

The 20-page report, which LifeSiteNews has reported on previously, appears to be designed to purposefully designate the phrase “Christ is King” as hate speech. 

Among those who are rebuking Peterson include prominent Catholics like Michael Matt, Candace Owens, and Jack Posobiec. Conservative activists Mike Cernovich and Andrew Torba, the CEO of social media company Gab, have also weighed in. 

“The attacks on Christ the King have backfired,” Posobiec said during a recent podcast. “I’m very disappointed to see Doctor Jordan Peterson’s name on this.” 

Owens called out Peterson on X as well, while he described her as a “true Pharisaical pretender.” 

On Thursday, March 13, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) released its study titled “Thy Name in Vain: How Online Extremists Hijacked ‘Christ is King’.” The NCRI was founded in 2018 by Joel Finkelstein, currently a research fellow at Rutgers but who previously worked for the Anti-Defamation League from 2018 until 2020. The NCRI claims to expose “the spread of hostile ideological content” online. It partnered with the ADL in 2019 to “look into how extremism and hate spread on social media.”   

Finkelstein published the paper along with Peterson and 11 others, many of whom are Jewish. The study alleges that the term “Christ the King” has been “weaponized” by “political extremists” who are using it to advance “exclusionary and hateful narratives.”  

Peterson has defended the paper on social media, as has Johnnie Moore, who appears to be the study’s lone Christian co-author. Moore is a Zionist Evangelical who has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the ADL in Los Angeles. He has also worked with the ADL’s Middle East Task Force. Torba has criticized him on X. 

Owens has been one of the influential public figures to push back against the NCRI’s report. On her podcast this week, she bluntly stated that it was “funded by Jews to make Christians war with one another during the Lenten season.” 

Posobiec said, “they’re trying to get Christ is King labeled hate speech.” 

Owens and Posobiec paired up for a podcast this week to expose the coordinated attack and to discuss Peterson’s involvement.  

Mint News has reported that the NCRI has received over $1 million from the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), a group that seeks to promote support for Israel at U.S. colleges. The ICC, in turn, is funded by the Jewish National Fund.  

Grayzone reporter Max Blumenthal has also found that the NCRI included George Soros’ Open Society Foundation as an affiliate until it deleted that section from its website in 2021, a fact that Cernovich drew attention to on X. 

Cernovich has appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast previously. He has been relentless in calling out Peterson for co-authoring the paper.  

“Jordan Peterson worked with an ADL affiliate to do ‘academic research’ laying the foundation for labeling Christ is King as hate speech. This went over badly (understatement), and created a lot of bad blood. Stupid move, and also revealing,” he said. 

Gab CEO Torba has joined in the fight as well. He has fired off several X posts defending Christian theology and what the Bible says about the Jewish people. 

“The time has come for Christians to rise up, reclaim our faith, and unapologetically stand for truth, justice, and the advancement of God’s Kingdom above all else,” he has said. 

Michael Matt of The Remnant Newspaper has published a podcast on the controversy as well. So has Jason Whitlock and Tim Poole, a 39-year-old podcaster with over 2 million followers.  

The NCRI’s website includes a list of strategic advisers. Princeton Professor Robert George is among them. George is a Catholic who has ties to many influential groups and prominent Catholics involved in politics in Washington, D.C. He has spent many years promoting Catholic-Jewish dialogue.   

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, George seems to have met Finkelstein during his college years, as Finkelstein attended Princeton. Finkelstein also served as a visiting scholar for Princeton’s James Madison Program, which is lead George.  

George said on his X account that Catholics should “stand in solidarity with our Jewish brethren.” Although he didn’t link to the NCRI report, he did post an essay written by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. The essay was published one day before the NCRI study was released. It rebuked “those on social media who call themselves Christians but spread hate against Jews.” The timing of the article’s publication raises the question of whether it was coordinated to amplify the NCRI’s message.    

The phrase “Christ the King” has its roots in Pope Pius XI’s 1925 encyclical Quas Primas. In that document, the pope explains that “rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ” because “his kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles, both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing for the young a sound moral education.” 

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