This articlefirst appeared on Mother Jones. It has been republished with the publications permission.For a briefmoment in November, theTheoBros, a network of militant Christian nationalist influencers, made news when Donald Trump nominated one of theirallies, former Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, to lead the Department of Defense. Hegseth attends a church that is affiliated with the TheoBro movement, and he has cited TheoBro patriarch Doug Wilson, a pastor in Moscow, Idaho, as someone who has had a major influence on him. While the controversies surrounding Hegsethsallegedalcohol abuse and mismanagement of funds meant for veterans continue tomake the news, the TheoBros have receded into the background. Related Anti-LGBTQ+ hate preacher says racists go to Heaven and MLK is burning in Hell Christian nationalist Joel Webbon also ranted that abolitionists were not the good guys. But as it turns out, they are embroiled in a major controversy of their own. A simmering divide over how Christians should regard Judaism has ignited into a conflagration. The resulting rift has left two factions of TheoBros retreating into their separate campsone of which is doubling down on antisemitic rhetoric to a widening audience. LGBTQ+ news you can rely on Keep track of the ongoing battle against bias and for equality with our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The backstoryas much of it as Ive been able to piece togethergoes something like this: An undercurrent of antisemitism, which has long rippled through the TheoBros social media spheres, has intensified over the last year. In May, Samuel Holden, apro-Hitlercontent creator, released avideothat he called White Boy Summer, a nod to an earlier song and meme popularized by white nationalist influencers, including head GroyperNick Fuentes. Holdens video combined hyper-masculine and Christian nationalist content withpro-Nazi imagery. Wilson, the TheoBro patriarch, condemned the video,callingit Nazi triumphalism.But Wilsons acolytes seemed titillated by White Boy Summeror maybe they were just flattered. In the video, Holden tagged several younger TheoBros, including Texas pastor Joel Webbon, Utah pastors Eric Conn and Brian Sauv, and Stephen Wolfe, author of the 2022 bookThe Case for Christian Nationalism. Shortly after Holden released the video, Conn reposted it on X,commenting, By God we shall have our home again, a white nationalistslogan. The following month, Sauvposted, Pride month is canceled. Welcome to White Boy Summer.Wolfe, meanwhile,criticizedWilson for disavowing it. A better tactic would be friendliness to these young rightwing guys, he said. Conn, Sauv, and Wolfe didnt respond to questions fromMother Jonesabout their reactions to the video.Webbon, one of the most outspoken of the TheoBros, praised the video in a June podcast. He clarified in an email toMother Jonesthat he had initially shared the Samuel Holden video without watching closely and that he condemns both Nazis and Bolsheviks/Communists. However, the latter is by far a more present threat today. Yetthe videos message fit in nicely with some of the sentiments he had been expressing earlier in the spring. You thought Christian nationalism was scary, he posted on X in May. Enjoy Jewish nationalism. The same day, he posted: America has long had a separation of Church and State. Perhaps one day we might also have a separation of Synagogue and State.America has long had a separation of Church and State. Perhaps one day we might also have a separation of Synagogue and State.Texas pastor Joel WebbonThe disagreement over the video simmered for a few months. Then, this past fall, a skirmish erupted on X and in various podcasts over anaccusationby German TheoBro Tobias Riemenschneider that Webbon had failed to adequately address the problem of a young man in his church who had allegedly been sharing pro-Nazi memes. Wilsonsidedwith Riemenschneider, agreeing that allowing such hatred to go unchecked was dangerous for a church community.In November, Wilson issued a statement he called theAntioch Declaration, a rambling document that eventually condemns the racial and antisemitic theories of Adolf Hitler and neo-pagan doctrines of the Nazi cult. Several prominent TheoBros signed on, and some wrote statements of their own. Wilsons sidekick Toby Sumpter, a pastor in Wilsons church, for example, endorsed his friends argument, adding in ablog postthat a church that tolerated antisemitism was just as bad as one that tolerated homosexuality. In the same post, Sumpter called the White Boy Summer video as gay as socks on a rooster. Hegseth hasnt signed the declaration, but his views on Judaism seem to align with those of the Wilson camp: He isstrongly pro-Israeland posted on Instagram that he believes antisemitism is running rampant on elite university campuses.Webbon, meanwhile, has dug in his heels. In the last few weeks, virtually all of his posts on X have focused on the TheoBro rift. For him, the problem with Judaism,at least theologically, appears to be the Talmuda sacred text of ancient rabbinical teachingsin Judaism that, hearguedin an October blog post, not only rejects the notion of Jesus as the son of God, but also effectively corrupts and totally undermines all of the Old Testament. In early November, hepostedon X, I hate Judaism but love Jews and wish them a very pleasant conversion to Christianity. Later in November, in his podcast episode after Wilson released the Antioch Declaration, Webbon said that in his version of a Christian nationalist America, No practicing Jew who hasnt converted to Christianity will be able to serve in public office. He called Judaism a parasitical religion in the subsequentepisode. What it has done historically throughout the ages is typically go into other countries, other peoples with other religions, and kind of cozy up but not really for their benefitnot a mutually beneficial relationship, but where they ultimately get far more out of the deal than the Christian nation does, he added. In mid-December, mixed martial arts champion Jake Shields appeared on Webbons podcast. Afterward, Shieldsposteda clip to his 800,000 X followers in which Webbon argues that ever since the Allies triumphed over Hitlers Germany in World War II, Christianity has been diminished in the West. In an email toMother Jones, Webbon said he stands by everything Ive said about Judaism. It is a pernicious evil.Webbons damn-the-torpedoes social media approach to this conflict is somewhat ironic, given thathe learned how to shitpost from none other than Wilson. For the last six years, Wilson has been celebrating what he calls No Quarter November: The month where we say out loud what everyone is thinking. In avideoa few years ago, Webbon described being inspired by Wilson not to censor himself.You stay in your little corner, you stay on your little leash, because youre like, I dont know what will happen, Webbon said. But when you see some other guy do it, and youre like, thats the worst thing that can happen?Vicewrites an article about you? [Christianity TodayEditor-in-Chief] Russell Moore wont invite you to his birthday party anymore? Like, thats it.While a well-knownfigure in the world of the TheoBros, with only about 27,000 followers on X, Webbons influence outside those circles is difficult to determine. But there is some evidence that the antisemitism he and other TheoBros espouse may be breaking into the MAGA mainstream. The week after Wilson released the Antioch Declaration, Webbon appeared on the podcast of Calvin Robinson, a British Christian nationalist pastor, where he argued that the Talmud was uniquely hostile to Jesus Christ. Robinson posted that portion of the conversation to his 403,000 followers on X. In addition to his robust social media following, Robinson is connected to the Trump team: He spoke at a Trumprallyat a Georgia church a few days before the election. And then there is William Wolfe, a TheoBro who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon in the first Trump administration. He has posted phrases that are widely recognized as antisemitic dog whistles, such as, Notice things. And point them out to others. That may appear to be anodyne, but antisemitic extremists use the word noticing to refer to identifying Jewish people in powerful positions. Around the same time, Wolfe posted, apropos of no previous conversation: You know whats a beach I love? Hilton Head. The initials HH are often used as neo-Nazi code for Heil Hitler. Wolfe didnt respond toMother Jones request for comment.The TheoBros attitudes toward Judaism differ starkly from those of adherents to theNew Apostolic Reformation(NAR), a rapidly growing charismatic movement that calls Christians to take over the government. As Iwrotea few months ago, many NAR believers are fervently pro-Israel because they are convincedit will play a crucial role in ushering in the return of the Messiah just before the End Times. This scenario isnt entirely benigneventually, they believe, all Jews will convert to Christianity, and those whodont will perish. The NAR crowds extreme love for Israel can have a love-bombing quality about it: At NAR events, I have seen many charismatic Christians wearing Stars of David and Jewish prayer shawls. At one in Pennsylvania, a group of Christian teenagers set up a chuppahthe canopy used at Jewish weddingsand danced the horah.The TheoBros fixation on Judaism, however, is much less admiring. Its also an example of a broader shift on social media over the past year, where, against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, extremists have become emboldened to use more explicitly antisemitic memes and rhetoric. One prominent example of this is former bounty hunter-turned-livestreamer Stew Peters, who since October 7 has transformed from a garden-variety anti-vaccine activist into afull-onNazisympathizer. (At the time of this writing, his most recent post on X was: Putting a television set in your living room is like inviting a jew into your house. Using AI is like inviting a jew into your brain.) In June, Webbonappearedon Peters show; he called the founding of Israel one of the biggest mistakes in history. He added,There is no major world religion with a more hostile view toward the person and work of Jesus Christ, our savior and Lord, than Talmudic Judaism.Peters has more than 550,000 followers on Rumble, the far-right platform where he broadcasts. When asked for comment, Webbon clarified toMother Jonesthat he does not hold to Peters views. In a separate email, he provided a link to adocumentcalled the Statement on Natural Affections, which he said he had helped write. The statement acknowledges that Nazism was, and is, an anti-Christian ideology that exalts the state as savior and god and that while the Allied powers rightly opposed the evils of Nazis, that some of their actions violated Christian principles of justice and morality.Wilson signed the Statement on Natural Affections, but it doesnt seem as though hes forgiven Webbon. He recently withdrew as a featured speaker from a conference that Webbon plans to host next year. When I asked Wilson for comment for this article, he responded, Because one of the accusations against us is that we only did the Antioch Declaration in order to placate commie publications likeMother Jones, I couldnt risk any positive mention of us right now.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.