Unverified ex-terrorism experts held sustained authority across evangelical institutions

Evidence

Despite the numerous holes in their stories, all three “ex-terrorists” remained sought-after authorities in evangelical circles. Shoebat was “a favorite of the ‘Left Behind’ crowd,” addressing Tim LaHaye’s Pre-Trib Research Center and John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel events. He was also a featured speaker at the 2008 BattleCry convention, the initiative founded in the mid-2000s to recruit a younger generation of culture warriors, backed by Pat Robertson and Charles Colson. All three continued to speak at Christian colleges, conferences, and churches, and on Christian radio and television. They appeared on major news networks as experts on terrorism, spoke at prestigious universities and, in 2008, at the air force academy in Colorado Springs. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 505

Categorization

• SHARE: The all-three-speak-at-the-air-force-academy detail is one for someone tracking how ideological institutions launder credibility.