John Todd (occultist)
Encyclopedia
John Wayne Todd also known as "John Todd Collins", "Lance Collins", and "Christopher Kollyns", was a speaker, occultist, and conspiracy theorist who claimed to have been born into a 'witchcraft
family' before converting to Christianity
(in 1972, by some accounts). He was a primary source for many Chick Publications works against Dungeons & Dragons
, Catholicism
, Neopaganism
, and Christian rock
. Although most of his activity was during the 1970s, his claims continue to be spread in some fundamentalist Christian circles.
", but converted to Christianity while visiting a southern Californian Pentecostal church. After disappearing for a few months, Todd returned without his wife, saying that God told them to seek other mates. In 1969, Todd joined the United States Army
, later saying that he did so with the intention of establishing a coven of witches. He claimed to have served as a Green Beret
in Vietnam
before being transferred to Germany
, where he killed a commanding officer. His explanation for not serving jail time for this was that the Illuminati
freed him from jail and eliminated his military records.
These records were later recovered by investigative journalists working for Christianity Today
, who found that he had never been to Vietnam, but was only stationed in Germany for a few months before being discharged for psychiatric reasons and drug abuse. One report concluded that Todd found it difficult to distinguish reality and fantasy. After being discharged, he disappeared again until 1973.
. Like two other of those speakers, Hershel Smith and Mike Warnke
(whose claims of being an ex-Satanist have likewise been disproved), Todd claimed to have been a Satanic high priest before his conversion, which he dated as 1972. (In one meeting between Todd and Warnke, the two had a backstage confrontation and Todd accused Warnke of stealing his testimony regarding the Illuminati.) Todd also claimed that John F. Kennedy
was still alive and that he had been Kennedy's "personal warlock". Christian Jack Chick
created a comic book, "The Broken Cross", based on Todd's allegations that Satanists were taking over America. In 1973 allegations surfaced that he had been making sexual advances toward young women and teenage girls at Christian meetings and a Jesus Movement
coffeehouse, was incorporating witchcraft teachings into his Bible studies, was carrying a .38 handgun
into church meetings, and was using drugs. In addition, he impregnated his wife's teenage sister. After some Christian leaders who had promoted him took steps to distance themselves, including evangelist Doug Clark denouncing him on his television show, Todd dropped out of sight from fundamentalist Christianity. During this time, Todd spoke in charismatic
churches, claiming to have evidence that fundamentalist churches were tools of the Illuminati.
In 1974 Todd moved to Dayton, Ohio
where he opened an occult bookstore and began recruiting for a Wicca
n coven. In 1976 Todd became the subject of a criminal investigation over reports that he was involving underage girls in sexual initiation rituals for his coven. Following an investigation of his activities by neopagan leaders Isaac Bonewits
and Gavin Frost
, which uncovered drug use and underage sex, Frost's Church and School of Wicca
revoked the charter it had granted to Todd's coven. He was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and given a six-month sentence, but served only two months before being released due to epileptic fits.
Todd resurfaced in the evangelical Christian community in late 1977, this time claiming the existence of a vast Satanic conspiracy led by an order of witches called the Illuminati, supposedly including a number of Christian organizations and well-known Christian figures such as Billy Graham
, Bob Jones, Jerry Falwell
, and Chuck Smith
, He claimed to have given, as a member of the Illuminati, $8 million to Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel
to launch the Christian rock
industry, which Todd said was a Satanic invention to entrap Christian young people in rock music and its "demonic beat". He claimed that Jerry Falwell had been "bought off" by the Illuminati with a $50 million donation. He also claimed that Jimmy Carter
was the Antichrist
and that the Ayn Rand
novel Atlas Shrugged
was the Illuminati's blueprint for unleashing a planned Satanic takeover. He urged Christians to stockpile weapons and food in preparation for a Satanic takeover in 1980. He found a niche speaking in fundamentalist Independent Baptist
churches, and for a time created quite a stir.
Tapes from Todd circa 1979 just prior to dropping out of sight indicate that he had returned to teaching Oneness Pentecostal (aka, "Jesus Only") theology. Todd dropped out of sight again after 1979, reportedly moving to rural Montana
after issuing warnings that the Satanic takeover had begun, then to the Seattle, Washington
area.
graduate student. After his arrest, he was additionally charged with sexually molesting two children who attended a karate school where he worked. He was convicted of the rape in January 1988 and sentenced to 30 years in state prison. In 2004, Todd was released, but he was put in the care of the Behavioral Disorder Treatment Unit run by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. On November 10, 2007, Todd died in the institute.
, but his discharge papers list him as a general clerk/typist and do not record him having been in Vietnam. Army medical reports referred to "emotional instability with pseudologica phantastica" (compulsive lying), difficulty in telling reality from fantasy, homicidal threats he had made on another, false suicide reports, and a severe personality disturbance. Todd also claimed in his testimony to have murdered an officer in Germany and to have escaped prison with the help of the Illuminati, but his records show no such things occurred.
Todd's speaking engagements during 1978 and 1979 generated controversy and sometimes hysteria at the churches he spoke at. Frequently, there were claims by Todd of gunshots in the parking lot or attacks on his life after the services, but there were no witnesses to confirm his claims.
While Todd claimed to have left witchcraft in 1972 and converted to fundamentalist Christianity, accounts have him being baptized into a Oneness Pentecostal church in Phoenix, Arizona
in 1968, and leading a Wiccan group in Ohio in 1976. When confronted with the latter by Christian evangelists, Todd said that he had gone through a period of "backsliding" during that time. However, when a number of other inconsistencies in Todd's story were reported in the evangelical Christian media, and Todd began denouncing many Christian leaders as part of the Satanic conspiracy or the Illuminati, many evangelists denounced Todd and cut off any further association. Jack Chick was the only influential evangelist to continue to defend Todd.
Several evangelical Christian ministries investigated Todd's claims and published articles disputing them. These included Cornerstone
magazine, the Christian Research Institute
, Christianity Today
magazine, and the book The Todd Phenomenon by Darryl E. Hicks (with an introduction by Mike Warnke).
town controlled by organized Satanists. In "Spellbound", another Chick comic book, Todd claims that the Satanists control the rock music industry and are infiltrating churches, and urges Christians to burn their Rock & Roll records, Ouija
boards and Dungeons & Dragons
game sets. A third Chick comic, "Angel of Light", includes a chart purporting to depict Satan's power structure, based on a similar chart authored by Todd and distributed at his speeches.
Todd's stories about the Illuminati were published as the comic book The Illuminati and Witchcraft in 1980 by Jacob Sailor. His claims partially became the basis for a different book, Witchcraft and the Illuminati published in the early 1980s by The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord
, a Christian Identity
group, and reprinted in 1999 by the Christian Patriot
Association (ISBN 0-944379-18-4). This book repeated many of Todd's claims verbatim, including the alleged power structure of the Illuminati and the bit about Atlas Shrugged being the Illuminati's secret blueprint, but added Identity beliefs derogatory toward Jews
and African-Americans.
After Todd's veracity was questioned and investigated, Chick continued to defend him and publish tracts based on Todd's life. Chick often made "excuses for behaviours that were inconsistent with Todd's status as a high-profile Christian convert," and his "propensities to indulge in conspiracy theory and to lash out at putative allies who question his conclusions" in his defense of Todd and a couple of other controversial figures (namely Alberto Rivera
and Rebecca Brown
) have resulted in a split between himself and the conservative Christian movement.
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
family' before converting to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
(in 1972, by some accounts). He was a primary source for many Chick Publications works against Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
, Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, Neopaganism
Neopaganism
Neopaganism is an umbrella term used to identify a wide variety of modern religious movements, particularly those influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe...
, and Christian rock
Christian rock
Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...
. Although most of his activity was during the 1970s, his claims continue to be spread in some fundamentalist Christian circles.
Beginnings
Todd was discovered in 1968 preaching and married to a woman named Linda. He claimed to have been a witch "in the NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
", but converted to Christianity while visiting a southern Californian Pentecostal church. After disappearing for a few months, Todd returned without his wife, saying that God told them to seek other mates. In 1969, Todd joined the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, later saying that he did so with the intention of establishing a coven of witches. He claimed to have served as a Green Beret
Green beret
The green beret was the official headdress of the British Commandos of World War II. It is still worn with pride by members of the Royal Marines after passing the Commando Course and any member of the British Military who has passed the All Arms Commando Course.There are certain other military...
in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
before being transferred to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where he killed a commanding officer. His explanation for not serving jail time for this was that the Illuminati
Illuminati
The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically the name refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776...
freed him from jail and eliminated his military records.
These records were later recovered by investigative journalists working for Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
, who found that he had never been to Vietnam, but was only stationed in Germany for a few months before being discharged for psychiatric reasons and drug abuse. One report concluded that Todd found it difficult to distinguish reality and fantasy. After being discharged, he disappeared again until 1973.
Career
During the early 1970s, Todd became one of a handful of speakers making the rounds in evangelical Christian circles warning young people against the occultOccult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
. Like two other of those speakers, Hershel Smith and Mike Warnke
Mike Warnke
Michael Alfred "Mike" Warnke is a Christian evangelist and comedian. With the success of his books and recordings, Warnke became one of evangelical Christianity's best-known experts on the subject of Satanism before his claims of having been a Satanist high priest were discredited in 1991 by the...
(whose claims of being an ex-Satanist have likewise been disproved), Todd claimed to have been a Satanic high priest before his conversion, which he dated as 1972. (In one meeting between Todd and Warnke, the two had a backstage confrontation and Todd accused Warnke of stealing his testimony regarding the Illuminati.) Todd also claimed that John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
was still alive and that he had been Kennedy's "personal warlock". Christian Jack Chick
Jack Chick
Jack Thomas Chick is an American publisher, writer, and comic book artist of fundamentalist Christian tracts and comic books...
created a comic book, "The Broken Cross", based on Todd's allegations that Satanists were taking over America. In 1973 allegations surfaced that he had been making sexual advances toward young women and teenage girls at Christian meetings and a Jesus Movement
Jesus movement
The Jesus movement was a movement in Christianity beginning on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s and spreading primarily through North America and Europe, before dying out by the early 1980s. It was the major Christian element within the hippie counterculture,...
coffeehouse, was incorporating witchcraft teachings into his Bible studies, was carrying a .38 handgun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
into church meetings, and was using drugs. In addition, he impregnated his wife's teenage sister. After some Christian leaders who had promoted him took steps to distance themselves, including evangelist Doug Clark denouncing him on his television show, Todd dropped out of sight from fundamentalist Christianity. During this time, Todd spoke in charismatic
Charismatic Christianity
Charismatic Christianity is a Christian doctrine that maintains that modern-day believers experience miracles, prophecy, speaking in tongues, and other spiritual gifts as described in of the Bible...
churches, claiming to have evidence that fundamentalist churches were tools of the Illuminati.
In 1974 Todd moved to Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
where he opened an occult bookstore and began recruiting for a Wicca
Wicca
Wicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
n coven. In 1976 Todd became the subject of a criminal investigation over reports that he was involving underage girls in sexual initiation rituals for his coven. Following an investigation of his activities by neopagan leaders Isaac Bonewits
Isaac Bonewits
Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits was an influential American Druid who published a number of books on the subject of Neopaganism and magic. He was also a liturgist, singer and songwriter, and founded the Druidic organisation Ár nDraíocht Féin, as well as the Neopagan civil rights group, the Aquarian...
and Gavin Frost
Gavin Frost
Gavin Frost , B.Sc., PhD, D.D., born in Aldridge, Staffordshire, England, is an occult author, a Wiccan Priest, a doctor of Physics and Mathematics, and a prominent member of the American Wiccan community...
, which uncovered drug use and underage sex, Frost's Church and School of Wicca
Church and School of Wicca
The Church and School of Wicca was founded by Gavin Frost and Yvonne Frost in 1968. It was the first federally recognized Church of the religion known as Wicca in the United States. It is well known for its correspondence courses on the Frosts' unique interpretation of Wicca...
revoked the charter it had granted to Todd's coven. He was convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and given a six-month sentence, but served only two months before being released due to epileptic fits.
Todd resurfaced in the evangelical Christian community in late 1977, this time claiming the existence of a vast Satanic conspiracy led by an order of witches called the Illuminati, supposedly including a number of Christian organizations and well-known Christian figures such as Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
, Bob Jones, Jerry Falwell
Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an evangelical fundamentalist Southern Baptist pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator from the United States. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
, and Chuck Smith
Chuck Smith (pastor)
Charles Ward “Chuck” Smith, , is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and the founder of the Calvary Chapel movement...
, He claimed to have given, as a member of the Illuminati, $8 million to Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel
Calvary Chapel
Calvary Chapel is an evangelical association of Christian churches with over one thousand congregations worldwide. Calvary Chapel also maintains a number of radio stations around the world and operates many local Calvary Chapel Bible College programs. It presents itself as a "fellowship of...
to launch the Christian rock
Christian rock
Christian rock is a form of rock music played by individuals and bands whose members are Christians and who often focus the lyrics on matters concerned with the Christian faith. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands...
industry, which Todd said was a Satanic invention to entrap Christian young people in rock music and its "demonic beat". He claimed that Jerry Falwell had been "bought off" by the Illuminati with a $50 million donation. He also claimed that Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
was the Antichrist
Antichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
and that the Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
novel Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
was the Illuminati's blueprint for unleashing a planned Satanic takeover. He urged Christians to stockpile weapons and food in preparation for a Satanic takeover in 1980. He found a niche speaking in fundamentalist Independent Baptist
Independent Baptist
Independent Baptist churches are Christian churches generally holding to conservative Baptist beliefs. They are characterized by being independent from the authority of denominations or similar bodies. Members of such churches comprised three percent of the United States adult population according...
churches, and for a time created quite a stir.
Tapes from Todd circa 1979 just prior to dropping out of sight indicate that he had returned to teaching Oneness Pentecostal (aka, "Jesus Only") theology. Todd dropped out of sight again after 1979, reportedly moving to rural Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
after issuing warnings that the Satanic takeover had begun, then to the Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
area.
Later life
Todd was arrested in May 1987 for the rape of a University of South CarolinaUniversity of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
graduate student. After his arrest, he was additionally charged with sexually molesting two children who attended a karate school where he worked. He was convicted of the rape in January 1988 and sentenced to 30 years in state prison. In 2004, Todd was released, but he was put in the care of the Behavioral Disorder Treatment Unit run by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. On November 10, 2007, Todd died in the institute.
Inconsistencies in Todd's testimony
Todd claimed to have served as a Green Beret in the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, but his discharge papers list him as a general clerk/typist and do not record him having been in Vietnam. Army medical reports referred to "emotional instability with pseudologica phantastica" (compulsive lying), difficulty in telling reality from fantasy, homicidal threats he had made on another, false suicide reports, and a severe personality disturbance. Todd also claimed in his testimony to have murdered an officer in Germany and to have escaped prison with the help of the Illuminati, but his records show no such things occurred.
Todd's speaking engagements during 1978 and 1979 generated controversy and sometimes hysteria at the churches he spoke at. Frequently, there were claims by Todd of gunshots in the parking lot or attacks on his life after the services, but there were no witnesses to confirm his claims.
While Todd claimed to have left witchcraft in 1972 and converted to fundamentalist Christianity, accounts have him being baptized into a Oneness Pentecostal church in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
in 1968, and leading a Wiccan group in Ohio in 1976. When confronted with the latter by Christian evangelists, Todd said that he had gone through a period of "backsliding" during that time. However, when a number of other inconsistencies in Todd's story were reported in the evangelical Christian media, and Todd began denouncing many Christian leaders as part of the Satanic conspiracy or the Illuminati, many evangelists denounced Todd and cut off any further association. Jack Chick was the only influential evangelist to continue to defend Todd.
Several evangelical Christian ministries investigated Todd's claims and published articles disputing them. These included Cornerstone
Cornerstone (magazine)
Cornerstone was a newspaper and later a magazine published by Jesus People USA, focusing on topics of evangelical Christian faith and engagement with politics and culture....
magazine, the Christian Research Institute
Christian Research Institute
The Christian Research Institute is an Evangelical Christian apologetics ministry. It was established in October 1960 in the state of New Jersey by Walter Martin . In 1974 Martin relocated the ministry to San Juan Capistrano, California. The ministry's office was relocated in the 1990s near Rancho...
, Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
magazine, and the book The Todd Phenomenon by Darryl E. Hicks (with an introduction by Mike Warnke).
Publications based on Todd's claims
Todd has appeared in several of Jack Chick's publications. Chick first promoted Todd's message in comic form in the comic book "The Broken Cross", which portrays a northern CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
town controlled by organized Satanists. In "Spellbound", another Chick comic book, Todd claims that the Satanists control the rock music industry and are infiltrating churches, and urges Christians to burn their Rock & Roll records, Ouija
Ouija
The Ouija board also known as a spirit/fire key board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" and "goodbye", and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board...
boards and Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
game sets. A third Chick comic, "Angel of Light", includes a chart purporting to depict Satan's power structure, based on a similar chart authored by Todd and distributed at his speeches.
Todd's stories about the Illuminati were published as the comic book The Illuminati and Witchcraft in 1980 by Jacob Sailor. His claims partially became the basis for a different book, Witchcraft and the Illuminati published in the early 1980s by The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord
The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord
The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord was a radical Christian Identity organization formed in 1971 in the small community of Elijah in southern Missouri, United States.- Leadership :...
, a Christian Identity
Christian Identity
Christian Identity is a label applied to a wide variety of loosely affiliated believers and churches with a racialized theology. Many promote a Eurocentric interpretation of Christianity.According to Chester L...
group, and reprinted in 1999 by the Christian Patriot
Christian Patriot
The Christian Patriot movement is a movement of American political commentators and activists. They promote various interpretations of history and law with the common theme that the federal government has turned against the ideas of liberty and individual rights behind the American Revolution, and...
Association (ISBN 0-944379-18-4). This book repeated many of Todd's claims verbatim, including the alleged power structure of the Illuminati and the bit about Atlas Shrugged being the Illuminati's secret blueprint, but added Identity beliefs derogatory toward Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and African-Americans.
After Todd's veracity was questioned and investigated, Chick continued to defend him and publish tracts based on Todd's life. Chick often made "excuses for behaviours that were inconsistent with Todd's status as a high-profile Christian convert," and his "propensities to indulge in conspiracy theory and to lash out at putative allies who question his conclusions" in his defense of Todd and a couple of other controversial figures (namely Alberto Rivera
Alberto Rivera
Alberto Magno Romero Rivera was an anti-Catholic religious activist who was the source of many of fundamentalist Christian author Jack Chick's conspiracy theories about the Vatican....
and Rebecca Brown
Rebecca Brown (Christian author)
Rebecca Julia Brown is a controversial Christian author and former doctor best known for her claims of having helped people escape the occult in Indiana and various locations. Brown later had her medical license revoked for improper diagnosis and over medication of patients...
) have resulted in a split between himself and the conservative Christian movement.
External links
- Cornerstone Magazine discussion of Todd's claims (via Internet Archive)
- Cornerstone Magazine's confrontation with Todd at a Chicago speech (via Internet Archive)
- John Todd fan site with life updates
- Report on Todd by the Christian Research Institute
- Report on Todd and other purported ex-Satanists from a Wiccan perspective
- Transcript of 1977 John Todd speech: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5