In an earlier post on Grandville's Grand Castle, I explored some Boss Hogg level, small-town politics conspiracy theories dealing with money laundering and grift. Everything was pretty much exactly as I expected: From an outsider's perspective it feels slimey, but it's basically just how business is run.
A new, more salacious conspiracy theory came across my radar courtesy of the Grand Rapids subreddit: This one involves nuclear holocaust, international espionage, and a 500 year old branch of the Catholic Church. A woman has been handing out papers to passersby in Grand Rapids, and a few Reddit users got ahold of these and shared them online.
One attachment from May 2022 reads as follows:
Dear Fellow American,
I come to you today to ask that you seriously consider what I am about to tell you because it is of the greatest importance. You must take steps for your own safety from a nuclear attack planned to occur on our soil during the month of May (editors note: It didn't happen in May 2022) and the only way to escape this destruction is for us to receive the eucharist which is the light of the world. This is the primary target of those who are watching this attack and it is the only solution that will stop a nuclear bomb and this has been shown during the attacks on Japan during the second world war as witnessed by those present. You can receive this light of Christ which will protect you, by going to where it has been made available each day for 2,000 years without exception. This is the only way to remain alive against a ferocious attack against this light which has been waged by a secret society for 500 years. As evidence of those who are seeking to destroy Western civilization and Christianity, look no further than a castle in Grandville, MI that has been constructed for the purpose of providing shelter in this attack for a select few who are members of the secret society. This horrifying scheme is at our doorstep and we must act now. Please seek protection and share this with others because there will be strength in numbers in this situation. We must be like the large catch of fish that caused Peter to cast himself into the sea and approach the Lord, who told him to feed my sheep to give them life, and all will be well. Please prayerfully consider this information which is essential to our future and to the coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
A second attachment from November 2022 reads as follows:
Dear fellow American,
We have received so much in this country and there are those who would like to take this away who are part of a secret society that has been around for 500 years whose chief aim is to destroy Christianity and life as we know it and have recently been engaged in efforts to cause nuclear destruction however plans were thwarted earlier this year but the threat remains. In January 2022 in the city of Wyoming near Grand Rapids, MI, purchases were made from a metals company that sells all materials necessary to construct a nuclear bomb with the exception of uranium and must follow federal requirements to examine these purchases to ensure they will not go to enemies of our country, and this was my responsibility to conduct this examination as the credit manager for the company, which included a background check of known terrorists however this would hardly include names of those who are in the secret society. The purchases made in January 2022 included orders that were large and contained various indications of the presence of the secret society namely images and names, and in the midst of these purchases there were unusual occurrences which included a pressure given to go around the usual steps in the checking process, this in turn caused me to share this with management who determined that the sale would be approved and so decided to resign from the position so that I could share this information with others for their safety and protection. Next, I began to share this with people in the Grand Rapids area in various formats and encountered some resistance in the midst of sharing this information which was a confirmation of the situation at hand. Going forward I was careful to avoid these situations as much as possible so that I could continue to share information which I was able to do up until recently and then for a period of time I stayed close to my local community in order to remain safe, and now I am once again sharing this information in the Grand Rapids area and elsewhere. Some things to consider in reflecting on this threat of a nuclear attack are the ways to remain safe in this situation because it is possible to remain free of harm. There are steps that can be taken now that will give each person what is necessary for life and that is to go to the place where the bread of life can be found, which has the structure that has been in place for providing this food since its inception. For further proof of the need to seek protection look no further than a castle located in Grandville, MI which has been constructed for the purpose of providing protection to those who are members of the secret society. In addition, consider the fact that the pandemic has caused a great number of people to no longer go to the place where the bread of life is found which is not an accident and is the direct result of those who want to diminish its presence so that a nuclear attack will have more impact. In addition to this there is the fact that in the nuclear attacks that took place during the second world war on Hiroshima and Nagasaki those who had been receiving the Eucharist were able to remain free from harm and go on to live healthy lives afterward which was something the U.S. military monitored and recorded. This is because the Eucharist contains what is needed for life which includes the body and the blood and the soul and the divinity of Jesus Christ who is Lord and Savior. Amen.
User /u/PaulsRedditUsername had the following to say about this 500 year old group:
So I looked up historical events in 1522. One of the things that happened that year was the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I attacked the Knights of St. John at their fortress in Rhodes. The siege was successful and the knights abandoned their castle and escaped to Malta and were renamed the Knights of Malta.
The Knights of Malta/St. John were Hospitallers and, among other things, spent much time fighting against Islamic forces in Jerusalem during the crusades.
This puts them in the same category as the famous Templars. If you spend much time looking into the Templars, you soon find yourself down a crazy rabbit hole of Rosicrucians, Freemasons, the "Invisible Masters" who secretly rule the world, the Old Man of The Mountain at the Fortress of Alamut, quests for the Holy Grail, and on and on. (It's a Templar knight who guards the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for example.)
It reads like an excerpt from a Dan Brown novel...All the buzzwords contained within The DaVinci Code are there. Beyond that, there's a LOT to unpack. As mentioned above, the nuclear war in May of 2022 didn't happen. Framing the whole thing in the context of DaVinci Code and History Channel-esque conspiracies, they seem to infer that the Grand Castle was a product of the Freemasons. It's hard to really see much Masonic influence in the design of the Grand Castle. Even Castle Neuschwanstein, from which The Grand Castle drew inspiration, eschewed Masonic architecture for an eclectic blend of styles.
The second letter brings up the CoVid-19 pandemic and how the pandemic has stopped a lot of people from going to church. My observations have been slightly different: I've been able to catch church livestreams online from the comfort of my couch, and have had the ability to check out quite a few different churches and their own attitudes. Concurrently to the CoVid-19 pandemic, the idea of "deconstruction" has come to the forefront. Christianity Today ran a podcast series, starting in the throes of CoVid in 2020, entitled "The Rise And Fall Of Mars Hill" that explored the evangelical megachurch culture that I attended youth groups in. In 2021, author Kristen Kobes Du Mez dropped a book called "Jesus And John Wayne," wherein she explores the influence of evangelical culture in American politics. While the author of the letters above might accuse Cosper and Du Mez of being inside actors, destined to destroy Christianity from the inside out (podcast host Cosper working for Christianty Today, and Du Mez being a professor at Calvin University), these are but two highlights in the broader trend of individuals reconsidering what faith means to them. In other words, it's not a 500 year old conspiracy driving church members away, it's being isolated from others during a pandemic causing a whole generation to seek introspection and self-reflection.
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