It’s not like there is a shortage of hysterical fanatics in the US to cover, but Francine Fosdick (and her husband) Allen manage to stand out a bit in terms of sheer lunacy and small-minded, degenerate wickedness. The Fosdicks, self-declared healers and prophets, are the founders of People of Prophetic Power Ministries in Gettysburg, and also host a radio program called Up Front in the Prophetic, ostensibly devoted “to bring truth and solid biblical answers to the issues of our day.” They also claim to have “Jesus as their model and a servant’s heart,” which is a spectacular failure of self-awareness and really indicative of how far off the mark their views on how reality hangs together tend to be.
What is most notable, however, is that the Fosdicks have become a pair of unofficial leaders of the effort to synthesize dominionist religious fundamentalism and QAnon conspiracy theories: Their radio program has served as something of a cornucopia of conspiracy theories, and the Fosdicks – Francine, in particular – is currently a major figure in the QAnon movement. On their program, the Fosdicks have for instance claimed that then-President Joe Biden was executed and replaced by a masked imposter (based on the fact that some photos of him at a beach don’t match some – explicitly – fake images created by The Onion), and Francine Fosdick has hosted a call to pray for the exposure of former President Barack Obama’s supposed involvement in child trafficking and for the uncovering the “true identity” of Michelle Obama as a man. For some further examples:
- Here is Bishop Larry Gaiters asserting, on the Fosdicks’ show, that the deaths of Joe Biden’s wife and daughter in 1972 and the death of his son Beau in 2015 were a “satanic sacrifice” to boost Biden’s political career.
- Here is Francine Fosdick warning us that infrared thermometers are a tool for mind control and possibly the Mark of the Beast.
- In 2022, the Fosdicks spent quite a bit of effort promoting a pillow supposedly “infused with silver technology” (whatever that is) that could ostensibly protect users’ brains from electromagnetic fields.
- Here is Francine Fosdick once again having a conversation about whether Joe Biden has been replaced by a clone, this time with Trump lawyer Christina Bobb.
- Here is Mark Burnsdeclaring that Rep. Maxine Waters is “activating Satan’s pastors” to attack (then-)President Trump.
- And here is Fosdick and the late former actress and QAnon champion Cirsten Weldon talking about how Hillary Clinton died in 2020 of kuru, a brain-wasting disease associated with cannibalism.
You get the drift.
In 2022, it was the Fosdicks who arranged the major, two-day QAnon conference Patriots Arise, which was attended by a number of candidates for office such as Pennsylvania state senator Doug Mastriano, lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania candidate Teddy Daniels, state Senate of Maryland candidate Rick Bowers, and Maryland governor candidate Dan Cox, as well as neo-Confederateattorney general in Maryland candidateMichael Peroutka; their speaker lineup included Jenna Ellis, Scott ‘Patriot Streetfighter’ McKay (who, as usual, threatened to kill those he believes to be responsible for “child satanic trafficking and abuse of children” – i.e. everyone he disagrees with on politics), Elizabeth Eads (arguing that vaccines are “all part of turning you into an AI transhuman”), Shane Vaughn, and Trump spokesperson Liz Harrison. Francine Fosdick launched the whole event with a 6-minute promo video managing to cram in an impressive amount of QAnon imagery, symbolism and code words; later in the event, she had a sit-down with fellow QAnon conspiracy theorist Sheila Holmto discuss how the government worships Lucifer and is controlled by “The Order of Paladin,” “The Wiccan Order of Knighthood” and the New World Order. The conference ended with the Fosdicks presenting Doug Mastriano with a “Sword of David” because, as they put it, “you are fighting for our religious rights in Christ Jesus.”
As what might, in this context, appear as something of an afterthought, Francine Fosdick has weighed in on Covid vaccines, too. As Fosdick, true to form, sees it, COVID-19 vaccines are turning people into “zombies” and “AI fighting machines”; indeed, “those that took this shot are unfortunately no longer human.” Here is Fosdick insisting, in an attempt to straighten out some obvious sources of cognitive dissonance, that Donald Trump and Melania, despite their own claims to the contrary, never took the COVID-19 vaccine: “They never got the shot ... Come on, they’re not that stupid.”
Diagnosis: Good grief. The fact remains, however, that the Fosdicks wield some real and serious influence in rightwing circles.