Candace Owens, others rebuke Jordan Peterson for co-authoring study against ‘Christ is King’ –
(LifeSiteNews) –– Jordan Peterson has been on the receiving end of a tidal wave of criticism for co-authoring a controversial study released by an organization aligned with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
The 20-page report, which LifeSiteNews has reported on previously, appears to be designed to purposefully designate the phrase “Christ is King” as hate speech.
Among those who are rebuking Peterson include prominent Catholics like Michael Matt, Candace Owens, and Jack Posobiec. Conservative activists Mike Cernovich and Andrew Torba, the CEO of social media company Gab, have also weighed in.
“The attacks on Christ the King have backfired,” Posobiec said during a recent podcast. “I’m very disappointed to see Doctor Jordan Peterson’s name on this.”
.@JackPosobiec on “Christ is King”: “I’m very disappointed to see Doctor Jordan Peterson’s name on this.” pic.twitter.com/QkfeueitvE
— Human Events (@HumanEvents) March 14, 2025
Owens called out Peterson on X as well, while he described her as a “true Pharisaical pretender.”
🚨The ADL dedicates a page on their website to their partnership with NCRI to produce reports on online extremism. They orchestrated the “Christ is King” Lent attack. @jordanbpeterson: many are respectfully asking why you partnered with ADL on this. https://t.co/gxgbRrjqGg
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 14, 2025
Judging by the comments, this tweet appears to be backfiring.
In your highly sought-after psychological assessment—why do you suppose that is, Doc?— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 13, 2025
On Thursday, March 13, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) released its study titled “Thy Name in Vain: How Online Extremists Hijacked ‘Christ is King’.” The NCRI was founded in 2018 by Joel Finkelstein, currently a research fellow at Rutgers but who previously worked for the Anti-Defamation League from 2018 until 2020. The NCRI claims to expose “the spread of hostile ideological content” online. It partnered with the ADL in 2019 to “look into how extremism and hate spread on social media.”
Jordan Peterson is working with an ADL group.
I’m not surprised at all, but oh boy, this must be a real “moment” for some of you! https://t.co/8cJAuytBOM pic.twitter.com/R5iuMlmvAa
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 14, 2025
Finkelstein published the paper along with Peterson and 11 others, many of whom are Jewish. The study alleges that the term “Christ the King” has been “weaponized” by “political extremists” who are using it to advance “exclusionary and hateful narratives.”
Peterson has defended the paper on social media, as has Johnnie Moore, who appears to be the study’s lone Christian co-author. Moore is a Zionist Evangelical who has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the ADL in Los Angeles. He has also worked with the ADL’s Middle East Task Force. Torba has criticized him on X.
Christ is King https://t.co/HAU1bm5ewd
— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) March 13, 2025
Owens has been one of the influential public figures to push back against the NCRI’s report. On her podcast this week, she bluntly stated that it was “funded by Jews to make Christians war with one another during the Lenten season.”
Candace Owens: “This was a study funded by Jews to make Christians war with one another during the Lenten season.” https://t.co/HgQDcUx04y
— Stephen Kokx (@StephenKokx) March 14, 2025
Posobiec said, “they’re trying to get Christ is King labeled hate speech.”
Owens and Posobiec paired up for a podcast this week to expose the coordinated attack and to discuss Peterson’s involvement.
Mint News has reported that the NCRI has received over $1 million from the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), a group that seeks to promote support for Israel at U.S. colleges. The ICC, in turn, is funded by the Jewish National Fund.
Grayzone reporter Max Blumenthal has also found that the NCRI included George Soros’ Open Society Foundation as an affiliate until it deleted that section from its website in 2021, a fact that Cernovich drew attention to on X.
This is the group Jordan Peterson has partnered with. Lovely stuff. https://t.co/yfjEFxsDH2
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 15, 2025
Cernovich has appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast previously. He has been relentless in calling out Peterson for co-authoring the paper.
“Jordan Peterson worked with an ADL affiliate to do ‘academic research’ laying the foundation for labeling Christ is King as hate speech. This went over badly (understatement), and created a lot of bad blood. Stupid move, and also revealing,” he said.
Jordan Peterson worked with an ADL affiliate to do “academic research” laying the foundation for labeling Christ is King as hate speech.
This went over badly (understatement), and created a lot of bad blood.
Stupid move, and also revealing.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 14, 2025
Gab CEO Torba has joined in the fight as well. He has fired off several X posts defending Christian theology and what the Bible says about the Jewish people.
“The time has come for Christians to rise up, reclaim our faith, and unapologetically stand for truth, justice, and the advancement of God’s Kingdom above all else,” he has said.
It’s time for Christians to break free from the shackles of manipulation and subversion that have long distorted our faith. The unadulterated truth is now laid bare: we, as followers of Christ, bear ZERO obligation to prop up the Zionist political project in the volatile Middle…
— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) March 13, 2025
No one is saying Christ abandoned the Jews to graft in the Gentiles. On the contrary, the Jews abandoned Christ and had Him killed. He also unequivocally tells the Jews in Matthew 21:43 that “the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of… https://t.co/ZjJw1eQvKB
— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) March 14, 2025
Every lent Jews attack the Kingship of Christ being declared in the public square as “antisemitic.” Weird!
— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) March 13, 2025
Michael Matt of The Remnant Newspaper has published a podcast on the controversy as well. So has Jason Whitlock and Tim Poole, a 39-year-old podcaster with over 2 million followers.
Jordan Peterson and the ADL going after “Christ is King” now? They’ve got a new NCRI report out, connecting the phrase to haters, and they signed it with their sharpest pens!
Allow me a little rant, because this is getting ridiculous: https://t.co/CVwY1Y78Mb pic.twitter.com/C1mIinKATA— Michael J. Matt (@Michael_J_Matt) March 16, 2025
They want to make saying “Christ Is King” HATE SPEECH
WE WILL NOT SUBMIT
CHRIST IS KING🙏@WhitlockJason pic.twitter.com/WhbXcdsizh
— Human Events Daily (@humaneventslive) March 14, 2025
The NCRI’s website includes a list of strategic advisers. Princeton Professor Robert George is among them. George is a Catholic who has ties to many influential groups and prominent Catholics involved in politics in Washington, D.C. He has spent many years promoting Catholic-Jewish dialogue.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, George seems to have met Finkelstein during his college years, as Finkelstein attended Princeton. Finkelstein also served as a visiting scholar for Princeton’s James Madison Program, which is lead George.
George said on his X account that Catholics should “stand in solidarity with our Jewish brethren.” Although he didn’t link to the NCRI report, he did post an essay written by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. The essay was published one day before the NCRI study was released. It rebuked “those on social media who call themselves Christians but spread hate against Jews.” The timing of the article’s publication raises the question of whether it was coordinated to amplify the NCRI’s message.
The real news is not Jordan Peterson working with an ADL-aligned group (@ncri_io ), it is the fact that ‘conservative’ Catholic Professor Robert George is one of their senior advisers. 👀 pic.twitter.com/WSWbZqFQXM
— Stephen Kokx (@StephenKokx) March 15, 2025
One day before the NCRI report on Christ the King was released, an essay written by Cardinal Dolan was published on Bari Weiss’ website. It condemned “those on social media who call themselves Christians but spread hate against Jews.” That article has since been re-shared by the… pic.twitter.com/FJzE6DXP4Q
— Stephen Kokx (@StephenKokx) March 14, 2025
The phrase “Christ the King” has its roots in Pope Pius XI’s 1925 encyclical Quas Primas. In that document, the pope explains that “rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ” because “his kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles, both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing for the young a sound moral education.”
