After Michael Brown’s history of sexual-related misconduct resurfaced when a secretary at a school run by the Brownsville Revival, of which Brown was a part, told her story of what might be best described as an emotional affair with the married Brown in the early 2000s, which was then swept under the rug because their respective spouses had allegedly agreed that no adultery had been committed. Brown hasn’t written a WND column since that news came out, and he is taking time off from public ministry. While that situation sorts itself out, we do want to credit Brown for finally (if belatedly) having the correct reaction to a fellow right-winger’s extremist views.
In a November 2023 column, Brown tried to give a pass to fellow right-wing activist Candace Owens after she got caught saying “Christ is king” at a time when the term was being used by far-right anti-Semitic activists, saying little beyond “I certainly hope this is not what Candace Owens meant. A clarification is certainly called for.” The evidence of Owens’ anti-Semitism has since become so overwhelming, however, that even Brown was finally moved to denounce her. He did so in an Aug. 23 column, which started with calling her out for getting history wrong:
Over the last year or so, Candace Owens has made an increasing number of deeply concerning comments about the Jewish people and Israel, leading to the question: What kind of anti-Semitic Kool-Aid is she drinking? In light of her most recent comments, the answer is: One of the worst kinds of anti-Semitic Kool-Aid, the kind that espouses the most ridiculous (and malicious) conspiracy theories. Her statements have now become completely unhinged, leading to bizarre headlines like this on an anti-Semitic website: “Candace Owens digs in, calling out Israel’s Frankist pedo-protection cult.” What?
In her rant, Owens informs us that the horrors of the Holocaust did not help give birth to the modern State of Israel. Instead, many moons before this, Catholics and Christians went missing around Passover, and when their bodies were found, “they were able to trace them back to the Jews.”
But, she tells us, she is not repeating the infamous blood libel, which alleges that Jews kidnap and kill Christians during Passover, using their blood to bake matzoh. Not at all! These people weren’t actually Jews at all. “They were Frankists,” Owens says, referring to a sex-cult led by the notorious Polish Jew Jacob Frank (1726-1791).
The only problem with this unhinged theory is everything. First, this is the same, fictitious blood libel, just blamed on Frankists rather than Jews. Second, the Frankists, with all their perverted practices, did not kidnap and kill Catholics and Christians, using their blood for Passover. Third, the Frankists actually were Jews, although some of them eventually converted to Catholicism. But I quibble. Why should we trip over historical facts?
Brown got more forceful as his column continued:
But Owens has still more to say. She alleges that “every person who speaks about Israel has to basically say a statement like, ‘I don’t want to get killed.'” Yes, of course! No one in America or abroad would dare say anything negative about Israel or the Jewish people for fear of being killed by the Israelis. And if anything happens to her? “Blame the Zionists, like 1,000 percent, blame the Zionists. …”
Thankfully, she provides an “easy litmus test” by which you can judge “any commentator.” If they don’t condemn Israel’s defense of pedophiles and acknowledge that Louis Brandeis was a Frankist, then they, too, are evil, psychopathic Zionists.
Sarcasm aside, Owens is peddling some really sick, terribly dangerous stuff, given her popularity and influence.
May she awaken from this anti-Semitic stupor, may she spit out the poisonous Kool-Aid she is drinking, and may she become an advocate for righteousness and truth. And as much as her statements deserve ridicule and scorn, she needs our prayers. (I say this out of concern, not condescension.)
May the Lord deliver Candace Owens from deception!
It took a lot longer than it should have for Brown to 1) come to his realization and 2) publicly and forcefully denounce Owens’ anti-Semitism, but he finally got it right. While he’s taking time away from public ministry, Brown should ask himself why it took him so long to speak out in a meaningful way about Owens.