Donald Trump's pledge to declassify long-rumoured 'alien files' has triggered an unusual backlash across the United States from Christian pastors, who warn the move could destabilise Churches and even 'destroy' confidence in Christianity if it is not handled carefully.
Talk of Trump's alien files has been building for months in US conservative media, fuelled by the President's public promise to order agencies, including the Pentagon, to dig out and release government records on UFOs and possible extraterrestrial life. That promise has now collided with a strand of American evangelical theology that views talk of aliens not as a scientific question, but as a spiritual trap.
The concerns have been amplified by Tennessee-based evangelistPerry Stone, a high-profile pastor with a sizeable media following. Citing briefings he says came from US intelligence officials, Stone has warned that churches are being quietly told to brace for a wave of doubt once Trump's alien files appear.
According to theDaily Mail, Stone claimed he and other pastors had been urged in a series of meetings toprepare congregations to 'stay united'after any disclosure. The fear is not so much that little green men will step out of a flying saucer, but that new material on unexplained aerial phenomena and supposed life beyond Earth will be read as proof that Genesis is a fairy tale.
'You're going to have people who are going to say if there are galaxies and there are allegedly other creations in the galaxies, then the whole creation story is a myth,' Stone told his audience. In his view, some believers could 'apostatise and turn from the Christian faith because they have no answer for what they're about to hear.'
He has also suggested the alien files might include detailed reports of unusual craft and possibly even video footage, though none of this has been independently verified. At this point, nothing in the pastors' warnings confirms what is actually contained in the material Trump wants declassified.
Trump, for his part, has been leaning into the intrigue. 'We're going to be releasing a lot of things that we haven't,' he said last week. 'I think some of it's going to be very interesting to people.' In February, he said the Pentagon had been instructed to release information because of what he called 'tremendous interest' in the subject.
If some pastors sound alarmed about Trump's alien files, others are more combative, framing the issue as part of a spiritual struggle rather than a clash between religion and science.
Bishop Alan DiDio of Revival Nation Church has argued that the promised disclosures could be used to lure Christians away from their faith. According toExpress US, he and like-minded leaders see a deliberate attempt to recast biblical faith as outdated once the public has been primed by official-sounding talk of life in distant galaxies.
They are not rejecting the files because they trust Washington. Quite the opposite. For these pastors, government-backed revelations about aliens are suspect precisely because they come from institutions they already view with scepticism.
Source: International Business Times UK
