Vatican Astronomer Claims Thomas Horn “Twisted, Misquoted” His Words, “Invented Utter Falsehoods”

Here’s one from early last month – Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno writes on his Specolations website:

About a year ago, an author (whom I will not name or link to) conducted an extensive interview with me by email. I thought he was a legitimate journalist. However, seeing the ways in which he has twisted, misquoted, and invented utter falsehoods from the things I said, I have come to suspect that he is either a knave or a fool.

There are no Vatican secrets about UFOs. Neither I nor anyone I know has any evidence that extraterrestrials exist. We do not believe that “Jesus is a hybrid” or any of the other bizarre claims that this author makes. He is either seriously deluded, or a deliberate con-man…

The man who Consolmagno declines to name is Thomas Horn, author of a number of crank tomes and DVDs such as Exo-Vaticana: Petrus Romanus, Project L.U.C.I.F.E.R. and the Vatican’s Astonishing Plan for the Arrival of an Alien Savior (taglines include: “Unveiled! The Vatican’s Secret Plan for the Arrival of an Alien God!”… “The Role of Petrus Romanus for the coming Alien Serpent-Savior” etc) and Nephilim Stargates: The Year 2012 and the Return of the WatchersIt is the former of these  which purports to contain things “admitted” by Consolmagno.

Horn’s fare may seem too bizarre and marginal to be worth any attention, but his ramblings have been heavily promoted by WorldNetDaily, as I noted here and here. Horn appears to have an inroad into the wider Christian Right via Chuck Missler, who runs an evangelical ministry in Idaho called the Koinonia Institute – Horn is a member of Koinonia’s “Board of Regents“, alongside WND‘s editor Joseph Farah, Ergun Caner,  Jerome CorsiAlan Keyes, Tim LaHaye, several Calvary Chapel pastors, and others (including Binyamin Elon MK, a long-time US Christian Right ally).

Missler – who came to wide attention in 2007 for his argument that peanut butter disproves the theory of evolution – appears on the cover of Horn’s Exo-Vaticana book as the author of the book’s introduction (although his name is absent from some images of the cover). Some of Missler’s own religious teachings are extrapolated from a passing reference to the “Nephilim” – a race of giants – in the Book of Genesis, which he has fused to motifs taken from science fiction and pop culture concerning UFOs and such.

This site advertises Missler’s book Alien Encounters (co-authored by Mark Eastman), and a DVD entitled Return of the Nephilim:

This subject has not gone away. On the contrary, much new evidence has surfaced with global implications. Chuck explores the Biblical relevance and disturbing agenda of the apparent extraterrestrial life forms that have been forcing themselves into our global consciousness and reveals their most disturbing agenda.

(By the way, be sure to hover over the cover images for a nice little Easter egg) There are also details of a conference, which “took place in Roswell, New Mexico, on the 50-year anniversary of the famous Roswell UFO Incident.”

Missler and Horn are far from being the first persons to supplement their Christian beliefs with extravagantly eccentric pseudo-scientific speculations presented not only as fact, but as spiritually significant truth, but Missler is not confined to the outer fringes of US conservative Christianity – as well as the names on his “Board of Regents, he has featured on GOD TV, and his “Strategic Perspectives” conferences have attracted a range of high-profile speakers.

Somewhat oddly, Consolmagno’s response to Horn’s misrepresentation of him was brought to my attention via an email from Cliff Kincaid, who runs America’s Survival and Accuracy in Media. The email was not addressed to me personally – it seems that Kincaid was contacting various websites that had discussed Horn critically. At America’s Survival, Kincaid links to Consolmagno’s post and screencaps a WND article, and adds:

I am astounded that some Christians are taking this book seriously. The Vatican’s secret plan for the arrival of an alien god? This is too far out even for Alex Jones.

Or perhaps “too far out even for Cliff Kincaid”, whose own websites include The Soros Files and Lenin and Shariah, which promotes Joel Gilbert’s birther conspiracy. Kincaid’s “Accuracy in Media” recently gave an award to the ludicrous Jim Hoft, and Kincaid has is currently using AIM to promote Glenn Beck’s “Saudi student” Boston bombing conspiracy theory (Bret Baier’s comprehensive debunking of Beck’s claims is dismissed because he works for Fox and Fox is “part-Saudi owned”). Right Wing Watch has more on Kincaid here; I mentioned him in passing here.

16 Responses

  1. […] is something of a link between what we might see as “mainstream” fundamentalism, which focuses on areas such […]

    • Hi

      For 20 years i believed in alien life on other planets,i witnessed a UFO myself hovering over a chemical plant in 1999 and went to a talk by Col. Holt about his UFO experience in Suffolk.I am also a christian believer for the same period & have had plenty experience of the Holy Spirit in my life and believe in the appiritions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjorgorje etc “The Father has placed me on this mission of being a Mediatrix between God & man”.
      She appeared to the visionary Veronica at Bayside USA between 1970-1994 and among subjects covered were UFO’s. A couple of quotes “UFO’s as you call them are used by SATAN & other demons from hell as transports to confuse & confound mankind into thinking there is alien life in the universe the only creation of the Father has been given in the book of love & life” (bible).
      We are now living through the Book Of Revelations, these are the end times, “in this final battle because of the sins of mankind there are many agents of hell now loose on the earth”. There is our natural world and the supernatural Heaven, Hell & Purgatory.
      The Devil knows his time is now short and so when the christian church is RAPTURED, news medias will report to those left behind that a mass UFO abduction has occured to explain the disapearance of these people,covering up the Divine Act from you.And as in surveys at least half those surveyed believe in alien life, abductions etc thanks to the UFO phenomenon most will probably accept this explanation.
      This and other subjects covering the end times can be found under directives on the shrine website http://www.tldm.org the Warning, Great Miracle & Chastisements to come.As ever in this spiritual battle prayer is key, please don’t let the evil one fool mankind.
      Regards John

      • Peter the Roman is literally going to kick the poo out of Tom H then ask God too forgive him for doing it. I know because I am Peter the Roman and when I slap the Co-redemptrix teaching on Protestants they are going to want a butt kicking themselves for those blasphemes talked about at Fatima

  2. […] I’ve noted previously, Missler is known for his particular focus on exotic subjects such as UFOs (and for arguing that […]

  3. […] » Chuck Missler Book Plagiarised New Age Science Author Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion on Vatican Astronomer Claims Thomas Horn “Twisted, Misquoted” His Words, “Invented Ut… […]

  4. […] as I’ve written before, promotes extremely eccentric and fantastical conspiracy theories, in books with titles such […]

  5. I’ve read Tom Horn’s books out of curiosity and not once is he saying Jesus is a hybrid or that the saviour is an alien. If anything he’s saying the opposite of all your negatives in your article. The vatican is full of paganism and are a cult of satan. But of course being from the vatican you would argue different. The signs are blatantly all over the vatican. Tom Horn makes more sense than the paganism teachings and practices of the Vatican, which is so UNHOLY!!! What he’s trying to let people know that the VATICAN with the elite is going to use the alien agenda to actually lie to humanity.

  6. the vatican will never accept such truths until the arrival of the false messiah. I can’t believe you were actually expecting disclosure from that response. how fool. time will tell..

  7. I take issue with some of what Horn has to say. What I won’t do is simply dismiss the man as a nut job by oversimplifying his points of view, take a heavily biased position without source material, or defend a bunch of pagan pederasts posing as the church. Tom Horn’s viewpoints are worth examining, and if money is an indication of virtue, the Vatican has none

  8. I’ll keep this simple: Where in the entire Holy Bible am I commanded to pray to Mary? Can the Vatican please explain? Where in the entire Holy Bible am I commanded to pray to Saints? Can the Vatican please explain?
    My Holy Bible tells me God Almighty is a jealous God; WILL NOT share His glory with anyone including the Vatican.

  9. Protestant USA is a disaster. Nobody harms christianity as much as American ‘evangelicals’. They preach mainly three types of gospel: 1. the gospel of doom and destruction 2. the gospel of dark conspiracies 3. the gospel of hatred. None of them is christian.

    • …and some preach health and wealth (prosperity Gospel), of which I think name it and claim it is part. Then, there’s the charismatic need for a charismatic experience to validate the Holy Spirit in oneself and being “saved” without testing the spirits to determine if the spirit involved is holy or the opposite. Do I understand this correctly?

      • No, you do not. Read the Word for yourself. God wants to speak with you personally. As any parent wants to speak personally with his/her children

        He is not a way off God. You are His personal concern. All that is required is that you receive His Son , the only one who died for you.

    • the problem with end time prophesis is that they make people fearful and worried and it actually destroys the church

  10. […] presented in a discussion between Jim Bakker and Tom Horn, whose religious writings are full of extravagant and bizarre David Icke-style science-fiction elements.In particular, Bakker cites the fact that […]

  11. Wish I knew the truth about all of this!

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