In her best-selling book, Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda, Megan Basham wrote: “Racism is real, it is ugly, and it should be opposed wherever it is found. I have seen the hateful messages my friend Samuel Sey…receives when he posts photos of himself with his white wife on social media.”
One morning in 2020, before my girlfriend had the opportunity to go on social media, I asked her to stay away from it because woke people who hated me found her social media pages and left vile comments about our so-called interracial relationship.
Last year, I was forced to protect her from social media again when people left similar messages about our “interracial” marriage. This time, however, the hateful comments didn’t come from woke people. They came from white nationalists and kinists who claim to be Christians.
“Racism is real, it is ugly, and it should be opposed wherever it is found.”
We know woke evangelicals disagree with this. They believe only some forms of racism are ugly. They believe anti-black racism is unrighteous, but anti-white racism is justifiable. They are not “anti-racists”, they are just anti-white.
But woke evangelicals aren’t the only inconsistent and hypocritical voices on race in the Church. Some anti-woke Christians are just as foolish and divisive as woke Christians. They detest anti-white racism, but they defend anti-black racism and antisemitism. They call themselves Christian nationalists, but that is an insult to sincere Christian nationalists. The more fitting term is white nationalists.
They do not hate “anti-racism” because it’s anti-Christ, they hate it because it’s anti-white. Otherwise, they wouldn’t repay racism for racism.
By the grace of God, most Christians haven’t been swayed by critical race theorists or white nationalists. Biblical Christians affirm that racism is ugly, and it should be opposed wherever it is found—on the Left or the Right.
That is why I signed the Antioch Declaration.
The Antioch Declaration was published earlier this week by men I admire, such as Joe Boot, Andrew Sandlin, Doug Wilson, Jeff Durbin, and James White.
The statement isn’t perfect. Though these men are much wiser than I am, I think some of its sections are digressive and imprecise. But I think the core message of the statement demands our attention and warrants our support. I’m especially grateful for this section of the statement:
“We affirm that the modern neo-pagan secular project is bankrupt and desperately trying to hold the social order together by means of a fraudulent narrative and anti-Christian worldview. As a result, the lies of secular elites in all spheres have necessarily grown increasingly evident and outrageous.
We affirm that, as a consequence, some young men in the West have become jaded and cynical, with an element among them now rejecting or doubting the received account of virtually anything. The great danger is that now, instead of acting on the basis of revealed truth in Christ, they are in the unhappy position of reacting by choosing between opposing sets of lies.”
One of these “jaded and cynical men” is Stephen Wolfe, the author of The Case For Christian Nationalism. In the book, he also positively quotes white nationalist Sam Francis. If you’re unfamiliar with Francis, American Renaissance (a white nationalist website) said, “Francis was the premier philosopher of white racial consciousness of our time.”
Francis once said, “At a time when anti-white racial and ethnic groups define themselves in explicitly racial terms, only our own unity and identity as a race will be able to meet their challenge.”
Stephen Wolfe and his allies agree. They seemingly believe repaying evil for evil is the only way to meet the challenge of anti-white racism. Which, frankly, exposes their fragility.
Centuries of slavery and decades of segregation convinced some people to embrace woke idealogy. But it took just a few years of woke supremacy to convince these weak men to embrace white nationalism. In that way, they are even more fragile than some woke people.
Some conservative critics of the Antioch Declaration say these people aren’t a threat to Christian unity. They say these white nationalists are just confused men who need our friendship. Interestingly, that is the same argument Big Eva (mainstream evangelicals) made about their relationship with woke activists.
Some people say these white nationalists are a fringe group who do not have much influence. That is true. Except for a relatively small circle of Reformed people on social media, most people have never heard of Stephen Wolfe or his allies. However, we shouldn’t ignore how appealing white nationalism or kinism could be to a generation of young, white Christians who are marginalized by some because of their skin colour. Especially since renewed interest in white nationalism by these fringe groups in the Church mirrors what is also happening on the Right with the manosphere and people like Nick Fuentes.
Most evangelicals ten years ago probably didn’t think woke ideology would become as pervasive as it has become in the Church and culture. We shouldn’t make the same mistake. We shouldn’t underestimate the cycle of sinners repaying evil for evil.
Also, as much as I appreciate Doug Wilson and all of the brothers in Moscow, I think it’s impossible to address their role in this statement without also addressing why their role in this statement became necessary.
Doug Wilson and the Moscow brothers have always maintained a biblical view on race. But I think it’s worth noting that this new group of white nationalists or Kinists in Reformed circles was almost universally mentored or influenced by Wilson and Moscow. In my conversations with these people, before they adopted their brand of Christian nationalism, they consistently shared their admiration for Wilson and why they wanted to emulate him.
Kevin DeYoung’s much-maligned article about the Moscow mood warned about this. He said:
“Wilson makes fun of those who could be allies and loves to troll people who disagree with him. It’s as if all the world is a meme war to be won, and no publicity is bad publicity so long as people are paying attention to Wilson and Canon Press…One of the sad realities is that Wilson could set a different mood—still full of Chestertonian mirth, but focused on better things and in a better way… He would have to press pause on the perpetual pot-stirring. He would have to cultivate a depth of intellectual exploration that is more lasting, and ultimately more helpful, than a surface-level spray into the controversy du jour. He would have to refrain from keeping his pointer finger permanently extended in search of eyes to poke. He could try to be an evangelical statesman or lean into his role as a seasoned mentor to younger Christians—especially men who don’t need permission to be brawlers, as much as they need a godly role model to emulate and a spiritual father to correct their youthful excesses.”
Doug Wilson and the Moscow brothers mocked DeYoung when he published the article. But this statement, written as a rebuke to many of Wilson’s former disciples, vindicates some of what DeYoung said last November.
I am grateful Doug Wilson has been setting a different mood on this issue. It’s ironic, however, that his former disciples are using his patented perpetual pot-stirring and sarcasm to dismiss his correction.
And we shouldn’t forget that Doug Wilson’s Canon Press published Stephen Wolfe’s The Case For Christian Nationalism.
But that is why this statement is interesting to me. When disciples of mainstream evangelical leaders went astray and embraced woke ideology, the evangelical leaders at The Gospel Coalition, for instance, did not publicly correct them.
It’s depressing that this statement is necessary, but I’m grateful. I’m thankful that the men who drafted it agree that racism on the Right is just as sinful as racism on the Left. I’m grateful they agree that racism is ugly, and it should be opposed wherever it is found.