It's a Big Club, and You Ain't In It

Before speaking at the National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention with two of his American Reformer colleagues, co-founders Aaron Renn and Nate Fischer, William Wolfe spoke at a gathering of the Plano Young Republicans Tuesday night. When the organization posted a photo of the event the following day, next to Wolfe were white-supremacist podcasters Joel Webbon and “Wesley Todd.”

Circled from left to right, Todd, Wolfe and Webbon.

Wolfe has a longstanding relationship with Webbon. They were both editors on Southern Baptist pastor and Oklahoma state senator Dusty Deevers’ Statement on Christian Nationalism and the Gospel (Deevers is still scheduled to speak at Webbon’s Trashworld conference in April). Wolfe has also appeared on Webbon’s podcast, which the untrained and self-ordained pastor now co-hosts with his church member, Todd. Therefore it wouldn’t be of great note that they met the other night, while Wolfe was in the duo’s state of Texas, but for the fact that Webbon and Todd have, over the last several months, very publicly descended into the promotion of explicit eugenic racism.

Todd advocating for the core historic beliefs of white supremacists in a social media interaction with a black pastor, Samuel Sey. Below, Webbon advocates for the other side of the same argument, that some ethnic groups have “genetic deficiencies,” including ones that supposedly affect intelligence.

While I have no reason to believe that anyone else at the event knew who Webbon and Todd are, it’s no secret that these two men are openly advocating for the type of explicit racism one is used to remaining restricted to speeches from the Klan and neo-Nazi organizations. It’s been much of the talk of “Christian X” for months, and multiple well-known “Reformed” media figures, including James White and Doug Wilson, have proactively distanced themselves from Webbon, whom they’ve previously done conferences with. That Wolfe, who is a prolific X user, is somehow unaware of what Webbon and Todd are promoting is something that is practically impossible. Wolfe has even been known to follow my posts on X, where I’ve written about Webbon and Todd extensively, and comment from behind a “block,” preventing me from responding—something he last did less than a week ago.

An example of the type of reviling behavior those of us who criticize “Reformed” Christian Nationalists can expect from supposed Christian William Wolfe. Here he derides journalist Janet Mefferd and me, and encourages people to join him in that public reviling, a practice commonly referred to as “brigading.”

What Wolfe did on Wednesday night was publicly fellowship, and allow himself to be photographed, with two men who have become infamous in Christian media for actively spreading the type of racism most Americans associate with figures like David Duke.¹ That he is head of an “organization” (that is nothing more than an assumed name of American Reformer) that is proactively working to lobby the Southern Baptist Convention towards the extremist ideology shared by his employer is very troubling. That much, if not most, of SBC leadership knows this and have said nothing publicly is shameful. As comedian George Carlin famously said, “It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it.” Thankfully, in this case, nor should you want to be.

1. Todd making another argument for racial superiority, but also pushing the trope that the word “racism” was invented by communists. This trope has its origins with the white-nationalist author Sam Francis, and was most famously promoted by David Duke when he praised Francis for the concept on his blog. In Francis and Duke’s version, the communists are also claimed to be Jews, a common sentiment when other white-nationalists push this trope on social media. Todd and Webbon are also known for antagonistic comments about Jews.