The Case for Christian Nationalism
Epilogue: Now What? | III. Universalism (Part 3)
Previously:
The Western mind has a universalizing tendency. The root of this tendency seems to be our emphasis on the human over the ethnic. Try to imagine how you would view the world if you had no comprehension of the concept “human”, no universalizing concept of man. One ethnicity to another would be as dogs are to cats.1
The only reviewer I have found that mentioned this statement is Neil Shenvi, who quoted it, with only the clarification that Wolfe “definitely affirms that there is only one human species”, during his live-tweeting while reading Wolfe’s book.2 I am not shocked that Wolfe wrote it, but I am amazed that so few theologians and Christian journalists who had supposedly read his book and wrote about it failed to mention, let alone condemn, the many plain-as-day, traditional ethno-nationalist arguments in it. It was six months after the release of the book, after Christian news organizations had mostly forgotten about it, that Reason, a secular outlet, finally published an article covering what is in plain sight.3 This does not give me much confidence in American Christian intelligentsia.4
In Deh Rahwood, Afghanistan, I had extensive opportunities to work directly with “the locals” who did daily work around our forward operating base. These were the exact type of tribal people whom Wolfe claims are irreconcilably different from us; they had never been exposed to “Western” values, they had no choice but to be Muslim, and they viewed themselves not as Afghans, but as members of one of several local clans. I spent extended time with different subgroups of these people, everyone from a group of young boys who did odd jobs around our forward operating base (one of whom suffered from a rapid-aging condition), to old men still able to work construction projects. Two of my favorites were a six and a half foot tall, muscle bound gentle giant with a gloriously long beard, whom we called Taliban Ted, and our hardworking and honest foreman, Lalam - scorpion in the local dialect, given for the tattoo of one on his forearm. Beyond the language barrier when we didn’t have an interpreter around, my interactions with these people were no different than with anyone else. During down time we would take meals together and discuss all manner of things, through the interpreter. At no point did I ever get the sense that, at an innate and irreconcilable level, these men were any different than me.
Wolfe is partially correct, in that there are aspects of Afghan tribal culture that are irreconcilable with Christian culture, most notably bacha bazi (boy play), the practice of feminizing and prostituting young boys, which was socially acceptable and popular among some of the men. At multiple bases, I had to make it clear upfront that the teenage boys who worked there were off limits, and several times had to very forcefully remind them when one would touch or try to kiss a boy; none of the men who did not practice bacha bazi were interested in stopping the others.
Every Western Christian has ancestors who engaged in equally abhorrent cultural practices. Even God’s chosen people turned from him and sacrificed their children to the Baals (Jeremiah 19:4-5). In the non-Christian worldview these evils can be seen as irredeemable cultural sins, and a case for societal sequestration can perhaps be made, but this is exactly the type of sin the heart-change of the Holy Spirit rectifies in believers. To purposefully exclude other Christians on the basis of ethnicity, as Wolfe argues for, is to deny the Holy Spirit’s ability to bring the universal church of Jesus Christ together in holy communion. Those who focus on “Western ethnicities” may desire to “view the world more through an ethnic frame,”5 but the Christian is commanded to view the world through the frame of the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1, 1 John 2:4-6, Ephesians 5:1-2). You cannot view the world through this frame, you cannot imitate Christ, if you insist on treating other ethnicities, most especially Christians of other ethnicities, as the other.
Next:
Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2022), 457.
Paul Matzko, “Beware the ‘Christian Prince,’” Reason.Com (blog), May 13, 2023, https://reason.com/2023/05/13/beware-the-christian-prince/.
Once notable exception is G3 Ministries’ Virgil Walker, who wrote an article in April 2023, entitled The Dangerous Intersection of Christian Nationalism and Ethnocentrism, https://g3min.org/the-dangerous-intersection-of-christian-nationalism-and-ethnocentrism/.
Stephen Wolfe, 459.