The Case for Christian Nationalism
8. The Right to Revolution | IV. Conditions for Revolution (Part 3)
Previously:
Another question is whether a Christian people, constituting a minority of the population under a civil government, can revolt against a tyranny directed at them and, after successfully revolting, establish over all of the population a Christian commonwealth. The issue here centers on whether a Christian minority can establish a political state over the whole without the positive consent of the whole. I affirm that they can. The reason is that although civil administration is fundamentally natural, human, and universal, it was always for the people of God.1
Take a minute to reread and ingest this statement, because herein exists the core motivation for Wolfe’s book. This is the position of someone who places far more emphasis on his earthly treasure than his heavenly; this is further exemplified by his statement to end the section, that it is “tyrannical” to undermine his view of “ethno-cultural” particularity (which has been proven to be more ethno than cultural) and that this justifies revolution. The notion that a Christian people, existing in the significant minority, should violently overthrow their government and “assert Christian supremacy”2 over an unwilling populace is directly antithetical to everything the Son of God and His Apostles taught. I have previously given a myriad of individual verses to prove this point, but the New Testament, as a whole, boldly proclaims that this is not the way of the disciple. Wolfe does not exegete to make his case, because he cannot exegete to make his case. He will soon eisegete Romans 13.
Wolfe is so unwarrantedly confident in his interpretation of Christianity and “true justice” that he next justifies fully “disregard[ing] the withholding of consent by non-Christians.” Like most who make this case, he equivocates Second Table enforcement of the Sixth Commandment to punishing thoughtcrime, under the guise of “the highest good”.3 He then again makes the same categorical error as other Christian Nationalists, such as Andrew Torba and Andrew Isker4, of extending man’s dominion over earth and beast to dominion over other human beings. Again, take a minute to ingest that notion, that simply being a disciple of Jesus Christ would give you dominion over another image bearer. How do people act when they believe an innate superiority gives them dominion over other human beings?
My first time “outside the wire” was in Gardez, Afghanistan. After arriving at Kandahar, my company was split by platoons and sent to forward operating bases around the country. I was put into a custom-formed platoon to be headed by our company’s executive officer (second in command), whom I was attached to as his radio operator. We were sent to the FOB a few miles outside of Gardez, a town populated by roughly ten-thousand people who had no electricity or running water. The only people in the area with anything resembling modern conveniences were us and the local warlord, who had recently won a tense standoff with a rival, and who occupied a 19th century British fort on the opposite end of the town. His men would occasionally take pot shots at us with an old, Soviet recoilless rifle (low-caliber artillery). I once had to cut a call home on our satellite phone short, because I heard a round from the fort whiz past my head as I stood on the roof for better reception. The remoteness, primitiveness, and persistent air of hostility in Gardez was like stepping back in time.
Our mission was to protect a civil affairs team that was working to win hearts and minds within the town. Roughly two weeks into my time there, I was told I would be manning the SAW machine gun atop a Humvee as we accompanied the team on their check-ins with their contacts. The best way I can describe Gardez in 2003 is that it looked nearly identical to the depiction of the streets of Cairo in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with the addition that every man could legally carry an AK-47 - something that obviously put us on constant alert while we were driving through town.
Our first stop was at the storefront of a local merchant, on a narrow, walled street, which presented several several security concerns. We parked outside the store and my squad members exited the Humvees while I remained atop. I lit a cigarette while we pulled guard. Almost immediately, two boys, no more than eleven years old, came up to me to ask me for a smoke; I refused, but gave them some candy I had brought along. We were engaged in friendly pantomiming with each other when I spotted a man wearing a plain, matching, olive green wool suit and cap walking down the street towards us, with his hands behind his back. The suit was not of interest to me, because I had, even in the brief drive to this store, already noted that a large portion of Afghani civilians wore old, leftover Soviet military clothes. The man did not appear a threat, so I merely kept an eye on him as he approached, while I continued to engage the children.
The man walked right up to my Humvee, revealed a one foot long piece of rubber hose that he had been holding behind his back, and proceeded to beat the boys with such mercilessness that he was lacerating them. The beating was so intense that I believed he might kill them; I charged my weapon and was about to take him out when my sergeant ran at me, yelling, “Callens! Don’t shoot! That’s a police officer!” The commotion caused the man to pause, giving the children the opportunity to run away, screaming in intense pain. He and I locked eyes and then he calmly walked away, with the hose back behind his back.
Without school, young boys roam the streets of towns, like Gardez, during the day. They are treated no better by locals than wild dogs. I saw people keep piles of sizable stones on their front porch and throw them with full force at any child who got too close. The police officer was merely administering the dominant cultural hierarchy - he was enforcing his dominion. I have little doubt that this type of everyday violence is what would eventually happen to non-Christians under Wolfe’s revolutionary government.
Next:
Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2022), 345-346.
Ibid., 241.
Ibid., 346.
Authors of Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide for Taking Dominion and Discipling Nations.