The Case for Christian Nationalism

Epilogue: Now What? | III. Universalism (Part 1)

Previously:

The Case for Christian Nationalism

We often have to act against our psychological inclinations; we have to run from cognitive comforts and from the embrace of modern society; we have to retrain the mind by the strength of will. We might feel, for example that it is wrong for public space to be exclusively Christian, but it still ought to be. Remember that most of our spiritual forefathers had the opposite feeling. We must overcome ourselves.¹

Wolfe’s theory is meant to be a Christian nationalism and, more so, Reformed Christian nationalism. In all of his discourse on the need to overcome our “psychological inclinations” towards what we feel is wrong, there is not a single mention of the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s heart and mind; there in no mention of prayer; there is no mention testing one’s ideas against Scripture; there is no mention of the discipleship and discipline of elder Christians. In essence, there is no actual Christian practice, only a Christianized Nietzschean “will to power”.

In every case, the manner [evangelicals] go about addressing some topic is determined by ruling-class sentiment towards that topic. This is true even when we address fellow Christians. Thus, “good faith” discussions between Christians about same-sex attraction look very different from the unequivocal denunciation of anything with a semblance of “kinism”.²

One need only look at “Christian Twitter” in June to know the claim that evangelicals overwhelmingly have “good faith” discussions about same-sex attraction and transgenderism is demonstrably false. Secondly there is a key distinction between interacting with someone who is engaged in self-destructive behavior and someone whose destructiveness is aimed at others. There is a difference between the way the average evangelical interacts with someone who sees themselves as transgender versus someone who argues that parents who do not “affirm their transgender child” should lose custody, just as there is a difference between how someone engages a suicidal person versus someone arguing for euthanasia of the mentally ill. At its base level, “kinism”, which is Christian insider-lingo for the very type of ethno-nationalism Wolfe promotes in his book³, seeks to label ethnically different human beings the other, and should be countered accordingly.

Christians must overcome a psycho-rhetorical hurdle and affirm the dangerous thought that their political vision has no room for the secularist elite… Free yourselves from their enslavement… There is no credibility we can establish with them. Unavoidably, we are threats to their regime.⁴

Genuine Christians are a threat to no one; only the good news of Jesus Christ is a “threat” to the secular world. As shown in chapter 8, a Christian Nationalist movement poses no serious ideological or physical risk to the American establishment; the lack of mainstream coverage of anything but January 6 rioters and MAGA grifters as “Christian Nationalists” proves that. What Wolfe’s movement is a threat to is conservative Churches, especially the Reformed and Baptist worlds. While our Christian thought-leaders spend the vast majority of their time decrying wokeism, a movement that nearly every conservative Christian rejects before it walks in the door of their church, many Christians afraid of the shifting cultural landscape are turning towards the prospect of authoritarian measures. Now is the time to address this burgeoning threat, while its particulars are still being debated by its proponents; it will be much more difficult to counter should the American political situation continue to devolve, and conservative Christians become more desperate to retain personal peace and affluence.

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The Case for Christian Nationalism

1. Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2022), 455.

2. Ibid., 456.

3. Wolfe’s podcast co-host, Thomas Achord, who was revealed to have had anonymous, white-nationalist Twitter and Facebook accounts, co-authored a kinist book, entitled Who Is My Neighbor?: An Anthology In Natural Relations.

4. Stephen Wolfe, 456.