The Case for Christian Nationalism

8. The Right to Revolution | Introduction

Previously:

The Case for Christian Nationalism

The chapter justifying religious violence begins by quoting 1 Maccabees 3:43: “Let us take the affliction from our people, and let us fight for our nation and our religion,” taken from the 16th century, Swiss theologian Heinrich Bullinger.¹ Wolfe must refer to a deuterocanonical text for his example of revolution from the people of God, because the inspired word of the New Testament contains no such language; in fact, it contains the opposite sort of language:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:3-4)

Also, the book of 1 Maccabees tells of a Jewish rebellion against the Hellenistic reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a foreign conqueror who had desecrated the temple. Modern translations do not have this verse as “fight for our nation and our religion”, but “fight for our people and the sanctuary.” If anything, our current situation is much more like the book of Jeremiah, where our own people have turned away from God. The example set by the prophet is one of weeping and pleading, not of organized rebellion.

Wolfe starts by stating, “The dire situation of Christianity in the West calls for action.”² Though dire is a subjective term, this is still hyperbole; with rare exception in the West, even the most extreme, legalistic Christian sects are allowed to freely practice their faith and blast their beliefs from megaphones in the public square, should they desire; the only significant exception is several European countries, including England and Finland, who have categorized the public promotion of a biblical sexual ethic as “hate speech”. Wolfe is a Presbyterian in North Carolina; as a former Presbyterian in North Carolina myself, I can confirm that, though friendliness towards Christianity is waning in the state, due to an influx of coastal elites, his religious situation is anything but dire. The mostly secular area of the state where I lived, the “Triangle” of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, is rapidly growing and, through members of my former church, I am told that PCA and OPC churches (among others) are being planted in most of the new suburbs being built. Wolfe’s supposed direness is the same type of hyperbole that characterizes his offense at the lack of “masculine prominence in the land”.

Today, the civil sphere is given a subordinate status in Christian thought, shut off from cognizance of eternal things, and we are conditioned to believe this is normal and good.³

This, again, is an entirely subjective and hyperbolic statement. The civil sphere has to be one of the most discussed topics from the contemporary pulpit, among both liberals and conservatives. What I believe Wolfe takes umbrage with is a lack of pastoral advocacy for “assert[ing] Christian supremacy over the land.”⁴ As discussed above, his position is in the extreme minority when compared to the vast majority of conservative American Christians, who follow the Baptist tradition and its ubiquitous philosophy of separation of church and state, which was well established before our nation was founded. This is not a modern conditioning, but a longstanding worldview that he happens to disagree with.

Wolfe then laments that, “Open blasphemy in our public square is shrugged off as ‘to be expected’ or part of the world’s ‘brokenness.’”⁵ It bears repeating 2 Timothy 2:24-26, which instructs the Christian in his task of “patiently enduring evil”, which would include public blasphemy:

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

The introduction to the chapter is ended with a language of destiny appeal for all out religious war, in our time:

But we do not have to live like this. And no matter how insistent our evangelical leaders are to the contrary, the Christian religion does not suppress or “critique” that fighting human spirit calling Christians to “hazard the loss of a limb for their religion, magistrates, wives, children, and all of their possessions,” as Bullinger said. Here I will justify violent revolution.⁶

Throughout this chapter, I will make the case that such an endeavor would not only be scripturally and morally unsound, at this juncture, but tactically ludicrous from a military standpoint. I will use my experience as a combat veteran and former Airborne Infantry Sergeant in the United States Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to make the latter case. I will do my best to describe the horrors of war to a mostly civilian audience that often gets their notions of combat from Hollywood. In this vein, the first question that must be asked is, what military experience does Stephen Wolfe have, since he is advocating for religious war?

Wolfe graduated from West Point in 2008 and spent four and a half years as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear officer in the Army (commonly referred to as CBRN or, in my time, NBC). This is a non-combat position that can be concerned with anything from testing the battlefield for effects of non-conventional weapons, to managing the inventory of chemical protection, such as gas masks - I am slightly more familiar with the job than most former infantrymen, because my roommate at Fort Bragg was our company’s “NBC guy”.

Most likely, Wolfe had very little combat training beyond some West Point activities and Officer Candidate School, which is the commissioned version of basic training. While all soldiers partake in training exercises, there is a chasm of difference between the daily tasks and training of non-combat and combat soldiers; the latter are perpetually training for actual combat, because that is their job. Wolfe was stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where the 25th and 101st infantry divisions are stationed, respectively, but there is no sign, either through his resume or in his description of his military time later in the book, that he has any combat experience.

This is not to diminish his, or anyone’s, service record; someone who is willing to serve their nation should be commended for such. But, it must be noted that Wolfe likely has never seen the battlefield and probably has no more than a light, book knowledge of subjects that would be essential to an insurgency in the West, such as infantry rifle platoon and squad tactics and military operations on urbanized terrain. Speaking from personal experience, it is far more difficult to advocate for deadly violence on our shores when one knows what it is like to kick in a door and have no idea whether an enemy combatant or a frightened child is on the other side.

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In Afghanistan, my company was tasked with clearing a village where it was believed a Taliban operator was holed up. After landing in Chinook helicopters in the poppy fields on the outskirts, we began to clear the mud huts that made up the village. I was one of the company radio operators on this deployment, and was sent off with a platoon to clear a far-off section of the settlement. After securing the area and finding a weapons cache, which included everything from Chinese rockets to 19th century Lee–Enfield rifles left by the British, the platoon sergeant told me to head to the rendezvous point by myself. I knew this was a bad idea; you are to never go anywhere by yourself, but he very much outranked me (I was a private first class). I started to walk back the way we came in when he pointed in another direction and yelled at me, “No, dumbass, that way!” I was fairly sure that this was not the way, but, again, he outranked me.

I was correct and, after crossing through a wadi (ravine), I found myself alone in an uncleared portion of the village. I did my best to stay calm and avoid the huts while getting back to my company as quickly as possible. I had little choice but to pass within thirty yards of a hut the size of a small cabin and, as I walked backwards while facing it, somebody popped out from behind it. I immediately raised my rifle, put the red-dot on target, and released the safety. It was a small boy. His mother, in full burka, came out a few seconds later and started screaming at me; though I did not know a word of what she said, I knew she was pleading with me to not shoot her child. I slowly backed away, with my rifle at the ready, and regrouped with my company. I have many times thanked God that I did not reflexively pull the trigger.

This is what revolution in our nation would mean for our children.

Next:

The Case for Christian Nationalism

1. Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2022), 325.

2. Ibid., 325.

3. Ibid., 325 - 326.

4. Ibid., 241.

5. Ibid., 326.

6. Ibid., 326.