The Case for Christian Nationalism

5. The Good of Cultural Christianity | VI. Final Considerations (Part 2)

Previously:

The Case for Christian Nationalism

Wolfe next moves to negate criticism of his aggressive methodology, writing, “One often hears that cultural Christianity harms ‘Christian moral witness.’ Rarely, if ever, is moral witness defined or theologically grounded, but is often used to denounce the pursuit of worldly power (both social power and civil power).”¹ In the last section I shared some specific instances, in my life, where a Christian’s surety in his majority status and/or institutional power led him to harm his “moral witness”. His claim that such a thing is rarely defined is simply not true; agnostic and atheist Westerners often regale tales of Christians being “jerks for Jesus” when there are no people matching that description in the room. I do not know how he is in person, but Wolfe is one among a growing list of conservative Christian personalities whose social media accounts exhibit a near-perpetual state of antagonism towards those who disagree with them on seemingly any subject, including other Christians.

Secondly, it is entirely false that arguments for our “moral witness” are rarely theologically grounded, so much so that I am frankly shocked he made such a statement. That he admitted in the introduction that he has “no training in moving from scriptural interpretation to theological articulation,”² yet would now presume to tell the reader what is and is not “theologically grounded”, is immensely hubristic. It is no coincidence that I will later refer to some of the following verses to argue against blasphemy law.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:5-6)

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:12)

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. (1 Peter 2:15)

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. (2 Timothy 2:24-26)

The remainder of this subsection is dedicated to using non-Christians’ desire for worldly power as justification for Christians to seek the same, once again showing how little Wolfe’s theory is concerned with the commandments of Christ. The primary aim of the Christian witness is to be wholly different in thought and deed than the world, most especially in the realm of power-seeking.

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

When he writes, “Why shouldn’t Christian witness include a confident socio-cultural assertion of its truth?”³, he is holding back the true extent of his proposed socio-cultural action; in chapters 8 and 9, he will argue that we should do far more than just verbally defend our position. He, yet again, paints his opposition with a broad, unfair brush, and bolsters his all-or-nothing proposition, by claiming that they “celebrate our people and place being overrun with moral chaos”.⁴ There are certainly some Christians, like New York Times columnist David French, who allow their libertarian absolutism to override Second Table morality, and go as far as to defend the legislative protection of egregious sin as “civil liberties”.⁵ But, there are also many conservative Christians who wish to legislate Second Table morality while not compromising their witness, or the principles of republicanism. I am not referring to what has been described as “winsome third-wayism”, an acquiescence to sinful cultural norms in the hope that it will open a door for later witness, nor am I advocating that we allow the state to force their worldview on our families. We should always boldly affirm scriptural truth and refuse to participate in sinful commands from governmental authorities, but we should also always be kind and peaceful when doing so. Wolfe may not like that, but he cannot deny it is the example set forth by Christ and the Apostles, who, Scripture and church tradition tell us, went to their deaths peacefully defending God’s absolute truth.

This section is ended with a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with, that national flags and patriotic song-singing should not be part of worship⁶; my church does this every July 4th service, and it makes me uncomfortable, especially as someone who was sent to fight a war, and killed people, over a lie of weapons of mass destruction. The sabbath should be the day that Christians focus on their allegiance to the nation to come and, while we can show gratitude and intercede for our earthly nation and its leaders through prayer, we should not incorporate patriotism into our liturgy. That being said, there is irony in how Wolfe then writes, “Nor must Christian politics be some extension of formal Christian ministry, organized by the instituted church.” He somehow believes that giving civil authorities the power to enforce orthodoxy of doctrine and placing the nation under the monarchy of a “Christian prince”, who “mediates divine rule… by a sort of divine presence” and “suppress[es] the enemies of God”⁷, is not letting the eternal kingdom bleed into the temporal.

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The Case for Christian Nationalism

1. Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2022), 238.

2. Ibid., 16.

3. Ibid., 239.

4. Ibid., 239.

5. David French, “Opinion | Don’t Let the Culture War Degrade the Constitution,” The New York Times, March 12, 2023, sec. Opinion, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/12/opinion/newsom-desantis-walgreens-constitution.html.

6. Stephen Wolfe, 239-240.

7. Ibid., 290, 323.