The State of "Reformed" Christian Nationalism

Last September, a Christian Nationalist provocateur, Samuel Holden, posted a “White Boy Summer” video on his X account. In the video, interspersed between quick cuts of prominent “Reformed” Christian Nationalists, such as Stephen Wolfe, Eric Conn and Joel Webbon, were multiple Nazi references, including the founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, and two Leni Riefenstahl propaganda films, Triumph of the Will and Olympia. It was not the first time that Holden had spliced Nazi propaganda into his videos, but what made this instance different was that nearly every Christian Nationalist given a cameo promoted the video, in one form or another. This garnered such negative backlash that even many public allies of these men officially distanced themselves, drawing up manifestos denouncing the white nationalism in their ranks that, until recently, they denied existed. In response, Conn and his camp asked for “No more brother wars,” which, ridiculously, is itself a longstanding neo-Nazi slogan. It was a false plea, anyway, as the Wolfe/Conn/Webbon camp had no intention of any compromise—they continue to support Holden, who hasn’t taken his foot off of the gas.

The result of all of this has been the rapid, though long overdue, ostracizing of Wolfe/Conn/Webbon Christian Nationalism from anything remotely resembling respectable Christian media. This is the atmosphere in which the update on the investigation into Zachary Garris by his PCA presbytery came today. Garris is published by Conn’s New Christendom Press.

If this majority report is adopted next week, Garris will likely have his credentials revoked, in the same way that the OPC divested white-nationalist pastor Michael Spangler (who was featured in the Holden video). Not surprisingly, Spangler took to his X account to defend Garris, as did Wolfe and Webbon. The common line from Garris’ defenders is that the minutes were leaked, even though Eli McGowan confirmed that they were public.

Very few of the men in “Reformed” Christian Nationalism are under the authority of a denomination or even a local association, and it would seem that every denomination with pastors in this camp is taking the proper action to root out its influence, save for my own “denomination” of the Southern Baptist Convention. SBC pastor Dusty Deevers is still speaking at Webbon’s convention this year, which has become the premier event of this movement. Garris was also slated to speak, but withdrew last year, presumably as the PCA investigation began.

While the SBC operates under congregationalist polity, in which the ordination of pastors is determined by their individual congregations, this does not absolve SBC leadership of their complete lack of public pressure on Deevers and other SBC members still openly allied with this group, such as pastor Jeff Wright and Albert Mohler’s former intern, William Wolfe. The plain fact is that the SBC is now the only major Christian body in the United States where a pastor can publicly ally himself with people who share and defend Nazi propaganda, and fear no ecclesial backlash. We are the only link to legitimacy these men have left.

Shame on us.