Two Years In

Two years ago today, I decided to put my reputation on the line and make the case that Stephen Wolfe had not written a book of Christian political theory, but that he was attempting to launder authoritarian and white-nationalist political theory to a Christian audience. At the time, there were few in the world of conservative Christian media willing to accept my thesis. I regularly received responses ranging from aggressive incredulity to ridicule and derision from many of the gatekeepers of that industry, especially as, while I was live-writing the book on this Substack, I also began documenting how the majority of Wolfe’s compatriots in “Reformed” Christian Nationalism were signaling the same bigotries. Since then, these men have devolved to such a degree that almost nobody but their devotees now bother to defend them.

Michael Spangler is a white-nationalist pastor who had his license to preach revoked by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, due to his antisemitic writings. Last year, I revealed how his close compatriot in the OPC, Shane Anderson, is a member of a church in Doug Wilson’s denomination harboring several white-nationalists, including Stephen Wolfe’s podcast co-host, Thomas Achord. Wilson’s response, after Anderson publicly lobbied him, was to accuse me of slander.

Thomas Achord was revealed to have had a pseudonymous white-nationalist social media account, where he posted antisemitic conspiracy theories and called a congresswoman the n-word.

Even one of the most widely-known personalities in the pop-Reformed world, James White, who was the first big name to headline “Reformed” Christian Nationalist Joel Webbon’s annual conference the year I started this Substack, and who came after me a few months ago after I pointed out how his friend, Doug Wilson, is still profiting off of Wolfe’s book while claiming to stand against white-nationalism, is now acknowledging the obvious, that Webbon and his allies promote neo-Nazis and their worldview. As it stands, Wilson’s Canon Press is still planning a release of a shortened version of Wolfe’s book that he admitted, on Webbon’s podcast, promotes “blood and soil.”

This brief post is not meant to be a victory lap, or to toot my own horn, it’s a plea for consumers of conservative Christian media, particularly of the pop-Reformed variety, to stop taking their moral cues from these men. At the very least, in the most charitable description I can give, they lack the discernment to differentiate the wolves from the sheep, and only chime in when everyone else has already figured it out. They are so obsessed with politically “owning” the Left, that, either implicitly or explicitly, they have “No Enemies to the Right” until it’s far too late.

Take a break from conservative Christian internet personalities—even me, if you find it necessary—and spend more time in Scripture, time-tested resources, and especially with real people who daily need to see Christ in you.