Further Reformed Fragmentation

https://julieroys.com/calvinist-activist-warns-white-nationalism-invading-reformed-churches/

I was encouraged to discover there are some who are concerned over what is happening within the Church – and in this case the Reformed sphere. And it's not just White Nationalism but a growing militancy that should be sending up red flags. Gun culture is incompatible with New Testament Christianity but what's been developing in recent years is far beyond the pale.

Strachan is confused I'm afraid. He has attempted to set himself up as the modern Machen manufacturing a dichotomy between Christianity and what he calls 'wokeism' – much of which can be dismissed out of hand.

The issues Machen tackled a century ago were real – much of this 'woke' business is contrived and dependent on flawed assumptions that drive the framing of the issue. There are cultural trends that are problematic and dishonest – but the Right is hardly able to point the finger in this regard. In fact some of the Right's responses are (from a Christian standpoint) even more dishonest, revisionist, and problematic.

Thus, I don't believe Strachan is able to handle this problem but it's a good thing that he's bringing it up. Let's hope his views are evolving and developing a bit more in the way of nuance. Maybe others will take heart from his words and expand the long overdue critique.

As far as Wilson, what can we say? He comes across as slippery, but that's always been the case especially when it comes to questions like this. Whether the issue is slavery or armed uprising, he turns to a series of complicated dance steps, equivocation, and in some cases (I would argue) outright deception. The question of Kinism comes up in Crawford Gribben's recent work on Christian Reconstruction. And Wilson's record on this point comes across in the same way as it did in the book. He says one thing but does another.

One of the problems related to this issue is that of self-deception. There are those promoting racial ideology (and theology) but deny it. The number of those openly and honestly advocating for it are few – but I don't doubt the number is growing.

Ironically – and this is almost never talked about – there is a precedent for the ethnocentric or mono-ethnic ideology within the Reformed tradition. Leaving aside the already shameful American and British records which if invoked Strachan might refer to as 'woke' – we must turn to South Africa and its Dutch Calvinist heritage. Since (in that tradition) Christianity must be cultural and since it was identified with a civilisation, the Afrikaners could reason that their culture was superior. And since they are a minority it is incumbent upon them to preserve it from outside negative influence – lest they be affected. The end result was apartheid.

Apart from the late FN Lee and a few others, the Calvinist angle to this was ignored in the Anglo-American sphere. And in the case of Lee, his attention was far from critical.

It's still puzzling in some respects that 'Christian Nationalism' has become an issue. It's nothing new and has been alive and well for nigh on two centuries – with the rise of a conscious nationalism in Europe. It became more pronounced with colonialism and especially the geopolitical shift that emerged with post-German unification in the 1870's.

But there were forms of nationalism extant long before the late nineteenth century and such sympathies drove the formation of the British Empire and it's hardly surprising that similar ideas took hold in the early American republic as well.

By erecting the 'woke' straw-man, some of these people and groups have now tied their own hands. If they try to address (by means of revision) anything along those lines they will fall under criticism – as Strachan has found out. They have unleashed an ugly Right-wing beast and fed it. And now when they find it getting out of control, they're also finding out that it's bigger than them, a beyond their capability to curtail. There a real irony here – but how tragic and destructive.