10 comments

1. Self identifying Christian Nationalist Russ Vought has been nominated by Trump as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. I don’t understand how Dr. Trueman can dismiss the threat of Christian Natioalism. Also Turning Point USA pulls in $80 million a year and Flynn’s ReAwken America pulls in millions- Both operate out of churches. Then there is the New Apostolic Reformation movement and Lance Wallnau. The so-called prophets have surrounded Trump.

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2. Trueman cites the Roman Catholics for their numerous support organizations. The Jewish not quite as much, but they still have some associated institutions. Meanwhile, within the pale of Protestantism with its numerous splinter groups ever since the 16th Century, with the exception of maybe certain Lutheran or Reformed, most have gone in divergent directions. Some mainliners still maintain a semblance of sorts having bishops, etc. overseeing geographical structures, but by and large, Baptists, congregationalists, and most “evangelicals” have no such thing – and they (especially the Baptists) eschew any attempt at organizing for any reason other than through various para-church organizations. As Trueman says, their focus is mostly on missions, evangelism, and charitable organizations. It would take a tremendous effort on the part of many in this group to bring about any collaboration in bolstering its constituents to face what the future has in store for them.

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3. Yes! Fully agree! 2 points I have are these=
   1)Christian Identity has been steadily growing and far older than CN. Tho CN is obviously rapidly growing!
   2)What bothers me truly the most is that in reading and even dialoguing with CIers (particularly) they quite honestly show me little to no love towards our Lord & Saviour! That’s just not acceptable to me and my house! They’d rather run along w/critiquing Christ for (the usual) “being a non white jew!” Ye just can’t be one of us, for among other reasons, if ye just can’t love Jesus! It’s so obvious.✝️📖🙏♥️

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   • Not only is the so-called Christian Identity movement spreading, but there are young men who are moving beyond Christianity altogether by going back to pre-Christian European paganism

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     • You are 100% correct, Sir! I’ve even dialogued w/a few CIers trying to ‘come let us reason together’ with statements like ‘Look, Christ was ‘infused’ by the Holy Spirit’ in attempts to sway them away from ‘their Jewish blood dilemma’ (years ago). And honestly not one would even reason with this. It’s ‘White Only!’ w/them. Demonically stuck w/this to their own destruction, of course! Sad and deadly conclusions, no doubt. But I tried✝️📖🙏

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4. Love Dr. Trueman. I do think Dr. Trueman is off on this one particular statement: “Yet while there are some true Christian nationalists, they are (as Mark David Hall has shown) very few in number and of little intellectual or cultural significance. They operate mainly via social media, tiny conferences, and fringe publishing houses where self-referentiality and noise can easily be mistaken for numbers and influence. They do not offer a serious path forward for the Protestant churches in future public engagement.”

   While it is true that Christian Nationalism does not offer a serious path forward for Protestants, the CREC movement is growing exponentially in spite of this. It’s not “few” in number any more. Because of the lack of theology in our culture at large, many are prey to CREC because of the politics of the day and because their impression of Wilson and his many splinter groups is that they seem to offer theology that fits their cultural choices (wrongful, of course). There are even CREC churches in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia and other countries. In my area, there are already 4 CREC churches, with 2 more ready to join the bandwagon.

   I wonder if Dr. Trueman is aware just how fast this movement is growing and that Pete Hegsweth is nominated for the head of DO? (He goes to a CREC church and is an avid admirer of Doug Wilson.)

   I’d say that this of big cultural significance. It is also something that needs to be exposed and countered because of the doctrinal concerns which are bewitching many. Thank you for doing that very thing, Dr. Clark.

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   • Kathy,

     You make a good point. Thank you.

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   • Kathy is right. Pete Hegseth (note spelling) is a CREC member. If he becomes the Secretary of Defense, he will define conservative Calvinism for a lot of people in the broader evangelical world.

     Many people don’t know much about being Reformed, but have a stereotype of “warrior children” that Hegseth’s crusader tattoos and fiery Fox commentaries will popularize. Somewhat like Baptists being defined by “fighting fundies,” we Calvinists will be defined in the public sphere by the loudest and most prominent voices claiming the name “Reformed.” That could be Hegseth.

     I’m not necessarily opposed to a CREC member in a major political position. As Dr. Clark knows, I live and work outside Fort Leonard Wood, the home of the US Army Engineer, Military Police and Chemical Schools. Ordinarily I’d be love to see a Secretary of Defense nominee who is both evangelical and Reformed. (Apparently the original second choice for the position was Mike Pompeo, who is a West Point graduate, a former Army captain, and a member of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, though it now looks like the alternatives may be Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former Navy lieutenant commander, or Sen. Joni Ernst, a retired Army lieutenant colonel.)

     The nomination of Hegseth to head the Defense Department was likely made by Trump for some of the same reasons he nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court — both attracted major fire from liberals for taking correct stands on important issues. I have issues with Hegseth on policy matters, but his career has been defined by being anti-woke, and that’s a good thing.

     The problem is while Justice Barrett’s personal life appears beyond reproach and the worst liberals could dig up is that she’s a faithful family-values Catholic who believes things that offend many liberals, Hegseth has had major issues in his personal life. They remind people like me, who have been watching the military for decades, of the Tailhook scandal and the older “boys will be boys” attitude that our military has been trying for decades now to eliminate. Yes, the attempts to eliminate abuse have gone too far and sometimes have turned into “wokeness.” But we don’t want our military to go back to the days when sexual harassment and abuse was swept under the rug.
     We can tell a great deal about people by who their enemies are, but it’s not all we need to know.

     There are conservative Reformed people who stayed silent or backed off their initial support once Hegseth’s personal problems came out. Rev. Tim Bayly, who nobody can accuse of being “soft on feminism” or failing to understand the problems of a “woke military,” has taken a lot of online criticism for publicly withdrawing his initial support for Hegseth’s nomination. A lot of other people who liked Hegseth’s politics share Bayly’s concern about Hegseth’s personal life, including me.

     I don’t think anyone yet knows what will happen to Hegseth’s nomination. His pastor has been assuring conservative Reformed men with political and ecclesiastical influence that Hegseth is sincerely repentant, and that may well be true. These accusations are old, but not that old, and they need to be evaluated. Perhaps this will turn out to be comparable to George Bush’s long-ago DWI that almost cost him the 2000 election, and caused Bush to believe, correctly, that it was a serious warning to him of the need to rely on providence and not his own personal power.

     If Hegseth does become the next Secretary of Defense, we need to recognize the influence that will have on the popular perception of what it means to be Reformed. There’s no getting around that.

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     • Thank you for this comment. I agree and appreciate your insight. As one who was caught up in theonomy and Christian Reconstruction for many years as a fairly new believer, I have empathy for Pete Hegseth and have been praying for him. It appears to me he is a new convert and not ready for such a leading position in government. Praise God for redeeming new souls – now let’s pray he joins a sound reformed church. 🙂

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       • Agreed! Thank you much, Darrell and Angela! I find Darrell’s inputs fantastic always! Kudos✝️📖🙏👍

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