To begin, we need to cover two key topics: the words, behavior, and associations of Zachary Garris and the teaching record of the Presbyterian Church in America on issues of racial sin. After that, I want to move toward a broader point regarding the stewardship of our institutions, including our denominations.
Rev. Zachary Garris is a teaching elder (TE) in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Rev. Garris pastors at Bryce Avenue Presbyterian Church in White Rock, New Mexico, which is part of the Rio Grande presbytery. (Presbyteries are bodies of regional governance in presbyterian congregations, roughly equivalent to a diocese in churches that use an episcopal polity rather than presbyterian.)
In addition to his work at the church, Rev. Garris is a regular conference speaker, author, and runs a publishing imprint called Reformation Zion. In the past, Garris has authored a book with the independent scholar and ethnonationalist Stephen Wolfe and initially accepted an offer to speak at a conference alongside the anti-semitic white nationalist pastor Joel Webbon, which he later withdrew from after a number of pastors in the PCA strongly encouraged him to do so. The launch video for the event, however, is still visible on YouTube and includes Garris’s photo alongside the other speakers. One of the promotional graphics for the conference, created when Garris was still scheduled to speak and featuring his photo, is used as the feature image of this essay.
In his work as a publisher, Rev. Garris has published Assailing the Gates of Hell, a book by the South African Calvinist author Adi Schlebusch. Schlebusch is a self-described kinist. Schlebusch himself works at the Pactum Institute, a South African think tank that has in the past published a series of essays by defrocked presbyterian pastor Michael Spangler on what Spangler calls “race realism.” Spangler has also posted many times on social media regarding the supremacy of the white race and has said that the Nazi treatment of the Jews was not a failure in Christian love….
…Garris’s own writing also aligns with the general viewpoint of his friends and associates. For example, in 2019 Garris wrote an essay on the southern presbyterian theologian R. L. Dabney, whose own views on race were quite clear. Writing in reply to a critic of his original piece on Dabney, Garris said,
“There are two issues raised in Mr. Whealton’s response. The first is whether biblical hierarchy extends to racial hierarchy. The Bible does not specifically address this. Though the Bible affirms that all humans are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and that Jesus redeems people from every nation (Revelation 5:9), there is nothing in Scripture that teaches that all men are created equal.”
While Garris does not explicitly say here that the white race is superior, he does possibly accept the reality of “racial hierarchy” and then goes on to note that the Bible never explicitly teaches that all men are created equal. The conclusion one would be expected to draw from the above is fairly obvious, I think, even if Garris does not explicitly spell it out.
Additionally, Garris has been published by New Christendom Press, which is operated out of Refuge Church in Ogden, UT, a non-denominational congregation which is pastored by Brian Sauve and by Eric Conn. New Christendom Press has also published the work of the anti-semitic author Andrew Isker. Sauve and Conn have both in the past boosted social media posts made by the white nationalist Ethan Holden, and appeared in a video produced by Holden which spliced footage of Sauve, Conn, and Wolfe into a video alongside a variety of white nationalist and Nazi figures and designs. The video was sufficiently explicit and extreme that even Moscow, ID pastor Douglas Wilson, who has himself in the past defended southern slavery, expressed concern about it.
Finally, Garris contributed a book foreword to a recent volume published by Sacra Press. Sacra Press is notable because it is run by Cody Justice, who cohosts a podcast with the aforementioned Michael Spangler. Sacra Press has also published volumes from Schlebusch and Spangler (an adaptation of his essays on race realism for Schlebusch’s Pactum Institute). Most notably, Sacra Press has published a volume by an early 20th century German Lutheran called Positive Christianity which sought to reconcile Christianity and Nazism. This is a publisher Garris is plainly willing to be associated with. Later this year Garris will be speaking at the New Christendom Press conference alongside Conn, Sauve, and Wolfe. Additionally, Garris has in the past defended chattel slavery on social media.
…In his publishing, writing, speaking, and public associates Garris is deeply intertwined both financially and through professional connections with a network of public and avowed ethnonationalists, white supremacists, and kinist thinkers. These ties go back a number of years. To whatever degree an interrelated network or project of far right Christian kinism exists, Garris is an active associate of this movement. Read more»
Jake Meador | “Organizational Competence Is A Way of loving Neighbor” | Mere Orthodoxy | June 2, 2026
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