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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“To whatever degree an interrelated network or project of far right Christian kinism exists, Garris is an active associate of this movement.”
So is Meador accusing Garris of being an kinist? If so, that’s a serious charge. Meeador’s article raises some legitimate red flags that warrant further investigation, not the conclusion implied in the statement quoted above.
Adam,
You’re drawing an inference. Meador demonstrated what he claimed. If a fellow is publishing the sorts of things that Garris is publishing, it’s not unreasonable to wonder whether or to what degree he supports the ideology that he is publishing.
Anthony Bradley’s comments towards Megan Bashan and others should get him charged, convicted, and booted. But the woke only wake one way.
Chris,
Can you document these? I’ve been following Megan for sometime and she gives as good as she gets.
Dr. Clark, you may want to keep looking into this.
You know my stance on ethnic bigotry in the church, and separation of churches into different ethnic groups. I don’t dispute that there may well be problems with the PCA pastor involved.
It appears — based on what it public so far — that the presbytery couldn’t substantiate the accusations that the pastor was kinist (or perhaps more accurately, kinist-adjacent), but convicted him of the “unwholesome speech” allegations. This is what might be called in secular courts a “lesser included offense” — the prosecutor didn’t successfully make his main case, but the jury said, “Yeah, there’s a problem, so let’s convict of a lesser charge.”
That sort of thing ends up getting appealed, often successfully, if the appellate court finds that the jury was really saying “We think he did what Charge A said, but the evidence wasn’t enough, so throw the book at him with Charge B,” but the jury actually didn’t have evidence to back up Charge B, either.
Nothing I’ve seen so far in the accusations against TE Garris comes anywhere close to “unwholesome speech.” The tone he used is normal criticism that Megan Basham and others do all the time, and that you and I both do. Also, based on published comments, it appears that the person TE Garris was criticizing didn’t actually think the language used was bad enough to justify the indefinite suspension.
Now it’s always possible more facts will come out. I may change my views if the facts warrant. This is what I see so far.
I’m going through John Calvin’s commentary right now on I John. If TE Garris’ comments are “unwholesome speech,” surely Calvin should have been convicted based on far stronger language about his opponents.
It is not that they couldn’t, it is that they wouldn’t.
My understanding is that this man is being advised by experienced legal counsel and will be appealing. The consensus right now in conservative circles, including from people who strongly oppose “kinism,” is that the presbytery made procedural errors which are so serious that the PCA’s Standing Judicial Commission is all but certain to overturn the presbytery conviction for using “unwholesome speech.”
A lot is still unclear, but once the presbytery and its stated clerk complete the formal case record and the man files his formal appeal, we’ll know more.
If this man is actually teaching some form of “kinism,” “race realism,” or something of that sort, but wins his appeal, I hope the PCA’s Standing Judicial Commission finds some way to say that while they sustained his procedural grounds, that doesn’t mean the man’s views are okay, only that the presbytery didn’t do things the right way.
Again, time will tell. My opinions on this could easily change if the facts known to the public change.
Darrell,
I’m not disputing claims about procedural errors made by presbytery. My claim is that they refused to address the more substantive issues.
Fair point, Dr. Clark, on this: “I’m not disputing claims about procedural errors made by presbytery. My claim is that they refused to address the more substantive issues.”
My concern in this case is the principle that “great cases make bad law,” and the “law of unintended consequences,” as well as the consequences, if what I am being told is true, of the accused pastor having retained lawyers to assist in his defense while the presbytery was not being advised by legal counsel in its prosecution of this case.
When one side has good lawyers and the other side does not, bad things can and often do happen.
I have been clear for decades that I believe requiring race-based separation in the church is unbiblical and evil. Salvation is by grace, not by race, and we forget that at our peril.
If TE Garris is advocating some version of South African apartheid, or some version of Jim Crow from the American South, he would not be the first in the Reformed world to do so. He would also be wrong, and seriously so, and should be called to account.
What we don’t want to see is what even some of his opponents consider to be rather mild language critical of his opponents getting viewed as “unwholesome speech” worthy of formal church discipline and indefinite suspension from office.
Dealing with bigots in the church is necessary. I have repeatedly complimented the ARP and RPCNA for being conservative denominations willing to “take out the trash” by dealing with such people.
What I’m seeing in the specifics of this case is different.
Creating a precedent that “mean tweets” are worthy of church discipline opens the door to church courts acting, not on the objective facts of whether someone has said or done something that is right or wrong, but rather the subjective question of whether a comment hurts someone’s feelings. In this case, even the target of the comment apparently wasn’t bothered by the “unwholesomeness” of the comment.
As I’ve said before, if more facts become available than are currently publicly known, my opinion may change.
Right now, it looks as if the PCA’s Standing Judicial Commission is going to have to deal with a messed-up case in which no matter what the SJC decides, it may well lead to the denomination getting a black eye. Perhaps the best solution would be for the SJC to send the whole thing back to the presbytery for retrial, with specific directions on proper procedure. But I need to leave that to experts on PCA polity.
One of the problems here is that one of those recognized experts in PCA polity, the founding stated clerk of the PCA, wrote things which were far worse than TE Garris. He, like Machen, has gone on to his eternal reward and there is good reason to be confident both men are sharing fellowship with lots of men in eternity whose skin color and culture they didn’t like in this life.
The PCA really **DOES** have a problem in its history with which it needs to deal. The RPCNA is one of the very few conservative Reformed denominations in North America, perhaps the only one still existing today, that has clean hands on this issue of race.
I hope the PCA does the right thing, dealing honestly with its past without succumbing to the temptation of “going woke.”
There are alot statements in this article that appears to be hearsay. Zachary called out a professor from a standpoint that he was defending. There wasnt any unwholesome speech in his statements toward Dr. Anthony Bradley in my opinion. I read this article and could not help to think that there were sensational content. It may have been written better to judge both sides and let the readers decide. Those are my obsevations.
Jason,
There is a growing problem of young men becoming enthralled with really bad ideas, e.g., anti-semitism, racism, ethnonationalism, even Nazism and they are doing so because they are angry and alienated and have, ironically, begun mirroring the leftists whom they hate. They are adopting the same sorts of victim identity and racialist identitarian politics they profess to reject.
It’s important for sane, orthodox, confessional Reformed people to know who the leaders of these movements are and the affect they are having upon young men (and even pastors) in our churches.
As I wrote in What’s Wrong With Boys?, we (myself included) need to recover the wisdom and truth of Paul’s warning that “bad company corrupts good morals.”
I appreciate Jake doing the work to track the web of relationships and also his honest analysis of the failure of the presbytery to address the real issue.
The NAPARC churches need to get a handle on these sorts of ideologies and movements within our ranks or there were will be more tragic outcomes.
Thank you for sharing this article by Jake Meador. I’ve been getting quite a few articles by various authors with different viewpoints in my inbox and refrained from posting anything regarding Pastor Zachary Garris and the PCA. This quote and the article it’s found in answer many questions for me. Years ago, I cautioned a young pastor about sharing too much on social media as I think it has harmed ministers who get caught up in online controversies. But this article points toward a pattern that is concerning regarding Pastor Garris. I pray young pastors will take note and be careful with what and who they promote. Frankly, I just want to hear Christ preached from them and for them to skip the latest online controversy. 🙂
Thank you Angela. Amen.