At Synod Calgary, held June 8–11 by the United Reformed Churches in North America (URCNA),¹ as delegates debated whether or how to adopt a statement that had been adopted by several other sister churches, one pastor rose to say that three families of his congregation were attending a conference in Ogden, Utah, being put on by Christian nationalists. One of the sponsors of the conference is Antelope Hill Publishing, and their display featured Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, The Essential Speeches of Adolf Hitler, and The Rise of the Third Reich; R. Walther Darré’s The Peasantry as the Lifeblood of the Nordic Race; the notorious volume The Turner Diaries; and other titles such as The White Man’s Bible and The Declaration of White Independence.² This conference was reportedly attended by one thousand people or more. Further, in the last few months a member and former deacon in a NAPARC congregation was placed under discipline for impenitently advocating antisemitic, kinist, and even pro-Nazi sentiments.³ There are other indicators of trouble on this front.

At the January 2026 meeting of the Presbytery of the Southwest (OPC) Carl Miller and Phil Lovelady (minister and a ruling elder, respectively, of Heritage OPC in New Braunfels, TX) said on the floor of presbytery that they have kinism in their congregation. At that same meeting Presbytery voted to remove a statement against kinism from an overture to be sent to General Assembly. After that meeting of presbytery, the session of Covenant OPC in Ft. Worth, TX overtured presbytery to condemn the sin of kinism. That overture passed with a strong majority at the May 2026 meeting of presbytery.

Also, on January 23 of this year, the Presbytery of the Alleghenies (RPCNA) “excommunicated Samuel Ketcham for his advocacy of kinism, the belief that insurmountable differences between races exist and justify some type of discrimination.”⁴ Ketcham was convicted of violating the third, fifth, sixth, and ninth commandments of God’s holy law.⁵

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church was also moved by ecclesiastical cases against kinists to produce a report on “Kinism and Race Realism.”⁶

On April 5, 2024, Michael Spangler, whom regular readers of this space might remember from the 2020 controversy surrounding the online forum, Geneva Commons,⁷ was divested of the office of minister by the Presbytery of the Southeast (OPC). With Samuel Ketcham, Spangler has formed the so-called Piedmont Presbytery (apparently consisting of two congregations).⁸ In the wake of the controversy surrounding the Ogden, UT conference, Spangler on June 14, 2026 declared, “We need a Protestant Hitler.” On June 15, he opined, “Sensible segregation in the midst of a race war is not heresy, it is prudence. Decades of free social mingling with non-Whites have brought much more harm than good. It is heartless for a White pastor not to care about this.”

So serious are these threats to the peace and purity of the Reformed churches that, in response to an overture, the Synod of the United Reformed Churches in North America, meeting in Calgary, AB, Canada, June 8–12, 2026, adopted the following statement:

That the 14th Synod of the United Reformed Churches in North America join with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in America, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and condemn without distinction any theological or political teaching which posits a superiority of race or ethnic identity born of immutable human characteristics and call to repentance any who would promote or associate themselves with such teaching, either by commission or omission.⁹

Any pastor or Christian teacher who has been in contact with young white men in the last thirty-six months will tell you that they are very concerned about the effect that books such as Douglas Wilson’s Mere Christendom, Stephen Wolfe’s The Case for Christian Nationalism, and, perhaps more widely, videos by Joel Webbon, Brian Sauvé, Eric Conn, and Andrew Isker are having on young men in their congregations. Wolfe, Sauvé, Conn, and Isker were among those who spoke at the June 11–13, 2026, conference in Ogden.¹⁰

These social media “influencers,” as they are called, are leading young men to think that it is normal to believe and say that Hitler was a hero, that the Holocaust never happened, that Jews secretly run the world, that white people are superior to people of other colors, and other noxious ideas that were, until recently, thought to be have been discredited and discarded.

There have been voices sounding the alarm about the growing popularity of ideas, the history of which is covered in blood. In his review of Wolfe’s book, Samuel Sey quoted a now deleted post by Wolfe in which he wrote, “While intermarriage is not itself wrong (as an individual matter), groups have a collective duty to be separate and marry among themselves. . . .There is a difference between something being sinful absolutely and something being sinful relatively. Interethnic marriage can be sinful relatively and absolutely.”¹¹ As Sey observes, these words are “consistent with” what Wolfe says in The Case for Christian Nationalism:

People of different ethnic groups can exercise respect for difference, conduct some routine business with each other, join in inter-ethnic alliances for mutual good, and exercise common humanity (e.g., the good Samaritan), but they cannot have a life together that goes beyond mutual alliance. . . . What I am saying is that in-group solidarity and right of difference along ethnic lines are necessary for the complete good for each and all.¹²

It is striking to see Wolfe quoting approvingly Samuel Francis (1947–2005), whom Jared Taylor calls “the premier philosopher of white racial consciousness of our time.”¹³

In his review of Wolfe’s book, Kevin DeYoung observed,

The message—that ethnicities shouldn’t mix, that heretics can be killed, that violent revolution is already justified, and that what our nation needs is a charismatic Caesar-like leader to raise our consciousness and galvanize the will of the people—may bear resemblance to certain blood-and-soil nationalisms of the 19th and 20th centuries, but it’s not a nationalism that honors and represents the name of Christ.¹⁴

Equally troubling has been the revelation from Jake Meador on X of close connections between some Christian nationalists and National Socialists (Nazis) and “blood and soil” (Blut und Boden)¹⁵ nationalists. Remarkably, it seems necessary to explain why Christians should not be associating with Nazis.

What is “blood and soil nationalism”? The phrase “blood and soil” has roots in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German history. Yoni Anijar writes, “The phrase first came into popular use in Germany in the late 19th century by German nationalists as a populist slogan meant to emphasize the racial purity of the German people (blood) and their connection to a German homeland (soil).”¹⁶

In 1937 Samuel Rosenberg explained that the “slogan, ‘Blut und Boden,’ fundamental in National Socialism, came to give concrete expression to the idea of Volk.”¹⁷ He explained how the Jews came to be used as a foil by the National Socialists (remember, this was in 1937), which “serves to unify the race by dramatically confronting it with a foe.” Further, blood “as the ultimate refinement of race, became a cornerstone for the theoretical exegesis of Nazi politics, not in any metaphorical sense but literally as blood.” He quotes Otto Koereutter, “The German leader-state is no fascist state, but a German state which rests especially on a folk and hence on a racial basis. It is built on the racial ties of blood and soil.” He quotes Hans Gerber, who wrote, “The Nazi state is not only organic but biological, since it rests on ties of blood.”¹⁸

In 1933, at the Nuremberg convention of the Nazi party, Hitler declared, “A racial comrade . . . is the politically valuable man who is capable of following the inner voice of his blood, and thereby becomes conscious of his race and acts upon this consciousness politically.”¹⁹ According to Rosenberg, at that moment Hitler redefined “blood and soil” subjectively.²⁰ If one identifies with blood and soil nationalism (Nazism), one is a Nazi.

Consider Rosenberg’s account of the aspirations of the Nazi totalitarians:

Authority is based on the inner kinship of the people, and the justification of authority lies in the confidence the people have in the leader. The leader himself is the physical embodiment of the inarticulate will of the people. This will can never be formulated or exercised by the people, whose function is simply to manifest the emotional basis of political power.²¹

The parallels between the language Rosenberg recorded and the rhetoric among some of today’s Christian nationalists are easy to see. This is particularly true on social media (e.g., X), where self-identified Christian nationalists openly use “blood and soil” imagery as Meador has cataloged and as was on display at the recent conference in Ogden.

In his review of Wolfe’s book, Paul D. Miller observes that Wolfe advocates a “measured and theocratic Caesarism.” He is right to warn that Wolfe’s theory has “authoritarian tendencies.” He notes,

Wolfe argues that we have a natural affinity for similar people and that, since God is the author of nature, this natural affinity is good. He believes, therefore, that we should affirm our desire to be with similar people, working to preserve what makes us culturally distinct and using government power as part of that effort. Wolfe’s argument is refreshingly clear, honest, and forthright about the foundations and implications of nationalism.²²

He argues that Wolfe has sacralized “tribalism.” That is to say, he has baptized a natural idea and then he downplays the effect of the fall on nature to get the outcome he wants. As Miller notes, is does not imply ought. Like Rousseau, Wolfe reads our fallen proclivities to tribalism back into the prelapsarian state. He also sees in Wolfe’s Christian nationalism a kind of identity politics, and more than that, he sees “blood and soil nationalism.”

In this regard, Miller points us to this passage in Wolfe’s Case for Christian Nationalism:

Blood relations remain relevant to nations, when referring to one’s ancestral connection to a people and place back to time immemorial. . . . Christian philosopher Johann Herder was correct in saying that the volk is a “family writ large.” This is an apt description because not everyone is a cousin by blood but because one’s kin lived here with the extended families of others for generations, leaving behind a trace of themselves and their cooperation and their great works and sacrifices. Blood relations matter for your ethnicity, because your kin have belonged to people on this land—to this nation in this place—and so they bind you to that people and place, creating a common volksgeist.²³

Most reviewers do not seem to have grasped the significance of Wolfe’s language. His invocation of “blood relations” has a dark history. In 1937 Rosenberg warned about what was coming. “Blood, as an ultimate refinement of race, became a cornerstone for the theoretical exegesis of Nazi politics, not in any metaphorical sense, but literally as blood. Thus Karl Larenz, an academician writes, ‘Blood and spirit are the poles of human existence, for our spiritual heritage is carried down in the blood. . . . Blood and spirit must be one. . . . Since the spirit may wander, blood must check spirit.’”²⁴

Rosenberg’s essay gives us some context for understanding Wolfe’s invocation of blood, Das Volk (the people), and Der Volksgeist (national spirit). For Larenz, as for Schmitt and apparently for Wolfe, these ideas are inextricably intertwined. Blood and soil referred to German racial purity from the late nineteenth century, decades before Hitler’s rise to power. Hence, we understand Miller’s exasperation when he exclaims, “This is literally, blood and soil nationalism.”

Can anything good come out of X? Well, Jake Meador posted his thread almost three years ago, and here we are now, post-Ogden.

On November 8–9, 1923, Adolf Hitler was a pretentious, if bold, bumbler. The so-called Beer Hall Putsch in Munich was a failure. When it came time to fight, Hitler and Hermann Göring fled. Hitler would be arrested on November 11 and imprisoned for not quite a year.²⁵ As we used to know, that was not the end of the story. In prison he dictated Mein Kampf (My Struggle) to Emil Maurice and Rudolf Hess, who was later convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg.

The point is that these things can get out of hand. What seemed like a rag-tag band of terminally online ne’er-do-wells attracted one thousand people to a conference in Utah. Hitler had a vision of the future, and he became, as we say on the Plains, a good talker. In 1920 when he began his political career with the German Workers Party, he was not impressive. “When Hitler himself spoke for the first time in the Hofbräuhaus in October, a hundred and eleven people were present. The result was to confirm the chairman, Karl Harrer, in his belief that Hitler had no talent for public speaking. But Hitler persisted and the numbers rose.”²⁶ He became, as Alan Bullock had it, “the greatest demagogue in history.”²⁷ Hitler developed the ability, as Hitler himself said, “to move masses.”²⁸

This essay will not impress or persuade those who are defending the Ogden conference, its organizers, and its benefactors, but it should awaken pastors and elders, church assemblies, and parents. We are not facing a single demagogue in a beer hall but an army of demagogues on podcasts, Discord, and YouTube. Boys, young men, and even families are apparently frightened enough by the culture to seek comfort and assurance in improbable and even Nazi-sympathizing prophets instead of the gospel of the King of the Jews (Mark 15:26).

Now, as it was in Wilhelmine, Weimar, and Nazi Germany, the problem is not ultimately cultural. It is spiritual. The people are turning to ear-tickling prophets (Jer 23:16) and golden calves (Exod 32; 1 Kings 12:28–30). “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Pet 4:17).

Notes

1. See Christopher Smith, “URCNA Synod Calgary 2026: A Retrospective,” Heidelblog, June 15, 2026.
2. As shown on X.
3. For more on Kinism, see R. Scott Clark, “The CRC Is Right About Kinism (part 1),” Heidelblog, April 3, 2023. On Ethan Holden, e.g., this post.
4. Elizabeth Black, “RPCNA Denomination Excludes Pastor for Racist Statements,” World Magazine (January 26, 2026).
5. Black, “RPCNA Denomination.”
6. Benjamin Glaser, “Your Moderator’s Study Committee On Kinism and Race Realism,” The ARP (July/August, 2025), 14. A portion of that report is still available on the Heidelblog. At the time of publication the full report was no longer readily available online. See also Andrew Webb, “When the ARP Debates—A Report on the Proceedings of the 222^nd ARP Synod,” Heidelblog, June 14, 2026.
7. “An Open Letter From Concerned Ministers and Elders in the OPC,” (June 22, 2020).
8. Leonardo Blair, “Conservative Denomination Excommunicates Pastor for Supporting Kinism, White Supremacy,” The Christian Post, (January 30, 2026).
9. United Reformed Churches in North America, Synod Calgary 2026, Press Release #4, Thursday, June 11, 2026.
10. As I was writing this essay, a friend texted to say that in discussion, someone revealed that antisemitic tropes have been invoked by those in their early twenties and even by those as young as fifteen.
11. Samuel Sey, “Why Some Evangelicals are Embracing Racism,” Slow to Write, August 19, 2023.
12. Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Canon Press, 2022), 148.
13. Wolfe, Case for Christian Nationalism, 39, 80. Jared Taylor, “Personal Recollections of Sam Francis,” The Occidental Quarterly 5, no. 2 (1995): 55. Note that this citation was found via Wikipedia. I was unable to access the website of The Occidental Quarterly.
14. Kevin DeYoung, “The Rise of Right-Wing Wokeism,” review of The Case for Christian Nationalism, by Stephen Wolfe, The Gospel Coalition, November 28, 2022.
15. Jake Meador on X, August 18, 2023.
16. Yoni Anijar, “Why Did the Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville Chant ‘Blood and Soil’?,” History News Network, September 14, 2017. Note that since Anijar published this article, the US Department of Justice has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center for funding and facilitating members of the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations. Fox News reports that “the SPLC was paying roughly $270,000 to a member of the leadership group that planned the Unite the Right protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.” “DOJ Says Southern Poverty Law Center Funneled $3M+ to White Supremacist and Extremist Groups Like the KKK,” April 21, 2026.
17. Samuel Rosenberg, “Three Concepts in Nazi Political Theory,” Science & Society 1, no. 2 (1937): 222.
18. Rosenberg, “Three Concepts,” 222.
19. Rosenberg, “Three Concepts,” 223.
20. This was also a turning point for the Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt, who, Rosenberg said, was emboldened by Hitler’s rhetoric.
21. Rosenberg, “Three Concepts,” 226.
22. Paul D. Miller, “A Tale of Two Books, One Podcast, and the Contest Over Christian Nationalism: Answering Stephen Wolfe’s Arguments for Blood, Soil, and Sedition,” Christianity Today, December 20, 2022.
23. Wolfe, Case for Christian Nationalism, 138–39.
24. Karl Larenz, “Volksgeist und Recht,” Zeitschrift für deutsche Kulturphilosophie 1 (1934–35): 42, as quoted in Rosenberg, “Three Concepts,” 222.
25. Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (Konecky and Konecky, 1962), 100–121.
26. Bullock, Hitler, 65.
27. Bullock, Hitler, 68.
28. Bullock, Hitler, 69.

©R. Scott Clark. All Rights Reserved.

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Post authored by:

• R. Scott Clark

  

  R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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