“Rutherford was a practical and pastoral theologian who could soar to great heights of glorious consolation. . . But Rutherford was also a bare-knuckle brawler who was clearly able to hold his own in the theological bar fight that was the seventeenth century. You are now holding in your hands the evidence of that.”
Introduction to Canon Press’ Lex Rex
Douglas Wilson
Pastor Doug Wilson is the Christian nationalist they warned you about. pic.twitter.com/E92V7OMLTS
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 15, 2024
Start @ the 5:13 point;
Doug Wilson — “Our current rulers are very ambitious and they want to aspire to that height (to be God). We don’t want to resist them in the name of Christ because we don’t want to launch another series of interminable religious wars.”
Tucker Carlson — Right
Bret responds;
1.) Will someone please send Pope Doug a copy of Wm. Cavanaugh’s “The Myth of Religious violence?”
2.) We don’t want to resist them in the name of Christ because we don’t want to launch another series of interminable religious wars? So, Doug prefers the current interminable religious war where the God state is attacking us? Honestly, what does it matter if we are fighting an interminable religious war against Jews and Muslims as opposed to fighting an interminable religious war against the humanist cultural Marxist?
I hope I am misunderstanding this because this sounds like Doug is not a Christian Nationalist but rather is a squishy Theistic nationalist where the God of the people can be the god of the Muslims, Jews, and Christians.
DW continues — “OK, because we don’t want the Muslims fighting w/ the Jews fighting w/ the Christians fighting w/, you know, all of that. OK that’s the most reasonable question.
Bret responds,
1.) Notice how Doug here avoids answering the question of what is Christian Nationalism. The answer to “what is Christian nationalism” is NOT what Doug says because what Doug says could be embraced by Jews, Mormons, Muslims, and Christians alike. They all believe they are serving the “true God, the living God, the God who exists.” No, the answer to the question “What is Christian Nationalism” is, “The Christian Nationalist is one who insists that Jesus Christ alone is the King of all the nations and those who conspire against His Lordship, whether they be the cultural Marxist State, or the Mormon, or the Jew, or the Muslim must all bow to Jesus Christ in this nation lest the Son become angry and they perish in the way.”
Now, I’m willing to admit that I may be misunderstanding the Protestant Pope but if I am somebody is going to have to show me how I am.
In the last minute of the clip Doug gets it partially right erring when he notes that the Preachers we need aren’t going to change this nation by preaching law. This only half right and so totally wrong.
It is half right because it is true that grace must be preached but grace never makes any sense without the prior preaching of God’s law. So, by all means Christian preachers must preach grace, but only after law has done its proper work of conviction. As preaching to those who hate Christ the first use of the law is thundered so that grace may be seen to be as gracious as it is. The preaching of the law is the hot needle that pulls through the scarlet thread of grace. If law is not preached there will be no desire for grace.
Secondly Wilson is half right on this score when he suggests that the nation can only be changed from the bottom up and that a top down concurrence isn’t part of the equation here. This idea that Reformation only comes from the bottom up is a Baptist idea that suggest renewal is purely individual and voluntaristic. Certainly, a bottom up approach is needed as Wilson suggests when he talks about preachers preaching a hot gospel, however, pursuing a Christian nation is both bottom up and top down at the same time. This has been seen throughout history. Whether it is Alfred the Great pressing on his people the book of doom or whether it was Luther’s Elector Fredrick making way for the Reformation in the area he ruled or whether it was Lord Protector Cromwell pressing on the English a particular expression of Christianity. It was seen in the Missionary efforts where early Missionaries would commonly go to the Chieftain or the Medicine man to convert him knowing if he were converted the whole nation would be forced to convert as well. When Wilson suggests that renewal is purely individual and voluntaristic his original Baptist impulses show themselves. Those who are not Baptist will not be impressed.
Finally, Wilson is not a Christian Nationalist because he clearly holds to the view of propositional nationhood. One cannot be a Christian Nationalist in the classical sense unless one understands that a nation is comprised both of a shared belief system along with a overwhelmingly shared genetic inheritance. Certainly, a nation does not have to aim at perfect genetic homogeneity but a overwhelming majority if required if homogeneity and true nationhood is to be achieved. You know, like what we had here in the States until 1980 or so.
Would that Wilson was more like Samuel Rutherford than like Doug Wilson.
Did you listen to the whole interview on Spotify or Apple podcasts before you formed your article or did you just watch the 8 minute trailer? Because if you listen to the whole interview you’ll hear that Doug is crystal clear that the God he refers to is the God of the Bible. He pushed the Gospel unapologetically. He says repeatedly “Christ is Lord.”
He also called the issue of massive unchecked immigration as incompatible with the cohesion a homogenous people group with shared values produces. He stated that out of the three kinds of worldviews, tribalism, nationalism, and globalism, nationalism is the most logical.
Hello Rachel J.
Rachel J. wrote,
Did you listen to the whole interview on Spotify or Apple podcasts before you formed your article or did you just watch the 8 minute trailer? Because if you listen to the whole interview you’ll hear that Doug is crystal clear that the God he refers to is the God of the Bible. He pushed the Gospel unapologetically. He says repeatedly “Christ is Lord.”
He also called the issue of massive unchecked immigration as incompatible with the cohesion a homogenous people group with shared values produces. He stated that out of the three kinds of worldviews, tribalism, nationalism, and globalism, nationalism is the most logical.
Bret responds,
1.) I viewed that which several people sent me. Not being a follower of either Doug Wilson or Tucker Carlson I only see what people point out. If the rest of the interview is behind a pay wall you can be sure I’ll never see the whole interview unless someone else is paying for it.
2.) I trust the whole interview is as clear as you say Rachel. I have my doubts given the way Doug uses (misuses) language.
3.) Your last paragraph doesn’t change the fact that Doug has explicitly warred against ethnic-nationalists. Doug is, at best, an economic nationalist which is, at its core, the theory of propositional nationhood. For Pete’s sake, the man has even said that “race does not exist.” Now how can one be a Nationalist if they do not believe race exists?
Careful of Wilson Rachel…he often speaks w/ a forked tongue. He often loses track of his his multilayered circumlocutions.
https://sashastone.substack.com/p/tucker-talks-to-doug-wilson
If the link above works, it will take you to a direct link to the full interview on Spotify. I understand you were reacting to the short trailer video but I would be curious to know if any of your critiques change after hearing the entire thing.
I personally completely agree with you on the ethnic nationalism issue. But it’s a moot point because of the way America is already compromised of so many different kinds of ethnic groups. Short of kicking people out, there’s no way you’re going to narrow the gene pool. Not only that, but the very idea of narrowing the gene pool as a proposition to achieve national unity is absurd because sinful nature still exists in every ethnicity. That’s why I am not opposed to the nationalism Wilson defined, when contrasted with the parallel options of tribalism or globalism.
I understand that there are people who only follow Wilson because of his snark and sarcastic language. He’s an “edgy” Christian who draws people who are tired of the weak ecclesiastical response to sensitive cultural issues. But as of yet, I have not found any of his videos on his blog to be contrary to the Gospel. Rather, they’re some of the most intentionally laid out guides to application for Christian living that come across.
Hello Rachel
You’ll not be surprised to find me disagreeing again.
1.) I’ll try to view the whole interview.
2.) Not a moot point. Look up Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback.”
3.) Narrowing gene pool not absurd. Have you ever heard of Rudyard Kipling?
The Stranger within my gate,
He may be true or kind,
But he does not talk my talk–
I cannot feel his mind.
I see the face and the eyes and the mouth,
But not the soul behind.
The men of my own stock,
They may do ill or well,
But they tell the lies I am wanted to,
They are used to the lies I tell;
And we do not need interpreters
When we go to buy or sell.
The Stranger within my gates,
He may be evil or good,
But I cannot tell what powers control–
What reasons sway his mood;
Nor when the Gods of his far-off land
Shall repossess his blood.
The men of my own stock,
Bitter bad they may be,
But, at least, they hear the things I hear,
And see the things I see;
And whatever I think of them and their likes
They think of the likes of me.
This was my father’s belief
And this is also mine:
Let the corn be all one sheaf–
And the grapes be all one vine,
Ere our children’s teeth are set on edge
By bitter bread and wine.
4.) Wilson’s propositional nationalism is NOT nationalism. Wilson is NOT a Nationalist. He is for Empire. Now it may be a domestic Empire but it is still Empire. If you read the book “Bowling Alone,” you might understand the problem better.
5.) I don’t find Wilson edgy anymore. There was a time I used to but now the man is just off the Biblical Christian reservation with his propositional nationhood, love for lab grown meat. dalliance with Federal Vision, and warfare against those who are for ethno-nationalism. (OH, and lets not forget his advocacy for a paedo to marry a virtuous young woman as if marriage could fix sexual perversity.)
6.) In terms of Christian living… I will concede that Doug has been helpful with some of those issues, but I prefer sticking with the original (Rushdoony) as opposed to going for someone who has said he was trying to be “Rushdoony 0.5.”
Thanks for the conversation Rachel. Tell Doug I said “Hey.”