From The Mailbag … How Has Jacobinism Infected The Reformed World?

What is Jacobin Reformed theology and what are Jacobin Reformed clergy?

Billy F

Hello Billy

Thanks for writing. First, we should note that most clergy today in the Reformed world are Jacobin. There are, of course, greater and lesser degrees of this Jacobinism to be found in our Reformed clergy but the tendency is ubiquitous. More about that after a definition;

A.) A Jacobin Reformed clergy embraces (often, quite w/o knowing it) the principles of Jacobinism. Jacobinism was a radical political group during the French Revolution known for advocating egalitarian democracy and engaging in extreme measures. During the French Revolution those extreme measures included the Reign of Terror, but in our context today extreme measures for Jacobin Reformed clergy means hunting down via inquisition type means men who do not agree with their Jacobin egalitarianism often with the purpose of defrocking and/or destroying by means of cancel culture clergy and/or members that are NOT Jacobin. Most frequently this happens by means of violation of the 9th commandment because very few men are guilty of what the 6th commandment violations they are being charged.

The term today has come to represent left-wing radicalism in the pulpit and ruling centers of what is unfortunately thought of as “Conservative” “Reformed” denomination. This kind of revolutionary politics is evidenced in the Church in its embrace of Alienism, egalitarianism, the Post-War (actually Enlightenment) consensus and the conviction that Democracy is God’s plan for social order arrangement.

We see it with the denial in denominations like the PCA, RPCNA, CRC, ARP, and CREC of the reality of race. More than a few clergy from these denominations have said things like, “there is no such thing as race,” or, “race is only about melanin levels,” or, “race is a social construct.” To hold to such views is a window into egalitarian convictions, and so represents Jacobin convictions. Another piece of evidence of how the majority expression of Reformed clergy are adopting Jacobin egalitarian convictions is the rise of female leadership in the Reformed Church. Michael Foster has recently exposed all the other Jacobin congregations in the PCA with his outing of congregations in the PCA that are operating with Defacto female elders. The irony is pretty thick here as Foster himself is likewise Jacobin given his expressed hatred of the anti-Jacobin belief system of Kinism. Foster’s exposure of Jacobin PCA congregations while being Jacobin himself demonstrates that there are different degrees of Jacobinism existing in the Reformed denominations.

Doug Wilson of the CREC is another high profile example of Jacobinism in denominations that are thought of as “Conservative,” and “Reformed.” Wilson has denied the reality of race while still embracing the reality of “ethnicity,” despite the fact that one can’t get to ethnicity without first traveling through race as ethnicity is a subset of race. Insisting that ethnicities exist but races don’t is like saying that Terriers and Retrievers exist but differing dog breeds don’t.

But Michael Foster and Doug Wilson should be understood to be the less excessive norms of today’s Jacobinism. There are many other clergy who are even more extreme in their Jacobinism today. Clergy like Ben Glaser, Rich Lusk, Andy Webb, Andrew Sandlin, Peter Leithart, Al Mohler, Uri Brito, Jeff Durbin, James White, etc. are all further examples of clergy who have been infected with one degree or another of Jacobinism.

The answer to this of course is a return to Biblical Christianity with all the implications of the doctrine of the Trinity (the One & the Many) for this discussion.

Please pray for the Reformed Church in America that God might either grant it reformation and renewal or failing that God might close its doors and raise up new ecclesiastical organizations which will not fall into the trap of Jacobinism.