Conversations that Matter, White Evangelicals, and Ethnic Distinctions

21 April 2023

By Dr. Adi Schlebusch

In a new video from Conversations that Matter on why modern evangelicals reject the label 'white evangelical' Jon Harris rightly points out how foolish it is to deny the significance of very real genetic and cultural differences between people groups. He notes that evangelicals “seek opportunities for social approval by signaling to others our rejection of racial, ethnic categories,” which he rightly attributes to a sinful desire to seek the favor of men and not of God (Galatians 1:10). He adds that we ought not to reject "God’s providential ordering in the temporal world as represented in natural relations.” Harris appeals to Jeremiah 13:23, where the prophet links racial characteristics like skin color to ethnicity for affirming such racial characteristics as a “factor conferring identity.” Harris also employs Deuteronomy 32:8 where it is stated that God set the boundaries of the nations in defense of his proposition that differences between people groups is part of God’s providential order. 

Now, ten years ago no recognized public figure in the Reformed world would dare openly say such things, since the handful who did were simply condemned as “heretical kinists” and “racists.” This makes Harris’ video quite significant. It is immensely encouraging that a Calvinist podcaster whose Youtube channel has 37 000 subscribers, that is, more than the entire membership of the OPC for example, now has the courage to boldly and openly share such politically-incorrect truths. For the first time in decades, a group of young thinkers in the Reformed world are emerging that unashamedly reject the Gnostic heresy of denying God-given biological realities and distinctions as a humanistic attempt at establishing man’s own sovereignty over God's creation. More and more Christians are finally starting to realize that this denial of God-given distinctions effectuates apostasy, chaos, and eventually complete meaninglessness. As Rushdoony so aptly described it decades ago: “Meaning begins with differentiation; we say that one is not fourteen, and nothing is not everything. The equality of all things is the meaningless of all things.”^[1] 

I believe there are a number of factors that has contributed to this historically significant shift we are currently witnessing. The Left has certainly been overplaying their hand for at least a decade now, and more and more people are seeing their diabolical attempt to place every distinction on earth under the ban of uniformity for what it truly is.  Stephen Wolfe who published The Case for Christian Nationalism last year deserves a lot of credit in this regard, and I am convinced that work we have been doing here at the Pactum Institute over the past 24 months has had a significant impact as well. 

The tide is starting to turn. And I praise God for this. Soli Deo Gloria.

[1] Rousas John Rushdoony, To Be as God: A Study of Modern Thought since the Marquis de Sade (Vallecito, CA: Ross House, 2003, 59-60.