Ecclesiastical Inquisitors, Ethnic Complementarianism, and World War II
22 January 2025
By Dr Adi Schlebusch
Michael Hunter recently published his answers to inquiries from the Minister and his Works Committee of Grace Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Because Michael is affiliated with the Pactum Institute, a number of questions pertained to our work and publications.
Michael did an excellent job in his responses and I commend him for that. He also acted wisely in not answering on behalf of myself nor the Institute. In his answers, Michael notes that “fellows of the [Pactum] Institute are not required to adhere to all the language of the institute’s founder as he describes the institute’s mission,” and he is absolutely correct. I’ve admittedly burned my fingers with this policy in the past, but as a rule I provide a platform for fellows to publish anything that does not contradict the principles that Pactum stands for, even if they do not agree with me on everything the Institute promotes. For example, we have fellows who oppose the philosophy of Clarkian Scripturalism, but they are welcome to affiliate and write for us as long as they don’t expressly oppose this philosophy in their writings. Likewise we have fellows whose views on theonomy and/or Christocracy differ from my own, but this in and of itself is not a barrier to being a fellow with Pactum.
In light of the questions posed to Michael Hunter and which pertain to the views of the Institute and myself, I want to clarify my positions on the following matters:
1. Christian Familialism and Ethnic Complementarianism
Familialism is synonymous with kinism, which entails the belief that the divinely ordained social order is familial, tribal and ethnic as opposed to being propositional or imperial. The principle of kinism is succinctly articulated by the Counter-Enlightenment German Lutheran philosopher-theologian Johan Gottfried Herder (1744—1803) as follows:
The most natural state is, therefore, one nation, an extended family, with one national character. This it retains for ages and develops most naturally if the leaders come from the people … Nothing, therefore, is more manifestly contrary to the purposes of political government than the unnatural enlargement of states, and the wild mixing of various races and nationalities under one scepter.1
Likewise the Calvinist political philosopher Johannes Althusius (1563—1638) notes that
This is the order and progression of nature, that the conjugal relationship, or the domestic association of man and wife, is called the beginning and foundation of human society. From it are then produced the associations of various blood relations and in-laws ... It is necessary, therefore, that the doctrine of the symbiotic life of families, kinship associations, collegia, cities, and provinces precede the doctrine of the realm or universal symbiotic association that arises from the former and is composed of them.2
In historic Protestant political theory nations were viewed as extended families with a common ancestry. This accords with the biblical paradigm. The importance of ancestry in maintaining national distinctions is highlighted in the biblical promotion of intraracial marriage in Genesis 24:3—4 and Genesis 28:1—3. This view, however, was rejected by the church in the late twentieth century and as such the movement which became known as Kinism arose early in the twenty-first century as a reaction to this rejection of historic orthodoxy. Defending that historic orthodoxy is part of the reason why the Pactum Institute was established in 2021.
Ethnic complementarianism means that we are to cherish God-given ethnic distinctions as good because it is rooted in his sovereign will for mankind. We believe that nations and their distinctive characteristics ought to be preserved and cultivated to the glory of God rather than attacked and ignored. This is also one of the main reasons why borders between nations exist, for the combination of diversity and proximity creates fertile soil for social strife and instability.
2. World War II
One of the questions claim that I describe the event commonly known as the “holocaust” as “the Nazi’s battle with the Jews during World War Two” and that I question the post World War II consensus regarding the event.
I indeed question mainstream historical narrative based on the historical data, which all points to the fact that the numbers presented with regard to the amount of Jews killed during the war is highly exaggerated. More importantly, however, is the fact that I didn’t describe the genocide of Jews as such as “the Nazi’s battle with the Jews.” I was referring to the Nazi’s battle with the Jews in Germany in general, which had a long prelude of nearly two decades prior to the war. Moreover, the battle against their subversive influence in Germany was not limited to the Nazis by any stretch of the imagination. Many Germans who opposed Hitler and the Nazis were also very much opposed to the Jewish role in destroying the German economy and in terms of subverting public morals. This includes a German friend of our family who fled to South Africa and lived with my grandparents during the war because he refused to fight with and be associated with the Nazis, yet still maintained that Hitler was right about the Jews and their undeniable role in promoting communism in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s. This also includes many of my own Boer people, including my own grandfather himself, who wasn't pro-Nazi yet was forcibly disarmed by the South African government during the war because of his refusal to take the side of the allied forces. This includes the great Boer Calvinist philosopher H.G. Stoker (1899—1993), who, despite being professor of philosophy at Pochefstroom University, was arrested and interned at Koffiefontein because in his publications he rejected the Liberalism of the Allied forces just as vehemently as the National Socialism of their opponents.
These are my views on the matters inquired about by Michael Hunter’s inquisitors and which pertains to the Pactum Institute in general and myself as Director of the Pactum Institute in particular.
1. Herder, J.G. 1820. Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit. Stuttgart: Cotta, p. 298.
“Die Natur erzieht Familien; der natürlichste Staat ist also auch ein Volk, mit einem Nationalcharakter. Jahrtausende lang erhält sich dieser in ihm und kann, wenn seinem mitgebor: nen Fürsten daran liegt, am Natürlichsten ausgebildet werden … Nichts scheint also dem Zweck der Regierungen so offenbar entgegen als die unnatürliche Vergrößerung der Staaten, die wilde Vermischung der Menschengattungen und Nationen unter Einem Scepter.”
2. Althusius, Politica Methodice Digesta, Atque Exemplis Sacris et Profanis Illustrata (Groningen: Radeus, 1610), XXXIX, 84.
“Hic enim naturae ordo et processus, ut conjungium, seu consocatio domestica viriet uxoris fundamentum et principium humane societatis dicatur, et ex hac Porro producantur consociationes consanguineorum et adsinium diversorum, ex bis vero sodalitates, collegia, ex quorum conjunctiove corpus compositum, quod pagum, oppidum, vel civitatem dicimus.”