Within the ranks of the far-far-right of American neo-Calvinism, a rift has appeared that some call generational and others see as a rebuke of the patriarchs of patriarchal theology.
The latest evidence of this rift is production of a lengthy theological statement — TheoBros love to write and sign documents — called The Antioch Declaration.
Its authors and initial signers include luminaries of the far-right Christian nationalist crowd: Doug Wilson of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, being foremost among them. Wilson has been called the “patriarch of the TheoBros.”
Joining him in this declaration are Joseph Boot, founder of the Ezra Institute; Jeff Durbin, pastor of Apologia Church in Tempe, Ariz.; Andrew Sandlin, founder of the Center for Cultural Leadership; James White, also a pastor at Apologia Church and founder of Alpha and Omega Ministries; and Tobias Riemenschneider, pastor of Evangelical Reformed Baptist Church in Frankfurt, Germany.
Wilson vs. Webbon
In the simplest of terms, the Antioch Declaration is the outgrowth of a dispute between Riemenschneider and Joel Webbon, pastor of Covenant Bible Church in Georgetown, Texas.
The German pastor — and others in his U.S. orbit — have been critical of Webbon and other younger Calvinists for statements they perceive as racist and even Holocaust-denying.
Joel Webbon
Webbon, for example, recently said if you’re not being called a Nazi, an antisemite, a racist, a misogynist and a bigot, you are not fighting hard enough.
He and Jeremy Carl are co-authors of a book titled The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism Is Tearing America Apart, which is about “the rise in anti-white discrimination.”
Webbon also drew scrutiny when he explained on his “Theology Applied” podcast he would always choose a white doctor over a Black doctor because “if one of them was not qualified and was given a free pass, it’d be the Black guy.”
In another episode of “Theology Applied,” Webbon and co-host Andrew Isker say they expose the “fake sin” of “raaaycism.” A summary of the episode promises: “Make no mistake, there really is such a thing as sinful ethnic partiality, but much of what the culture (and even Christians) have labeled as racist is nothing more than an exercise in ‘grievance farming.’”
In yet another podcast, Webbon was asked how many Jews died in the Holocaust. His answer: “I don’t know.”
“Yes, many Jews died in camps in World War II, although I personally do not have a position on the exact number and if I ever get around, between being a pastor and president of Right Response Ministries, and a husband, and a father, if I ever have a spare 10,000 hours to speak credibly on the topic then I’ll give you a number. … I’m just going to say I don’t know.”
It is a well-documented historical fact that 6 million Jews were murdered by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
This is one of a host of criticisms of Webbon, who was a disciple of Doug Wilson but has branched out even further to the right and into greater conspiracy theories than his mentor.
Pastor Jacob Reume of Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is among those who have critiqued Webbon lately.
“While Webbon might disavow bigotry and hatred, he is drawing a cadre of blatantly unrepentant bigots who gravitate within his orbit,” Reume recently wrote. “Eating and drinking with sinners can be excused, but when those sinners remain comfortable and blatantly unrepentant in their sin it should give us pause.”
“Joel Webbon peddles fanciful and mythological stories.”
Also, he added: “Joel Webbon peddles fanciful and mythological stories about the Nephilim, Greek gods, etc. (see for example here). How a gospel minister can possess certainty about such speculative ideas is anyone’s guess. Teaching like this, while not dispensationalist, is just as sensational as Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind series. It creates a splash, but it’s fruitless. Beyond that and as an observation, certainty about vain myths coupled with uncertainty about documented events surrounding WWII strikes me as an odd, if not convenient, inconsistency.”
This is not to say Wilson represents mainstream evangelical beliefs either. He has made headlines for promoting male-dominant hierarchy and saying women should not be allowed to vote.
The Antioch Declaration
The Antioch Declaration is a 1,900-word document that takes its name from a city mentioned in Acts 11: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”
Its introduction explains: “Just as the apostle Paul at Antioch ‘opposed him (Peter) to his face because he stood condemned’ for compromising the gospel of Jesus Christ by subjecting it to racial barriers, so this brief statement opposes the ideas of some contemporary leaders and influencers seeking to introduce anti-gospel racial categories into the church.”
Doug Wilson
This racism, the writers declare, threatens the Christian faith and “we dare not remain silent.”
The authors say they write “to identify and resist a rising tide of reactionary thinking emerging on the fringes of our own circles. Those especially at risk of being led astray by wolves clothed as shepherds are among the younger generations of Christian men whom we love and care about deeply.”
The statement is organized around 12 “we deny” paragraphs matched with “we affirm” paragraphs.
To say the language of the declaration is inside-baseball is an understatement. For example, the first declaration is to deny “that the kingdom purposes of Christ and requirements of his word can be equated with the seating positions of political actors during the French Revolution, or that the modern antithesis between right and left is equivalent to the antithesis that God established in the Garden of Eden between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, the kingdom of darkness and kingdom of light.”
And there’s this: “We deny that neo-pagan secularism with its utopian religious motive arose as a consensus after World War II. Rather, it manifests itself as the political outworking of the so-called Enlightenment during the French Revolution and gradually won the hearts and minds of Western nations, being well expressed in the political philosophies dominating Europe prior to the outbreak of the two great global conflagrations.”
And this: “We deny that it is possible to harmonize the racial and antisemitic theories of Adolf Hitler and neo-pagan doctrines of the Nazi cult with the gospel of Christ and the teachings of Scripture.”
“We deny that it is possible to harmonize the racial and antisemitic theories of Adolf Hitler and neo-pagan doctrines of the Nazi cult with the gospel of Christ and the teachings of Scripture.”
On the side of explaining what the authors do believe, they state: “We affirm that, as a consequence, some young men in the West have become jaded and cynical, with an element among them now rejecting or doubting the received account of virtually anything. The great danger is that now, instead of acting on the basis of revealed truth in Christ, they are in the unhappy position of reacting by choosing between opposing sets of lies.”
The document makes several specific rebuttals of Holocaust deniers and rebukes any Christian who would place blame on Jews as a people group.
“We deny that Jews are in any way uniquely malevolent or sinful, that Judaism in its multifarious expressions is objectively more dangerous than other false religions, or that it represents an exceptional threat to Christianity and Christian peoples,” the statement says.
Responses
This kerfuffle and the declaration it produced have set the TheoBro sector of X aflame. These pastors and their followers are regulars on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“I’ve read this ‘Antioch Declaration,’ and it is a ridiculously self-righteous self-important, pile of rubbish,” posted Adam Smith. “The Church is sick and has REAL needs right now, and this ridiculous internet grandstanding does NOT meet them.”
Tony Wood wrote: “Reading the Antioch Declaration is making it hard to continue liking Doug Wilson, White, and company. I’m trying! But making a whole official statement filled with bad logic and strawmen misrepresentations against Joel Webbon and friends, seriously?”
“It is a ridiculously self-righteous self-important, pile of rubbish.”
Stuart DiNenno commented: “There’s a new statement online put out by some ‘Reformed’ ministers called ‘The Antioch Declaration’ which says it is ‘a statement on racial ideologies threatening the church.’ The purpose of it is to demonize ‘neo-nazis,’ ‘racists,’ and ‘antisemites.’ You know, guys like me.”
Others are praising and signing on to the declaration.
Samuel Sey
Among those is Samuel Sey, a Ghanaian Canadian blogger who lives in Ohio and serves as community liaison at the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. His recent post was titled, “Why I Signed the Antioch Declaration.”
“Woke evangelicals,” he said, “believe only some forms of racism are ugly. They believe anti-Black racism is unrighteous, but anti-white racism is justifiable. They are not ‘anti-racists,’ they are just anti-white.
“But woke evangelicals aren’t the only inconsistent and hypocritical voices on race in the church. Some anti-woke Christians are just as foolish and divisive as woke Christians. They detest anti-white racism, but they defend anti-Black racism and antisemitism. They call themselves Christian nationalists, but that is an insult to sincere Christian nationalists. The more fitting term is white nationalists.”
Sey declares: “Biblical Christians affirm that racism is ugly, and it should be opposed wherever it is found — on the Left or the Right. That is why I signed the Antioch Declaration.”
Sey is among those who point a finger back at Wilson and his allies for creating the monster they now oppose.
“Doug Wilson and the Moscow brothers have always maintained a biblical view on race,” he says. “But I think it’s worth noting that this new group of white nationalists or Kinists in Reformed circles was almost universally mentored or influenced by Wilson and Moscow. In my conversations with these people, before they adopted their brand of Christian nationalism, they consistently shared their admiration for Wilson and why they wanted to emulate him.”
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Why these Christian men believe women shouldn’t have the right to vote | Analysis by Mallory Challis