Recently while doing research for the God Squad pod, I came across a video from Joel Webbon’s YouTube channel where he was interviewing Stephen Wolfe. The interview was primarily about Wolfe’s book The Case for Christian Nationalism which outlines a racist vision for taking over the American church and implementing a Christofascist government where blasphemy and atheism “won’t be tolerated,” according to the author. Biblical scholar Dr. Michael F. Bird said of Wolfe’s book in his video review that Wolfe makes the case for a government “run by Oliver Cromwell, that has racial laws akin to South African apartheid, where Methodist ministers are tried for heresy, and where women’s clothes are inspected by civil magistrates to ensure propriety.” That doesn’t sound like anything I have read in the New Testament. Bird continued by saying that Wolfe’s vision in the book is “not arguing simply for the close relationship of church and state. It’s arguing for a type of Christianity that is above all in place to focus on the hegemony of white people…and I regard it as deviant, heretical, and pernicious in the extreme…it’s a grotesque perversion of Christianity, it’s xenophobic, and prone to violence, and almost cartoonish in its aspirations to take over America.” That’s quite an indictment against Wolfe’s brazen white nationalist version of extreme Calvinist Christianity. Having seen excerpts of the book and listened to his interview with Webbon, I agree completely with Dr. Bird’s assessment.

During the interview, Webbon, an extreme sexist and misogynist, began to bemoan the “feminization” of the American church. He clearly rejects not only the Biblical teachings on women in the early Christian movement but also Christian history which shows that women were in fact leading, preaching, and prophesying during the first few centuries of Christian history. Paul’s authentic writings affirm that women were in leadership in early church gatherings, as 1 Corinthians 11:4 makes plain. Laurence Welborn notes in the commentary on 1 Corinthians in the NOAB 4th ed NRSV that it was assumed that Spirit-filled women were leaders in the church who both prayed and prophesied, and that there should be mutuality and reciprocity between women and men. (Welborn, pp. 2014 – 2015) Paul’s letter to the Galatian church also shows Paul’s view that because of Christ, there is no longer a hierarchy of male or female, Jew nor Greek. History corroborates the presence of women ministers as well. Justo Gonzalez notes in The Story of Christianity Volume 1 that in the second century, Pliny the Younger was governor of Bithynia, in modern Turkey. That was during a time of Christian persecution and Pliny subjected two Christian women ministers to torture while investigating the alleged crimes of Christians in the area. It was not until later decades in the second century that women began to be excluded from leadership roles in the church. There were also “consecrated widows” that is, women who “devoted all of their time to work for the church, which in turn supported them.” (Gonzalez, pp. 50; 56; 114) Webbon and Wolfe seem to disregard this history and Biblical teachings to justify their androcratic views and patriarchal goals for the church.

In response to Webbon’s comments about women, Wolfe then opined that empathy is a real problem in the church because women are more empathic than men. This ostensibly feminine empathy according to Wolfe leads to a “gynocracy” where “untethered empathy” has the potential to destroy societies and to ultimately harm women as well — though he didn’t say how this harms them. When asked by Webbon what would preclude Christian nationalism from truly taking root in America, Wolfe responded that because there are women in leadership positions “you can’t have Christian nationalism because you’re gonna have empathy run amok.” Jesus wept… empathy is a virtue in full alignment with the Christian message. Webbon clearly agreed because he had stated previously that “few things in history have caused more suffering than women’s suffrage.” I can only conclude from such a misinformed statement that Webbon has never read any history books. For these two misogynists, there goals are impossible unless women can be subjugated completely to the will of men like themselves. YIKES.

It’s not front page news that patriarchy stans are still out there spouting their nonsense. That said, in our current cultural and political climate, it is vital that people understand the dangers that pastors like Webbon, and scholars like Stephen Wolfe pose. The latter has a PhD from Louisiana State University thus showing that on occasion, the lunatic fringe is well educated. Unfortunately, the likes of Webbon and Wolfe have connections politically are incredibly motivated by their myopic theology of hatred and control to see their views broadly implemented. I pray that women all over the country take note and use all the power at their disposal to thwart those plans. Men too should stand up and dismantle this patriarchal foolishness that looks nothing like Jesus’ teachings. Now is not the time to “sit this one out.” Rather, it is a time for bold, mass-scale, nonviolent resistance to Christian nationalism in all of its varied forms.

For more on women in the church, see my essay entitled “Help Wanted: No penis required” in my latest book Theological Musings: Collected Essays of a Tattooed Theologian, Vol. 2.