Rhett Burns (@rhett_burns)

I appreciate how Stephen Wolfe decouples race/genetic background from his conception of ethnicity in his book, though I question the value of trying to redefine “ethnicity” when “race/origins” is so ingrained in the popular conception of the term. I think we need a different word for the concept of “our people,” one that more naturally conveys the idea that people from various races/ethnic backgrounds can belong to “our people.” When speaking of one’s people, I’m referring to people with shared loves and loyalties within a shared place. Those shared loves and loyalties refer to particulars: people, place, language, customs, ways of life, worldview, interpretive lenses, social scripts, and religion. None of these shared loves/loyalties, in principle, exclude anyone of any ethnic background or another. In practice, disparate cultural and religious commitments may separate people, and that may fall out along predictable “racial” lines in some instances for various reasons. But that is totally different than excluding anyone , in principle, due to color of their skin or genetic makeup. In our current context, we’ve mostly lost the concept of “our people.” Everything has been balkanized, atomized, and destroyed. We’ve lost the glue that held society together, and everything is disintegrating. That glue, in large part, was Christianity. (It’s always Christ or chaos) We must give ourselves to rebuilding “our people,” those within our particular places that share our particular loves. This is why the *Christian* component of Christian Nationalism must be emphasized first, and why it must lead the *Nationalism* component. We must face the reality of the situation we are in. We live in a multicultural mess. But we are not going to unscramble that omelette. We’re all melted in this pot together in our shared place. We’ve got to find a way forward. I believe the only way forward, that does not include massive bloodshed at some point, is Christianity. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can make one new man in place of the two, so making peace. Throughout history new “ethnicities” (to use the old term) have emerged when people migrated, assimilated, we’re conquered, etc. We are at a stage in history where the old groupings are disintegrating and new groupings are emerging. That the old world has died does not have to be a blackpill. For, as GKC says, we follow a God who knows the way out of the grave. We live in an age of opportunity. For those of us inclined toward the Christian Nationalism project, we get to build it. We get to lay the foundations for a new world. But let me encourage you to expend most of your energy on rebuilding the ruins and extending the reach of the Christian community. That is, to get to Christian Nationalism we need a Christian nation—a Christian people. Therefore, we need reformation, revival, and evangelism. Then, we need to build Christian culture. We need strong churches, Christian schools, faithful families, bold businessmen, and skilled workmen. A robust Christian people will then be able to effectively exercise political will in government. Of course, I do not mean that these must be sequential steps. We’ll ought to work in all arenas that we can at once. We don’t just give up on politics until evangelism is successful. I simply mean to exhort us to prioritize our action. What happens in the sanctuary spreads to the world. Everything is downstream from worship. Lastly, I acknowledge that more needs to be addressed regarding the forming of new “peoples” to account for natural affections, particular histories and traditions in a given place, language, and such. My point here that for grace to restore nature, we need grace. We need Jesus. We need the Spirit of the Living God to reorder our loves/loyalties toward what is good, true, beautiful, and glorious. And when God does that to enough people in a shared place, I believe he can forge a new people with natural affections and loyalties to one another, who can come together to order life for their common good in that place and toward heaven.