By Bret McAtee

 

“There are alternatives to Tribalism; whether we are talking about massive tribes of white liberals or micro tribes of city league bowlers in Topeka. On the secular side of things those alternatives would include massive Nationalist ideologies like “Nazism,” or Internationalist ideologies – Communism, which is the kind of thing that happens when tribalism tries to scale. Mass ideologies, like petty tribalism, demand loyalty and empathy and to hell with outsiders. The only real alternative to an insider vs. outsider mentality is the Christian faith. Because the claims of Christ are ultimate because He is the head of the Church these claims originate from outside the cosmos, which means His claims trump every other claim. I have a tighter bond with someone who is baptized in the Triune name but who lives in Tehran than I do with my next door neighbor who is not baptized.

The Christian faith is genuinely international regardless of how much superficial commonality I might share, the universal point of integration – The Arche – is Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. He is the one who became incarnate. He was born of a particular woman named Mary. He had a hometown – Nazareth. He went to Nazareth High. He spoke a particular language. He was of the tribe of Judah – the blood of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba flowed in his veins. He had 10 toes. And I have been baptized into Him. This means I do not have to repudiate my particularities and you do not have to repudiate yours. In order for loyalty to exist between us I can belong to my tribe and I can do so with gratitude and affection. But I cannot bow down to my tribe – in my case clan Gunn from Scotland– because Christ was not from that tribe. He was from His tribe and I can be from mine. And because He ascended into heaven and left all tribes behind I can keep an appropriate emotional distance from my tribe. Something more sports fans and identity politicians need to learn.”

Doug Wilson
Man Rampant
Season 1 – Episode 1
Opening Monologue

There was a little girl

            Who had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead

            When she was good,

            She was very good indeed,

But when she was bad she was horrid.

Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

I don’t know Doug Wilson from Adam. Never met him. Never talked to him. Never sent him fan mail. BUT if I did know Doug, I’m quite sure he and I would be the classic definition of the somewhat new colloquial, “Frienemies.” There are times I want to send Doug fan mail or swoon over the thought of being in his august presence and then there are times I think he should be wearing a clown nose sitting right next to other clown greats like Nicolai Polikoff, Joseph Grimaldi, and Emmett Kelley. The quote above gives me the opportunity to experience my “Doug the clown,” moments.

Let’s briefly examine what is so horrid about this segment of Doug’s monologue from his brand spanking new Amazon TV show.

1.) Doug invokes secular, as if “secular” means that one can have a ideology without it being driven by a-priori religious commitments. There is no ideology that doesn’t first descend from and is reflective of a religion. Secular ideologies do not exist if by “secular ideology” one means an ideology that is absent religious faith commitments. Why do we talk about “secular ideologies” as if those are something neither fish nor fowl when it comes to belonging to a religious expression? What Doug styles ideologies are in fact religions.

2.) What Doug offers as alternatives to Tribalism are classic examples of Tribalism. Communism is every bit the Tribalism that the city league bowlers of Topeka is. Doug says there are alternatives to Tribalism but doesn’t really offer us any alternatives. Does this mean that Tribalism, in the sense of a group of people owning a mutual covenantal belongingness to a set of ideas and convictions, is inescapable? I would say it does mean that. In brief, Doug has not convinced me that there are alternatives to Tribalism.

3.) One wonders if Doug can think of any Nationalism as Tribe or ideology that wouldn’t be considered “Nazism.” For my part I know of no Internationalist ideology that wouldn’t be considered either “Empire,” or “Communism.” This is just to say that not all Nationalisms can be reduced to Nazism and that some Nationalisms can scale and remain Biblical.

4.) The Christian faith most certainly does NOT offer us an example of a Tribalism that avoids the “outsider vs. insider” dynamic. In Christianity outsiders are those who have not been united to Christ in Baptism, who do not bow to the commands of Christ and who do not seek to extend the Kingdom of God in all that they do.

5.) I wonder if Doug’s next door neighbor was his unbaptized mother if he would still insist that he has a closer bond to the believer in Tehran than he does with his mother? My problem with Doug’s statement here is:

a.) It is Christian cant. It is something that Christians say that sounds good but is so abstract that it cannot be tested.

b.) It is NOT universally true. Sure, inasmuch as all believers around the world have a spiritual bond that is unbreakable we can talk about the superiority of that bond over others types of bonds we have with unbelievers. Wilson captures a seed of truth here. But let’s talk about other matters. Would Doug have a tighter bond with the polygamous baptized believer in Tehran than he would with his unbaptized neighbor who has been married 50 years in a loving relationship with their spouse? Would Doug have a tighter bond with the baptized believer in a third world tribe in New Guinea who goes around topless than he does with his neighbor who wears clothing? Would Doug have a tighter bond with the baptized believer in Africa who dines on bugs, beetles, and monkey meat than he does with his neighbor who dines on steak and potatoes?

It is sloppy to say things like this as if they are universally true. Christianity certainly gives all believers around the world a common spiritual bond but to translate that so as to mean that the spiritual bond is so superior that it follows that the creational and corporeal bonds with kith and kin are inferior is just reductionist Gnostic neo-babble.

I note that this kind of speech is gnostic neo-babble because Wilson has reduced the creational particularity of time and place wherein God has placed us, with all of its hierarchical nuance and marvel, to just so much gobbledygook in comparison to a spiritual bond that is universal, abstract, naked, and absent of everything that makes a real live bond a bond. Wilson can talk about the baptized believer and Tehran all he likes but it is just an abstraction until he meets a real live baptized believer in Tehran AND then seeks to live cheek by jowl with him. When that happens then he can tell me about the superiority of that bond.

In the words of a good friend of mine when discussing Wilson’s pearls of wisdom:

“Cultures are created when religion is poured over a people. Part and parcel of delegitimizing a faith system is undermining it through the debasement and subversion of its culture. The offensive against the Christian Church has in part been an attack on traditional Christian piety and natural God-ordained differences and distinctions. That assault typically focuses on the institutions, mores, traditions, and peoples that have carried the faith to the four corners of the earth (i.e., Europeans). Wilson gives aid and comfort to the enemies of civilization by taking one part of the whole (his bond with the Tehran believer) and making it the whole.”

When Doug says things like this which are unqualified and un-nuanced he lends credence to the worldview of cultural Marxism which forgets the particulars in favor of the universal.

6.) The Christian faith is indeed International if by International one means that people are in the Church from every tribe, tongue and nation. The Christian faith is NOT International if by International one means that a baptized Iranian believer and a baptized Shona believer and a baptized Inuit believer are all the same and all have bonds with one another that are superior to the bonds that they have with their own people and places.

A problem here is that Doug seems to be thinking solely of individuals and then seeing only a bunch of individuals as being members of the Church. But the Church is not only constituted of individuals. It is also constituted by peoples, and nations in their peoples and nations. If the Church is International then it is International in the sense of being a Confederated Church comprised of people from every tribe, tongue and nation in their tribes, tongues and nations. The Church was never intended to be some kind of giant blender wherein once an individual is baptized one is dropped into the blender miasma and becomes part of the Borg. “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.” The grace that comes to us in being members of the Church does not destroy nature (our creational categories) but redeems it. The differences between the baptized Iranian believer and the Japanese believer do not disappear or become irrelevant. Those differences do, however, find a harmony of interest because of the fellowship we have in Christ. The violins and the flutes in a symphony orchestra remain flutes and violins in the orchestra but are reading off the same sheet music. A violin that said, “I have a closer bond with a flute reading off the same sheet of music than I do with another violin,” would be both correct and incorrect in different ways. Wilson’s lack of nuance and qualification is dangerous in our current atmosphere.

7.) The fact that Jesus was a particular human being and therefore that means we don’t have to repudiate our particularities is a non-sequitur. Jesus was also the eternal son of God. Therefore, that means I don’t have to repudiate being the eternal son of God?

8.) So if Christ had been from clan Gunn of Scotland Doug would therefore be required to bow before his clan? Does this mean that since Jesus was from clan Judah of Israel therefore we must all bow before that clan? From this point forward what was a monologue word salad becomes a monologue that was put into a wood chipper.

9.) What could Christ’s ascension, leaving all tribes behind, possibly have to do with keeping my emotional distance from my tribe? Christ also left everything behind when He ascended. Does that mean I can keep my emotional distance from everything? I mean … I’m all in favor of keeping emotional distance from my tribe but I’m not sure what Christ’s ascension has to do with that. If Doug had wanted to say that “Because Christ is Lord my allegiance to my Tribe is regulated by that reality,” I would have understood but this muddled expression makes as much verbal sense as Picasso’s “Nude Descending A Staircase,” made visual sense.

10.) Note in the first paragraph Doug has us embracing the universals while ignoring the particulars while in the second paragraph Doug has us embracing the particulars while insisting that we don’t have to have universals because Jesus ascended.

Maybe Doug is slipping? Maybe on the whole race / ethnicity issue he is holding an ugly hand and he just keeps trying to put lipstick on a pig to sell what those familiar with ugly are just not interested in. Whatever is going on, I hope his future monologues are better than his first one.