By Colby Malsbury

“You have enemies? Why it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do not bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.”

Victor Hugo

It can be a genuinely mixed blessing in these interesting times to be noticed. On the one hand, it’s heartening to know that our modest endeavors can still be construed as enough of a threat to the power structure to garner attention. On the other, the potential for serious persecution at the hands of Zog is very real. Paul, for one, never sugarcoated his privations and attempts on his life, though knowing full well it was all done for God’s glory.

Still, as Christians we are called upon to make our mark upon this world while we are granted the time. Let the old reprobates know that we were and are here, and then some. We don’t exist to make their jobs any easier.

Thus it transpired, at the beginning of February, that the small yet stalwart Christ the King Reformed Church of Charlotte, MI – Pastor Bret L. McAtee officiating – found itself inexplicably placed upon the ‘hate list’ of the illustrious Southern Poverty Law Center – the Big Cheese of the legacy virtue-signalling world. Tis a Cheese that has grown decidedly moldy and rat-gnawed over time, but still. Such decrepitude hasn’t stopped Time from continuing to name Biological Entities of the Year, either.

So why the targeting? Well, it appears as though the notoriously hysterical and mentally unstable shrew presiding in the governor’s office got her eyebrows in a furrow over the “plot” to kidnap her last October – a prank almost as laughably stilted as the DC frat party the Cryptocracy is desperately trying to spin as Evil Insurrection of a Coupish Nature – and the House That Dees Built decided to pull a White Knight and come galloping to her rescue by naming twenty-five threats to the prevailing narrative resident in Michigan. Considering the Lansing chapter of the hate group du jour the Proud Boys and the Grand Rapids chapter of that perennial bogeyman the Nation of Islam are prominently featured, one suspects the SPLC decided to round out the list with some fringe groups to make their smear job appear comprehensive. I mean, for Pete’s sake. What is an orthodox Calvinist church – described as a ‘white nationalist group’, incidentally, as though CRC was merely using Christianity as a veneer – doing listed beside such luminaries as Folks Front, Gallows Tree Wotansvolk Alliance, and the United Nuwaupians Worldwide? Remember when all those organizations had their own brigades in the Confederate Army back in the day? That was awesome.

I would be remiss, too, if I didn’t point out that Joel McDurmon has expressed interest in obtaining a legal position with the SPLC, once he’s completed his three-year law program in about a dozen years.

All I can say is: hearty congrats to CRC and Pastor McAtee! We at Tribal Theocrat couldn’t be prouder to count him a friend and ally. No doubt Team Alienist will jeer and sneer when they invariably hear this news, but they will only reveal all the more starkly who they have taken their stand with – those anarchists who find it far easier to lob brickbats at their betters than to actually construct anything.

What will be the fallout from this? In all likelihood, a brief flurry of hand wringing and ‘that’s outrageous!!!’ among the Woke, a few stupid comments scattered on Iron Ink and then, when Pastor McAtee refuses to play the game, nothingburgers. That’s precisely what happened to us at Faith & Heritage when we were bestowed with the SPLC’s seal of disapproval, and in a world where Twitter can lob new irritants the Left’s way faster than a pitching machine can chuck baseballs, they will soon find a new crusade to dedicate their lives to and move on. Granted, in a society where cancel culture devours everything it can’t abide like a malignant Pac-Man, one does have to be on guard. But tis a little hard to cancel a church that, wisely, opted for independence outside of the prevailing subversive Reformed denominations a few years back and thus cannot be cajoled with threats of 501c3 decertification or a Presbyterian-style shunning from the synod or things of that nature. If the previous year’s Trumpcapades taught us anything, it’s that partisanship in the political realm is a death knell. Partisanship in the church realm is increasingly becoming that as well.

Of course, these limitations couldn’t stop the Lansing State Journal, the local rag, from publishing one of the lamest hit pieces I’ve ever encountered on any subject on Christ the King Church – all so that the Twitter link can serve as misleading clickbait and they can monetize enough revenues to treat the entire editorial board to lunch at Dairy Queen. How do you make a mountain out of a molehill? Let us count the ways:

-As they were unable to get a statement from Pastor McAtee, they instead relied on hearsay reports from local sellout pastors that all boil down to ‘well, we don’t know this fellow. He refuses to attend our interdenominational get-togethers. But let me assure you that OUR church isn’t racist, and let me get on my soapbox and loftily declare why….’

-They posted a picture of the church’s back entryway. Now, it’s likely they were going for an ironic image, as the gable over the door reads ‘Peace to all who enter here’. However, it comes across instead as a gaggle of sleazebag reporters and photographers skulking around a back alley trying to snap illicit pics of folks emerging outside, as though they’re stalking Gary Hart or something.

-They quoted Mark Potok, formerly of the SPLC but not affiliated with the organization since 2018. So he has credence on this story precisely how? Well, he has a nifty sound bite about ‘Ku Klux Klan ideology’ he’s just been itching to drop somewhere…..

-They reference numerous Iron Ink postings from Pastor McAtee that are far, far more insightful and biting than anything their own hacks can come up with to smear him.

In sum: the State Journal proves once again that Michigan hasn’t had a decent newspaper since the Dearborn Independent closed up shop.

Our enemies doubtless think they are well on the road to destroying us with such repeated instances of low-testosterone harassment. But just as the Gospel was promulgated all the greater when Paul was shut up in prison, so too will God use this incident to further His glory with all the more insistence. Proof of this can be found in an anecdote Pastor McAtee shared regarding the fallout from his encounter:

Jane and I had taken a little getaway to a cabin up North the last few days. We were up North when the bigots at the Lansing State Journal ran their second article. Obviously, that caused some angst.

When we get home we are unpacking when a young chap who is a sometime visitor to the neighbors is pulling out of the driveway across the street. He stops his car when he sees me and asks… “I’ve been seeing your Church in the news and I am CI and I wanted to know if that is what you believe.”

He listened attentively as I told him that we were NOT CI and we believed that all men of all races, tribes, and clans and nations could be saved by Jesus Christ. He said… “Yeah, that is what I believe also.” He asked me why the Press was zeroing in on us and I was able to tell him that the ultimate reason is that they are going after the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He agreed again and then asked what time our services were. I told him and again pressed on him that we were not White supremacists, believing that superiorities and inferiorities run through all races, nations, and families. He again said he agreed and asked “why can’t they just leave you alone?”

To that question, I asked him if he had heard of “The Great Reset.” He said he had and I said… “That is why they can’t leave us alone. Because we are adamantly opposed to the destruction of all distinctions of race, ethnicity, gender, culture, and faith in pursuit of a New World Order that reflects the Tower of Babel agenda.”

Some random guy stops me and I am able to give him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you Southern Poverty Law Center and the Lansing State Journal.

Let us give thanks as well to Christ our King and offer prayers for the safekeeping of His little church in Charlotte, to Pastor McAtee and family, and to his congregation, as well. Fans of Red Dawn will know that these are the times in which the Wolverines are starting to gather. And in the Wolverine State, we have a very worthy brother in our ranks indeed.