About two weeks ago, Tucker Carlson released an interview with Darryl Cooper, questioning, among other things, the consensus narrative surrounding WWII and Winston Churchill. I listened with curiosity, albeit admittedly somewhat distractedly: it was the podcast de jour during my morning 6 o’clock workout on leg day. But I did listen. I left the podcast with a few questions, and it challenged my thinking somewhat. I had already read Patrick Buchanan’s book, Churchill, Hitler, and The Unnecessary War, this past summer. Catching Buchanan’s argument, I also caught that Buchanan had a political agenda of non-interventionism in opposition to President George W. Bush’s foreign policy. I wondered whether his agenda was driving his history more than his history driving his agenda. Like the podcast, the book provoked discussions with friends and colleagues who have a background studying WWII history.
What neither the podcast nor the book did was provoke me to publicly celebrate challenges to a consensus narrative about Churchill, and they certainly did not provoke me to make strong moral pronouncements. I pondered the challenges, while storing these things up in my heart and seeking more information. While some of my notions have been tested, my view of Hitler or Naziism has not. To be clear criticizing Churchill is not tantamount to extoling Hitler, but the two seem to be going on at the same time and can go together. Claims that Hitler had the moral high-ground are farcical. I’ve been exposed to enough eyewitnesses – whether Jewish survivors, Dutch immigrants, or WWII veterans – to be convinced that Hitler had the spirit of the antichrist. If my hoary memory is right, I recall that the majority of my elementary school classmates had grandfathers who served in WWII, along with a small minority of Jewish classmates whose grandparents had fled Naziism. Parts of Mein Kampf was required reading for my educational coursework. Hitler was evil, and so was his White nationalist socialist dystopia (see here).
What surprised me after Tucker Carlson released his interview with Darryl Cooper was the pastors who publicly took to celebrating and defending the challenging of the consensus narrative on Churchill. I can appreciate dispassionate discussion and cerebral reflection, but celebrating it is outside of and likely antithetical to the pastoral charge. I cannot think of one good reason to engage the issue in this way, especially for a pastor to do it. Wisdom indicates that, unless the matter is urgent and requires immediate decisiveness, it is best to only carefully weigh in on controversy. This has certainly been my practice. I can attest that of the two major public controversies I’ve been in – the Bruxy Cavey controversy and my stance against lockdowns – I consulted with multiple other people, including pastors and experts who know more than I, while gradually heightening my rhetoric as the issues became more apparent. Both of those controversies had immediate implication within my own pastoral charge, and therefore I felt the burden of speaking to them. Why celebrating the discrediting of Sir Winston Churchill is so pressing for some pastors is beyond me. It strikes me as a reactionary emotional impulse to engage in fanfare, not unlike the social media mobs who dog-piled on opposition to BLM and COVID lockdowns.
Since the Cooper interview, reputable historian, Victor Davis Hanson, has offered stinging criticism of Darryl Cooper (see here). Allowing some time to pass for ideas to settle and valid criticism to surface is much more prudent and godlier than rushing to judgment, especially after only having interacted with a few secondary sources on historical matters. Rushing to judgment, while unscriptural, will ultimately discredit oneself in the long-term.
Pastor Doug Wilson, in a fatherly way, recently offered caution (see here) about rushing to judgment on this particular issue. To paraphrase him, “We shouldn’t be pulling down any statues, especially if we don’t know whose statue will replace them.” Great point. Who is behind the defamation of Winston Churchill and what does he stand to gain by the defamation? Who is pushing the pro-Nazi drivel? If Churchill’s statue metaphorically falls, whose will replace it? I suspect that there is more going on than meets the eye. Consider that a right-wing news outlet was recently charged with being compromised by the Russian state (see here). The piece reads:
It is alleged that the Russians funneled $10 million to covertly finance a Tennessee-based online content creation company as part of a “scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.
I point that out to highlight that there is a lot going on right now, many unknown unknowns. Shady actors are operating on all sides. The centre has given way, and we have entered the chaos phase of a Christless nation. Everything is up for grabs, including truth and power. I have noticed an increased amount of pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler content being circulated on the Internet of late. I sincerely wonder if there is an orchestrated play, now, to hoodwink the dissident right.
Megan Bashan, not long ago, released a book, Shepherds for Sale, indicting influential American pastors who became compromised by leftist ideologies. Some of those pastors gained by promoting those ideologies, and others were useful idiots. I was happy to see the church I pastor, Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, honourably mentioned in her book for not compromising during the lockdowns. I note her book to warn that what Satan can do with the angry left he can also do with the angry right. If he can compromise pastors to cater to angry leftists, he can do the same with those on the right. We need to take heed, lest we be lulled into the opposite ditch. Some might very-well be listed in a similar future exposé documenting pastors who’ve compromised on the right.
There is a groundswell of very young men who do not remember a time of cultural cohesion. Their entire lives, they’ve been told that they are racists simply because they are White. They only know a society that has been trashed with mass immigration, socialism, inflation, filth, and degeneracy. They are angry, and they have reasons to be angry. Added to that, the government educational system has failed to teach critical thinking and logic: instead, the educators have extoled emotional reactions, in place of thoughtfulness, while lauding self-esteem in place of aptitude. By design it produces illogical, thoughtless, emotionally charged individuals full of self-esteem, often wrong but never in doubt. In essence, we can anticipate more drugged up trannies along with more hate-filled Nazis. Some, by God’s grace, will cut through the nonsense and rise higher, but many, sadly, have been programmed to fail. For those reasons, I am not surprised that some are flirting with White nationalism and Naziism, and I am not surprised that some are youthfully zealous to malign Winston Churchill, while only having considered a few secondary or even tertiary sources. In fact, I publicly predicted like-reactions about five years ago (see here). In our context, it will be tempting for pastors to capitalize on these sentiments to build platforms. Ingratiating oneself to a betrayed and rootless generation by pandering to fomenting anger isn’t difficult, just as the generation of seeker-driven mega churches had no problem ingratiating themselves to indulged boomers. The boomers were looking for a circus clown, and there could now be a groundswell looking for White nationalist hatred.
Post-war, a number of consensus views formed which deserve to be challenged passionately. I’ve been doing my part. No one can accuse me of being quiet in the face of socialism, multiculturalism, feminism, sodomy, egalitarianism, mass immigration and all the other refuse. I have fought much, and I am not done yet. To quote a late WWII hero: we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall never surrender. Fighting against nonsense need not be confused with fighting for nonsense. Rushing into a dog-pile on the late Winston Churchill is something I’m not about to do. Beyond that, let it be known that, along with post-war ideas, I will fight pre-war ideas too, like, for example, Naziism.
Nazi idealogues can either repent or go to hell. Jesus died for bigots too.
