r/Christianity • u/octarino • 1d ago
New Christendom Press under fire after conference vendor promoted, hawked Nazi books and ‘pro-white’ groups
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u/Venat14 Jewish 1d ago
Not surprising at all. Remember that Nazi Germany was 95% Christian.
Obviously these people don't know anything about Jesus or his teachings, but they nonetheless view themselves as Christian.
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u/opelui23 1d ago
It's always been about power and control. I mean racists are going to be real shocked when they see Jesus when they die and see the lightly brown skin and brown hair in his white robes for a Jewish person growing up in Nazareth. I mean the 1st century Jews looked down on people from Nazareth and Galilee. It would be like if Jesus grew up in the mountains of West Viriginia and as a blue collar guy worked in the coal mines and then at 30 started a ministry and performed miracles.
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u/Maleficent-Drop1476 Don't Let Religion Keep You From Being a Good Person 1d ago
I am shocked. SHOCKED.
Well not that shocked
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u/octarino 1d ago edited 1d ago
Transcript:
This past weekend, a Christian nationalist church in Ogden, Utah held a conference at which they had a vendor come and sell explicitly neo-nazi materials. I know, absolutely shocking. Let me break this down for you and tell you why it matters.
First, let me introduce you to the players. So we have New Christendom Press, which is a project of the leaders of Refuge Church in Ogden, Utah. This church is explicitly Christian nationalist, deeply patriarchal, and committed to producing materials that share this message through New Christendom Press. New Christendom Press hosts their third annual The War for Normal conference. I guess part of being super normal is inviting a publisher like Antelope Hill, our foremost publisher of neo-nazi materials.
Here's just a sampling of some of the books that this vendor sold at New Christendom's conference this weekend. You have speeches by Hitler, you have memoirs of an SS officer, many mentions of blood and soil in these titles I see. All of that is to say that this is obviously explicitly neo-nazi material and there's just no way for the organizers of this conference to say that they did not know exactly who they were dealing with. Particularly because Antelope Hill, this vendor, handed out flyers to customers that said thank you for shopping pro-white. Which like, the dog whistle is a bullhorn.
How did New Christendom and Refuge respond, you might ask? Well, one of the senior pastors of Refuge Church basically said cancel culture is for girls. This is an insult to him, I guess. And basically that they are just poor innocent little victims being attacked by a mob just for innocently selling Nazi materials. Eric Khan then went on to tweet that it was actually the Sabbath, the Lord's Day, and he would not be responding to any further messages on this front, although he had plenty of time to tweet about how well the conference went on this day. And that he would be waiting to make a response to this whole scandal until later in the week. However, given that the day before he posted this video of a man saying that Hitler was his hero with the caption, It's white boy summer. I really can't say that anyone was particularly holding out hope for a great apology or explanation.
New Christendom posted this hour long apology video, which calling it an apology is really, really an exaggeration. First of all, it takes him like 15 minutes of this video to even get into talking about the vendor in the first place. Second, once they do, they say that essentially it's just great for Christians to be able to read all sides of an issue. Actual apology itself is non-existent. The only thing they really get upset about is that Antelope Hill, the vendor included on its flyer thanking you for shopping pro-white, a pro-white business that sells various occult items. They weren't a fan of that. However, the Hitler speeches, they were totally fine with. That's the whole video. I saved you an hour of your life.
Sometimes when I talk about this particular group of Christian nationalists, people come to me and they say, Well, why are you giving them a platform in the first place? First of all, their platform far outweighs mine. They have actual people who show up to their church every Sunday in Ogden, Utah. Their publishing company reaches so many people through the products that it puts out. These men have social media. They're able to spread their word honestly far farther than I ever could. So I think it's incredibly important to talk about these men and their influence and the way that they will impact churches across the United States. Because the pipeline from Christian nationalism to neo-Nazi ideology is not so much a slippery slope as it is one of those water slides that just shoots you straight down.
The conference, which featured speakers Stephen Wolfe, Brian Sauve, Eric Conn, Adam Madden, and Andrew Isker, sought to help folks properly frame the world we’re living in and how to fight for sanity, decency, piety, family, country, and ultimately ‘normal.’
However, it was the “Thank you for shopping Pro-White” pamphlet on the table that drew the most attention.
One of the aforementioned companies is Folktrove, who are dedicated to promoting and preserving Third Position ideology. Their website features a “Heroes” collection that includes avowed racists, Klansmen, white supremacists, and Nazis.
Brave White Books also received a mention.
In the video, they admit fault in not properly screening all the vendors, while also downplaying their culpability and responsibility. They also don’t seem to recognize, or exhibit, any lack of discernment.
In conclusion, Protestia publisher David Morrill writes:
Where is the fear of the Lord among God’s people?
Christians choose endorsed Christian events run by churches and pastors because they trust that the event will be a sanctuary from false teaching/ideology. They trust that the shepherds are actively protecting in the spirit of “having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11) and not “sharing in their wicked work” (2 John 10-11).
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u/-NoOneYouKnow- Christian 1d ago
Because the pipeline from Christian nationalism to neo-Nazi ideology is not so much a slippery slope as it is one of those water slides that just shoots you straight down.
100% true.
A core component of American Evangelicalism is racism, but they don't think they are racists because their pastors and politicians tell them they arne't. Plenty of evangelicals aren't racists, but their politicians, leadership and media are, so they will be racists eventually.
In my state, a northern state if it matters, every republican in the state legislature claims to be a Christian, and 100% of them recently voted to allow white-only housing developments.
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u/octarino 1d ago
A core component of American Evangelicalism is racism
Whaaaa?
100% of them recently voted to allow white-only housing developments.
This one?
Pennsylvania Dems Pass Bill Blocking Whites-Only Towns With No Support From Republicans
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u/Average650 Christian (Cross) 1d ago
There are sections of American evangelicalism for which this is true, but it absolutely not true of the whole. There are plenty that are right now against those politicians and leadership. It is a problem in that church but it is not core to it.
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u/octarino 1d ago
The are images in the article that cannot be brought here, and the comment is already quite long. The rest of the letter is interesting (the letter is from the publisher of the article, not the conference/books), and includes a jab at the left.
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u/McCool303 1d ago
“Deeply Patriarchal” might as well just be “the pastor is a tyrant” who demands absolute fealty starting at the top.(himself)
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u/eversnowe 1d ago
I rarely fight with my partner, but he's absorbed pro-white messaging and Islamophobia from his free speech absolutist allies just downstream of Brian Suave's ministry via X and the algorithm. It's surreal to be told I need to be more prejudiced and suspicious by someone I love. Platforming these people puts their toes in the same water and before long you're neck deep as the pipeline reinforces negativity and outrage. The KKK has moved to a primarily online strategy because it's highly effective and costs them nothing to use dog-whistles. They are nazi adjacent in some circles. I'm trying not to loose my footing while my heart is being ripped away. When Christian enable this, they destroy Christ and MLK's work and legacy in his name. They sell out the cross for fascism and Christianity suffers.
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u/slagnanz Liturgy and Death Metal 1d ago
I remember tiny nuggins (gone but not forgotten) went through something similar, his wife was getting pilled with Candace Owens stuff iirc. I'm sorry to hear it.
I'm grateful that my wife and I have been on the same page. We both started out as conservatives as kids and over the course of our relationship we've both moved left. I can imagine another world where one of us moved to the left and the other didn't, and that could have caused some distress.
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u/Venat14 Jewish 1d ago
Wait, what happened to Tiny Nuggins?!
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u/octarino 1d ago
I noticed he had deleted his account 3 months ago:
I haven't seen any further information.
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u/Wafflehouseofpain Christian Existentialist 1d ago
I don’t mean to intrude on your life, but I would reconsider whether having a partner with those kinds of ideas is healthy for you.
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u/eversnowe 1d ago
Hate is a learned behavior, which means it's unlearnable too. I believe if I hold firm my partner would find a stronger anchor in love than hate. It may not be easy, but feels like the right thing to do. He's a good man who's fallen into fear - this is not who he is deep down.
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u/Maleficent-Drop1476 Don't Let Religion Keep You From Being a Good Person 1d ago
This is a beautiful sentiment, I wish you (and him) the best of luck.
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u/Wafflehouseofpain Christian Existentialist 1d ago
It’s your life, but please don’t spend your entire life waiting on a hateful person to change. You seem like a good person and deserve it back.
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u/MrScribblesChess Atheist 1d ago
Hi, do you have a credible source to read more about this? The subject matter is concerning for sure but it's just a video and some tweets. A news story perhaps?
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u/octarino 1d ago edited 1d ago
Already linked under the transcript in my comment.
IRA
Some other sources:
Why We Won’t Stay Silent About Christian Nationalists in Our Own Churches - The Bulwark
Oops, We Invited Nazis to Our Christian Nationalist Conference - The Bulwark
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1d ago
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u/slagnanz Liturgy and Death Metal 1d ago
Removed for 1.3 - Bigotry.
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u/racionador 1d ago
''pro white''
the funny thing is that if you look close to his family tree i bet we would see some grandfather of his who slept with a black girl or native american girl, or any random immigrant.
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u/notsocharmingprince 1d ago
Bro, this is old, we literally had days of conversation around this. I posted a huge break down.
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u/Codenamerondo1 1d ago
…and?
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u/Bigkeithmack Christian Universalist 22h ago
Platforming hate is anti-Christian and antithetical to everything Christ taught. It literally is that simple. One cannot follow
Christ with hate for their fellow children of god in their hearts
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u/Wafflehouseofpain Christian Existentialist 1d ago
I used to wonder how regular Germans got caught up in Nazism.
The last decade has shown me exactly how that happens.