If your kid's "Christian" college isn't inviting @MrsErikaKirk to speak -- or inviting me -- you should rethink paying tuition there. We are in an existential crisis. Know which side you're funding.

in my top 5 favorite thunder players of all time i tried to do the OG gimmick but i cant man he just too thunder coded

You make an important point here. The problem is even deeper than that. The whole system of Wolfean Christian nationalism is substantially artificial. The nationalists say they want strong patriarchs of multi-generational families that are rooted across generations in specific locales. And they say they want to defend their local cultures, with an appreciation for heritage. But weirdly, that is rarely what they do (at least online). First, with some exceptions, each nationalist influencer promotes himself as the Abrahamic patriarch of his multi-generational family. Almost never do you see one speak extensively about what HIS father and siblings did. Or what his grandfather did. Given that they preach multi-generational families, it is odd that each influencer's multi-generational family tends to START with him. By and large, they don't even try to follow their father's vocation so far as I can tell. Second, most of the influencers of which I am aware do not seem to live in their birthplaces. They may settle in Ogden or in Jackson County, TN, or some other place, but (with exceptions) they weren't BORN in those places. So much for being rooted across generations. Listening to them online, one will also learn extremely little about the places they live and the cultures already there. One might see them flirt with Vlad the Impaler or with Nazis, but one hardly ever sees them promote mainstream American heroes from their local communities. It's not even clear they know who those heroes are. Even with their politics, there is much that is artificial. They say they want a strong man to organize the nation and demand total loyalty, but they rarely offer such loyalty. Whether it be Biden or Trump, etc., they deem themselves free to criticize, etc. The Wolfean nationalists tend to fail to live according to their own system.

Thesis: evangelicals are interested in morality, not politics. Power is a dirty word. Compromise is bad. That is the lifeblood of politics but they generally find it all distasteful and immoral.

This reminds me that the Wolfean Christian Nationalism project suffers from a deep internal contradiction of virtues. It markets itself as a retrieval project rooted in history while the actual tradition it claims to retrieve stresses due respect for elders and orderly humility under institutional authority. What we actually see is the opposite. A cavalier and individualistic dismissal of institutional authority, flippant dishonoring of our spiritual elders, and a hypocritical, whiny, victim mentality when critics push back. That isn't the posture of the tradition. The Reformed tradition is one of *reform*, not an anabaptist revolt from authority. What’s going on right now is a revolutionary/activism mentality fueled by acerbic disrespect for elders and institutions. Perhaps springing from insecurity, bitterness, pride, or something else, what’s clear is that they don’t respect the churches they seek to control. Young elders write their books and host their podcasts while tweeting contempt for the authorities over them and beside them. Sometimes even the very courts they are subject to. Anonymous activists build their websites and post all day on social media with little more than division and scandal as their goal. They loudly and proudly proclaim themselves to be the saviors of these godly institutions while, five minutes later, expressing their disdain for what they’re supposedly saving. Often with words laced with vile language. It's a movement aiming for deconstruction by conquest rather than reform by moral suasion and brotherly correction. It's the political theological equivalent of street protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at historical buildings and defacing monuments. It’s more anabaptist or Alinsky than magisterial reformer. Ironically, a project claiming to recover the past is functionally marked by modern traits, very much "in the spirit of the age." And when you begin to look closer, the old maxim “the medium is the message” becomes more and more true.

Perhaps this is part of the problem, Stephen. Young men in the church should not be belittled, demonized, or provoked to anger. Younger teachers of the Word can also be learned from. Absolutely. They should be encouraged rather than belittled. But I’m also reminded of Rehoboam. He rejected the counsel of the elders for the advice of the young men he grew up with, and it split the kingdom (1 Kings 12). Young men are said to be prone to zeal rather than knowledge and wisdom. Young men can be exceptional teachers and leaders and older men can be foolish and stubborn. But both human nature and the nature of spiritual maturity speak to the normative wisdom in looking to those with more experience. The church didn't name its leaders "presbyters" by accident.