Rev. Jordan Cooper has posted a YouTube video addressing “racism in the church.” Cooper is a confessional Lutheran pastor who publishes a lot of decent material on his Just & Sinner videos. I was aware of Cooper before watching this video. I find his material on traditional confessional Lutheran theology and practice to be interesting and engaging, even if I don’t always agree with his conclusions. Cooper was prompted to address what he perceives to be “racism” because of a flier placed on vehicles at PCA churches in response to their General Assembly’s Overture 43 on Racial Reconciliation. There is a certain irony in Cooper mentioning the Concerned Presbyterians flier in that it may inadvertently inject new life into the Concerned Presbyterians Facebook group.
Cooper begins by admitting that he never thought much about racism growing up in Massachusetts. One of his best friends was black (so we know that he can’t be a racist), and he never paid much attention to racial differences. Eventually Cooper realized, much to his dismay, that racism isn’t dead and that “some people still believe this stuff.” Cooper’s video specifically mentions Kinism as a “tiny minority” who are mostly confessional Presbyterian, but his response demonstrates that he hasn’t done a considerable amount of research into Kinist arguments. Cooper states that Kinist arguments from Scripture are all “really bad,” and then proceeds to both ignore actual Kinist arguments and knock down strawmen. Cooper doesn’t interact with any of the talking points in the Concerned Presbyterians flier or the content of Faith and Heritage, Tribal Theocrat, or other Christian ethnonationalist resources.
Cooper insists that the reproductive pattern of kind after kind in creation refers only to all of mankind and does not correspond to different human races, and that the curse on Ham and/or Canaan is not relevant to modern sub-Saharan Africans. These arguments are rarely used by Kinists and are hardly foundational to our overall beliefs about national identity. Cooper also argues that the prohibitions against the Israelites marrying foreigners were exclusively based upon religious rather than racial considerations, that interracial marriage isn’t an issue because of Rahab’s presence in Christ’s genealogy, and that Pentecost has reversed Babel. These arguments are easily defeated, with extensive material on all these subjects having already been published on F&H.
Cooper adds a few platitudes to his presentation, like suggesting that sin brings division while the Gospel brings unity. Predictably Cooper cites Galatians 3:28 to bolster his case while assuring his listeners that this verse doesn’t actually mean that there are no physical differences between men and women. Cooper doesn’t dig any deeper into the meaning of this verse other than to say that this is referring to table fellowship. Cooper uses the same oversimplified understanding of Galatians 3:28 that is commonly leveled against Kinism. The Bible says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek; case closed, Kinism is unbiblical. The obvious problem with this oversimplified interpretation is that it is used by leftists to argue for the abolition of any practical distinction between men and women; with homosexuality and transgenderism being made acceptable in consequence.1 Throughout Paul’s epistles he assumes that biological gender and national identity retain their significance within the body of Christ.
What is perhaps most telling is Cooper’s statements about culture that he makes in the comments section. Joshua Johnson asks Cooper, “What is wrong with trying to preserve white european culture? From a Christian perspective?” To which Cooper responds, “I care about preserving Christian culture. I could care less if it’s white or not.” Someone calling himself “libertarian” spoke up in favor of Cooper’s position, “I’ll say it. It doesn’t matter. I truly don’t understand the desire to preserve the culture of ones ancestry. I’m not my grandpa. I really don’t care what his culture was. If white culture was replaced by black Christian culture, I’ll celebrate( I’m white).”
The whole exchange is of interest, and I was happy to see Cooper receive some pushback from some commenters. Towards the beginning of his video Cooper insists that Kinists are simply racists, but no one wants to admit that they are racist. (Liberals say the exact same thing about sexism, bigotry, homophobia, and transphobia.) Cooper’s comments reveal the true nature of what qualifies as “racism” in his understanding. Cooper believes that distinct nations and cultures can pass away without regret so long as amorphous and abstract “Christian culture” is preserved. Would Cooper tell Nigerians or Japanese or American Indians that their culture is irrelevant and that it doesn’t matter if it is preserved for future generations of their posterity? Or is it just white European culture that can pass into oblivion without remorse? No courage is required to say this about white culture, but I doubt that Cooper will be making any videos condemning the genocide of whites throughout the world and even in the very heart of historic white homelands. Cooper can continue to smear Kinists with the leftist epithet of racist and claim that we are unjustly hateful to non-whites, but might I suggest that if Cooper is so apathetic about the destruction of his own people, culture, and heritage – that he “could care less” – then the problem of hatred is his, not ours.
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