Four Resolutions for the New Christian Right
Keys to a Stronger Movement Going Forward
The online wars involving the emerging New Christian Right (NCR) do not seem to be letting up. Skirmishes take place seemingly multiple times every week over various aspects of Christian nationalism, spicy tweets and memes from younger pastors that tick off older generations of faithful Christians, Trinitarian doctrine, natural law, and the traditional understanding of sola scriptura. The conference circuit is in full swing, with NCR critics launching critiques that tend to be more strawman than steelman. Recriminations are flying, and sometimes long-standing relationships end over a single social media post.
As we transition away from a Christian practice and theology that was constructed for the positive world and dive headlong into the digital age, it was inevitable that cracks would emerge between various Christian camps. Expanding retrieval projects into areas that violate the modern liberal consensus and building battle-hardened institutions that can withstand the shockwaves of our age were always going to upset those who have been at the helm of various Christian legacy institutions. And major differences between how each different generation uses and understands social media was always going to exacerbate these divisions.
Realizing that much of what has passed for conservative theology was actually an incoherent amalgamation borne not of the Reformers but the 20th century, the Reformed contingent of the New Christian Right is justly going back to the sources, looking to draw on old wisdom to help solve the deep-seated problems we face today. This theological realignment is just a bit behind the political realignment that began in 2015—which indicates that, at least in principle, these debates are somehow related to the very future of the United States.
For the Reformed segment of the NCR, this is why Reformed political theory is having a major renaissance. And it’s why theologians we have been assured were heretics like Richard Baxter are being taken seriously again. It’s also why there is a yearning to look back at our Reformed forefathers’ views on culture and society, which is less an exercise in strict implementation without prudence and more a well of wisdom that a new generation can and should draw from.
If those in the New Christian Right want to have long-term success, they need to take stock of where things stand in light of their long-term goals. Here are four resolutions that the NCR should take up in 2025 that may help them as they move into the next phase of building.
Move Fights Offline
Though the recent dustup over the H-1B visa program attests to the fact that any healthy movement sometimes needs to address divisions in public, this is not the New Christian Right’s problem. Instead, their problem is non-stop fighting over every conceivable area of theology, online tactics, and more. Going forward, the NCR needs to avoid getting into foolish clashes that are counterproductive and will only drive a wedge between certain groups they should be friendly with, or even see as co-belligerents. Constantly firing at each other on social media regarding every minor disagreement will only lead to frustration and failure.
At its root, the problem seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of what the medium of X is. While it can be an excellent place to encounter new views and discover new tribes, as Auron MacIntyre recently noted in a perceptive podcast, it is, above al,l a series of gladiatorial contests. People on X generally fall into one of three character types: the merchant hawking goods, the spectator in the stands watching the fight, or the gladiator in the arena taking part in the melee. Weaved into the algorithm is a fundamental orientation toward ginning up mobs and getting retweets by doing the best dunks—that is, getting people on your side through means that are far from utilizing pure logos.
Beefs that should be internal are regularly put on the Jumbotron for all the world to see and exploit for their own amusement. Problems that could have been solved through personal conversations instead are exacerbated, leading to public humiliation, permanent fractures between otherwise like-minded groups, and a bunker mentality where the slightest disagreement feels like a full-scale attack that demands a heavy response.
Given all of this, the solution is simple: don’t have your family dinner in the middle of the Colosseum. The New Christian Right needs to do everything they can to avoid casting pearls before swine. Replace the almost daily battles on X with discussions either on the phone or in person. The movement will be healthier for it.
Build a Complete Coalition
While the New Christian Right is busy building itself around a populist contingent of homesteaders and homeschoolers, this by itself is not enough for a movement to have success at scale. They must also have a strategy to attract high status people into their ranks. Jesus’ Earthly ministry, after all, included those from all parts of society—rich and poor, elites and non-elites alike.
The high-status segment must include a set of potential elites who can eventually take the reins of power someday. If the movement wants to pursue its interests, it must have elites that can replace the ones that have led our country into disaster and ruin—elites typified by California Governor Gavin Newsom’s and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s complete abdication of leadership before and during the fires that are sweeping through L.A. and surrounding areas.
Does the New Christian Right have any type of highbrow cache to attract this crowd? Whether they are on team red or team blue, strivers much prefer cities to rural areas and are used to the various perks that life offers, including a thriving arts district and high-end cuisine. These preferences do not seem to be well represented in the NCR, which seems to be more about hunting than Handel.
The NCR must attract existing elites (or those who are on the verge of becoming elite) because, overall, it’s very difficult to develop new elites out of the ether. Consider the Thiel Fellowship, which pays students $100,000 to skip or drop out of college for two years and work on entrepreneurial projects. This program only works, however, because of Peter Thiel’s high status and powerful network. The noticeable, rightward shifts in the law of fashion, including Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, though could make it more attractive for elites to join the NCR in the future.
Once they are converted, these elites must be catechized first and foremost. The NCR must prevent them from neutering the movement: unlike what the Right did with anti-woke liberals, under no circumstances should new elite converts be immediately put into positions of authority or influence. While the New Christian Right must exhibit patience and understanding given that these are, after all, new converts, they shouldn’t be platformed until they are fully bought in and have apprenticed with those who are leading the movement. And then these converts must then prove themselves.
Building a strong, mature movement that can achieve lofty goals is the enemy of the purity spiral. Be prepared for converts to the New Christian Right who will have sizable theological differences but who are far more sympatico when it comes to practical politics. I’m thinking of someone like Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, who is a Roman Catholic and a card-carrying Reaganite. But he’s also broadly sympathetic to most of the aims of the NCR. It would be foolish to deny him a place at the table, especially considering that he heads one the most important institutions on the Right.
A difficulty that the New Christian Right will need to wrestle with is being ready to embrace converts who, in the recent past, were cowards, turncoats, or hostile, implacable opponents. If you were a Christian living in the apostolic age, you likely would have been stunned and angered at first by Paul being made an apostle. It would have been very difficult to trust someone like Paul given the ruthlessness with which he had persecuted Christians prior to his conversion.
Just think of the doldrums the MAGA movement would now find itself in had Trump forever shunned those in his movement who were former Never Trumpers or voted for Evan McMullin in the 2016 election. Imagine if he had refrained from picking J.D. Vance, Trump’s now heir apparent, because of his Never Trump outbursts years ago.
Major on the Majors
Factions within the New Christian Right need to stop making postmillennialism, different apologetic approaches, various brands of theonomy, or differences over baptism a barrier to entry. Instead, there should be a consensus on the basic doctrines of the faith (that is, the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds) that one must believe in to be part of the NCR.
As much as I agree with classical theism, paedobaptism, and hypothetical universalism, these positions should not serve as a litmus test for entrance into the New Christian Right, a movement that is ultimately political in nature. This, after all, should be natural for the Protestant contingent of the NCR since political considerations have always been at the core of Protestantism.
Aesthetic revelry, including wearing pit vipers and posting pics of your ALP stash, also should not be a barrier. There needs to be ample room in the New Christian Right for those who are not interested in such things.
If the NCR makes too high a barrier to entry, they will only be able to cull together a group that can fit inside a phone booth. Currently, the New Christian Right simply does not—and probably never will—have the luxury of being able to police their movement to the detail that some terminally online eggheads would like.
Stop Refighting Old Wars
While heaping praise on Pat Buchanan and wondering what would have been different had the paleoconservatives been in the driver’s seat of the 20th-century conservative movement (there is no doubt in my mind that the country would be in a better place had that happened), this is not the glue that should hold the New Christian Right together. Constantly feeling the need to tell everyone that you voted for Buchanan when they were in diapers does not advance the NCR’s goals in 2025.
The old battles between the paleocons and the West Coast Straussians, for example, were legendary. And there remain substantial disagreements between these groups on the philosophical level. But Paul Gottfried is now writing for a Claremont Institute publication, something which, before Trump, would have been as improbable as the reverse. Let’s not begin driving a new wedge into this recently healed relationship.
There is not much of a point in digging up old bodies and burning them like what happened to John Wycliffe’s body after the Council of Constance in 1415. If someone assents to your policy goals, don’t curse their father for reading National Review 50 years ago. While it’s en vogue to lay waste to every past hero of the conservative movement, this is shortsighted.
It’s certainly fair to acknowledge the missteps that William F. Buckley made with regard to gatekeeping (which Paul Gottfried ably does here), but the NCR should not throw him out of the movement entirely. It’s strategically unhelpful to give your enemies anyone who could possibly be of help to you. You’re simply providing them with even more people in their corner while you’re left with a single bullet in the chamber with which to defend yourself.
If you find someone who affirms your own position, use them. Even Abraham Lincoln, a president who is certainly not popular among the New Christian Right. And don’t desecrate the graves of your previous heroes—in fact, if you can, use what they said for your own purposes. It may help to consider that one day, future generations of rightists will be just as frustrated with you about your allegiance to Trump as boomers are now when anyone criticizes Ronald Reagan.
Disagreements, sometimes even substantial ones, will remain between the various factions that make up the New Christian Right—but we have a country to save. We need all hands on deck. There is no time to waste. Let’s get to it.
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