Torba’s Parallel Society
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Christian Nationalism, A Biblical Guide to Taking Dominion & Discipling Nations
By Andrew Torba
Christian Nationalism is a print-on-demand book of 105 pages by Andrew Torba, and Andrew Isker a pastor from Waseca, Minnesota. Occasionally, there is a book where both the subject and the author are of interest. This is such a case. Andrew Torba is the founder of the Gab social media platform which Wikipedia described as, “a haven for neo-Nazis, racists, white supremacists, white nationalists, antisemites, the alt-right, supporters of Donald Trump, conservatives, right-libertarians, and believers in conspiracy theories such as QAnon.” I’ve followed Torba online for years and have been on Gab for most of that time. Torba is a much more nuanced individual than that description of Gab would lead readers to believe and, although there is a co-author, much of the book reads like something Torba would write.
Kyle with his copy of Christian Nationalism
The prologue is written by Catholic blogger, Shane Schaetzel. In it, he lays out the historical foundation for identifying the original states as Christian nations. In that essay we read, “These United States of America are a Union of different states, and not a ‘country’ in the proper understanding of the word. Rather, the states themselves are countries, according to the proper understanding, each consenting to delegate some of their own sovereign powers to the federal government for the sake of forming a union.” Later Schaetzel adds, “It was only the federal government that was founded as a secular entity….” He then lists the original colonies and their official religion which most states maintained into the 1800s. “We seek to reestablish states that recognize Jesus Christ as King,” Schaetzel states.
According to most voices in the movement, Christian Nationalists believe that Christian principles should guide the nation and Christians should work together to build that society. The authors accept that definition, but in the second part of the book he defines Christian Nationalism in different ways, including what it is not, “Christian Nationalism is not idolatry. We do not idolize or worship the nation.” “Christian Nationalism is not a movement of racial supremacy….” The authors then say, “Our primary goal is to build a parallel Christian society, economy, and infrastructure which will fill the vacuum of the failed secular state when it falls.”
Andrew Torba
One chapter starts with, “Men are men. Women are women.” The authors believe in traditional gender roles and they reject abortion as legal infanticide, they reject the current “celebration of sodomy” and “mainstreaming of child genital mutilation.” Such statements have earned Torba the ire of big-tech and mainstream media. Torba doesn’t care. He points out that these were self-evident truths for thousands of years, but this is now a “post-truth trash world” in steep moral decay where Satan has invaded “every facet of our country and culture.”
Torba has been called an anti-Semite many times and the book does make a sharp distinction between Christians and Jews. The authors state, “We earnestly pray that the entirety of the Jewish people would be reconciled to Jesus Christ. Our opposition to Judaism is purely theological and spiritual and is not in any way born out of ethnic or racial animus.”
The book claims to be a guide for taking dominion and discipling the nations and the authors assert his primary goal is, “to build a parallel Christian society, economy, and infrastructure which will fill the vacuum of the secular when it fails.” However, the book contains no practical information on how to accomplish that goal. However, I found this book to be a clear statement of fundamental Christian principles.
We are certainly a society drifting on the winds of change and Torba is attempting to call Christians back to a simpler faith as he understands it. Have you read this book? Have you used Gad or other products of Torba’s parallel economy? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
