In Defense of Alastair Roberts

Over the past week, Theopolis Senior Fellow Alastair Roberts has been embroiled in an intense online controversy. Alastair identified Thomas Achord as the author of racist tweets on a Twitter account that used the pseudonym “Tulius Aadland.”

Until the controversy broke out, Achord was headmaster of a classical Christian school in Baton Rouge. He was also co-host of a podcast with Stephen Wolfe, author of The Case for Christian Nationalism .

I won’t get embroiled in the specifics of Alastair’s allegations. He laid out his case here , and yesterday Achord acknowledged the account was his.

In the course of the controversy, Alastair has been subject to a barrage of vicious criticism and insult, and I write to defend him against those accusations.

We at Theopolis have the utmost confidence in Alastair’s integrity. We’re convinced he pursued this out of a sincere desire for the purity of the church. He is not vindictive or resentful, but is faithfully, and courageously, following Paul’s injunction: “Do not participate in unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).

We share Alastair’s abhorrence of the racist beliefs promoted by the Tulius Aadland account. Racism is a modern variant of the Galatian heresy, an attempt to retain the Babelic estrangement between races that Jesus sent His Spirit to overcome. Racial animus and separation are offenses against the gospel (Galatians 1:6-10; 2:11-21).

Achord aside, questions about race are relevant to the ongoing debate about Christian Nationalism. Many advocates of Christian Nationalism rightly denounce racism, but some appear to provide cover.

Nations should and will be Christian. We hope and pray all will recognize that nations are genuinely Christian only when they’re infused with the gospel that announces the destruction of the dividing wall and the formation of one new humanity (Ephesians 2:11-22). For the Head of the one body is also the Lord of nations.