For Immediate Release
In an attempt to silence productive conversation surrounding the book, The Case for Christian Nationalism, or to cancel it completely, critics have recently focused a great deal of effort on guilt by association. Allegations have recently been made against a man named Thomas Achord, allegations which he denies. Those allegations are that he tweeted various foul and moronic things. And, as Mr. Achord is a friend and associate of Stephen Wolfe, author of the book, Canon Press is now being pressured to drop the conversation entirely. The problem is, we believe the conversation is an important one. And we object very strongly to this sort of proxy war and daisy chain extortion. We will not allow ourselves to be moved into this particular game of Cultural Cancel Ball, so recently invented by the enwokened left (and governed by fluctuating rules and virtues). One of our authors is friends with someone who has been alleged to have said truly tacky and vile things. While we hate and happily denounce such things, the cancellation levers won’t work on us like that. We publish Martin Luther, who said some vile things himself, let alone what some of his friends may have said. We publish G.K. Chesterton, who was sympathetic to commies and drew racist doodles (and should not have). We remain grateful for our founding fathers, despite their many heresies and hypocrisies, and for Augustine, despite his weirdness about women. And while we highly encourage critics of the recent book, and of Christian Nationalism as an idea, to hit them both with their best shots, so that we all might learn something, we would also encourage those same critics to stop shooting at bystanders (innocent or otherwise). This conversation is valuable and must be had. It cannot be ended by doxxing and denouncing every dubious contact on the periphery who has behaved badly. Truthfully, Kevin Bacon says some reprehensible things. How many degrees of separation must we maintain from him? If one of his friends had a manuscript that we believed to be worth pondering, we would publish it. The Case for Christian Nationalism is generating this kind of resistance because it was timely, and it touches raw nerves. In our minds, this confirms its importance. Tear it to shreds, explore its corners, poke its premises, and stomp its logic. Take it on directly if you can, not like tabloid writers.