David French and Southern Honor

In a bizarre and incomprehensible article “Where Does the South End and Christianity Begin?” – The French Press (thedispatch.com), neocon David French complains about “the explosion of ancient southern shame/honor rage.” French claims that the recent Evangelical outrage at the stolen election and the recent leftist coup has its origins not in radical leftist overreach, but in Southern anger rooted in “shame/honor culture.”  Using the bizarre examples of Franklin Graham and Dave Ramsey (…?), French argues that the recent anger of evangelicals over leftist overreach has its origins in the Southern ideal of honor, which he summarizes as “You have come against us. We will come against you.”  The origin of this idea, he argues, is that in such a “shame/honor culture,” Southerners have to act to defend their honor and not allow anyone to get the better of them publicly. To do otherwise would result in shame, and loss of social standing. This, he argues, is the origin of Evangelical anger and the source of the rage expressed in the events at the Capitol on January 6^th.

French’s argument, of course, is faulty on almost every level, but a number of points can be made in response. 

First of all, French contradicts himself.  The whole first half of the article is about how horrible Southern “shame/honor culture” is. It is seen as horrible, and nothing but a wicked source of violence.  “Ancient southern shame/honor rage” is contrasted negatively to “godly Christian passion.” He speaks ominously of how more and more evangelicalism is beholden to this Southern “shame/honor culture.”  He writes, “this intense, personalized anger and expression of group grievance are an increasingly prevalent form of Evangelical Christian expression. It’s so very important to understand that this is not new for the South.” However, half-way through the article, he suddenly switches gears and claims that the Bible was written from a shame/honor cultural perspective. He quotes a leftist theologian to the effect that the Biblical context was one of shame/honor, not one of guilt, and that Western theologians inappropriately pushed the idea of guilt upon the text. Suddenly, the “shame/honor culture” is now a good thing, and the source of the gospel.  French inexplicably ends the article talking about how the gospel is perfect for a “shame/honor culture.” 

French has completely contradicted himself, first trying to argue how horrible the “shame/honor culture” is, and then trying to say that the gospel is all about the removal of shame. Which is it? If the gospel resolves a problem, then that problem is real, not simply cultural or made up. The gospel is not about cultural expectations.  It is about a relationship with God.  French ties himself up in circles trying to make “shame/honor” a bad thing, and then a good thing. 

Secondly, Southerners, as a rule, believe the gospel and generally have followed the Bible.  Southern culture and society was shaped by Scripture, which meant that if someone did something socially disreputable (such as having a child out-of-wedlock, or constantly being publicly intoxicated), that was also an act of sin which brought guilt and divine condemnation.  For the Southerner, shame and guilt have the same origin: sin. If someone is shamed publicly, then that means that they have the guilt of sin against God. In reality, Southern shame was tied in with very real guilt of sin against God. Thus, French’s attempted dichotomy between the two is flawed. 

Third, the reason why Southerners have historically responded so harshly, and at times violently, in the past two centuries is because they recognize who and what our enemies are. The enemies of the South are demonically driven people who hate Christ, His people, and His Word. Our enemies are truly wicked people who hate Christ,  His people, and His Word.  Never is this truer than today: our enemies are sexual degenerates and support mass infanticide, just to name two sins openly paraded by our foes. We cannot have peace with such wickedness. The fact that so often Southerners have responded with violence is due to the fact that, to use French’s own words, “godly Christian passion” is “ancient Southern rage.”

To be clear, violence, of course, is not the answer. Any act of violence by our people will be used to justify greater violence against our people one hundredfold.  Rather, the solutions lie in community with our Southern people, and pursuing a long-term solution of raising our families, becoming financially independent, independent with respect to food, and Biblically reforming our churches. Our solutions lie in seceding in our minds, by leaving the globohomo Christ-hating culture, and by filling our minds and our hearts with Biblical truth, and Southern traditions.  But, this fact should not negate the fact that we must stand firm against evil, and continue to honor our fathers by standing for Southern heritage and Biblical truth. In this, there is no shame.

-By Thorkil