Recently, FBI Director Kash Patel placed FBI Special Agent Brian Auten on administrative leave as part of an effort to “drain the swamp” in Washington. In Patel’s book, Government Gangsters, he lists about sixty so-called gangsters that were involved in a “sinister cabal of corrupt law enforcement personnel, intelligence agents, and military officials at the highest levels of government plotted to overthrow a president.” For his involvement in the Steele Dossier and the Russiagate investigation, Brian Auten was named in the book, which placed him in the sights of Patel, who had become his new boss.
More specifically, Auten’s involvement in Russiagate was high-level, in which he was assigned to verify the contents of the dossier produced in a collaborative effort between the 2016 Clinton campaign and British intelligence operative Christopher Steele. As early as 2017, Auten knew the contents of the dossier to be false, yet the document was used to procure FISA warrants and continue investigations into President Trump at the time. Auten was also in the crosshairs due to his involvement in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, in which his Crossfire Hurricane team was behind efforts to brand the contents as disinformation.
FBI corruption was a major issue for the Trump 2024 campaign, as Trump was personally subjected to lawfare in multiple jurisdictions and campaigned against the weaponization of government. Auten is part of that weaponization of government, yet what is perplexing about Auten is that he is involved in several evangelical institutions, several of which have had their people come out in defense of his FBI departure.
The primary institution is the Davenant Institute, which seeks to retrieve “the riches of classical Protestantism to renew and build up the contemporary Church.” Essentially, they are part think-tank, part media company in pursuit of philosophical and academically enriched protestant theology. Although their brand seems like it would be aligned with the protestant retrieval movement that was spearheaded by men like Stephen Wolfe, many of their players are anti-Christian Nationalists. This is likely because they serve a “higher” clientele in more elite circles, as is exhibited in their “Donor Perks” for high-dollar donors.
This “elite” status pairs well with having an FBI agent like Brian Auten as a participant. Per their Form 990, Auten served on the board of Davenant into 2022 but resigned from the board before October 20, 2023. Ironically, in Christian circles, Auten was most known for his creation of the term “Evangelical Dark Web” while also being a voice against Christian Nationalism, alleging that it was created by federal agents. He is technically listed as an author by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) despite no articles on their website. He has even written for The Gospel Coalition, albeit back in 2016.
In the aftermath of his removal from the FBI, various figures at Davenant have stood up for him, most notably their former President Brad Littlejohn, who served until 2024 and is the Director of American Compass, which is a conservative economic think tank.
Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway oversee The Federalist, which has long reported the misdeeds of Auten. Despite being fired for his dishonest behaviors, Littlejohn defended the character and integrity of Brian Auten as a Christian. Using his authority in the FBI to falsify FISA warrants and spread misinformation, in violation of the Ninth Commandment, is not the makings of a “good and godly man, who loves his country.” Was it patriotic to subvert the President of the United States?
Institutional creatures will defend other institutional creatures. Auten is subversive, who uses his credentials to laud his expertise within Christian institutions, but doubtless, there is influence being spread as he was seen in his “Christian nationalism is a federal op” propaganda or his coining of the term “evangelical dark web.” His connections to various institutions, several of which are outright subversive. One can only wonder whether there is a connection between Auten and the ERLC’s push to lobby against the release of the Nashville Tranifesto.
Redeeming Grace Church
Brian Auten is a member of Redeeming Grace Church in Fairfax, VA. RGC is an SBC Church that is also a member of the SBC Virginia and the Pillar Network, which is a Baptist church planting network. This church is also affiliated with 9Marks. Overall, this is a fairly influential church situated in the Northern Virginia landscape, but within the church, Auten is a prominent member who has taught seminars at their church.
In 2020, Auten led a seminar on Jamar Tisby’s Color of Compromise, which is a notoriously anti-white book that was used during that time to advocate Critical Race Theory and promote the false “injustice” narratives about black people. Tisby has since continued in his liberalism, being featured with Evangelicals for Harris.
In 2021, Auten would lead a seminar on The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. This is another anti-white book written by NAACP fellow Richard Rothstein, which is used to blame the government for “systemic racism” pertaining to housing. In reality, the Civil Rights Act and desegregation led to the destabilization of American cities and civil unrest, with lingering effects in the lack of social trust. While racism is a convenient excuse, the drastically higher rates of criminality and other deviant behaviors were the real drivers of segregation laws. In Discrimination and Disparities, Thomas Sowell talks about the southern blacks brought their problems to the north, which resulted in segregation.
Conclusion
Overall, Brian Auten is subversive even on the local church level as he has taught anti-white racism as a teacher within his church, yet within the broader evangelical church, he is an agent for subversion who has been party to various Christian institutions like the ERLC, Mere Orthodoxy, TGC, and Davenant. It is good that he has been suspended by Kash Patel and is finally being held accountable for his crimes against the American people. Unsurprisingly, because he is institutionally connected, many in these institutions will circle the wagons to defend their guy.
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One Response
I was very interested to see the discussion of Auten in connection with Davenant Institute. As it happens, they put out a collection of essays against Van Til titled Without Excuse. The essays were extremely uneven in quality, with some so astonishingly stupid that I decided to put out a book length review, particularly as Without Excuse was translated into Spanish and published in Peru. My reply is Divided Knowledge: Van Til & Traditional Apologetics, https://www.amazon.com/Divided-Knowledge-Van-Traditional-Apologetics-ebook/dp/B0CQDRPYTZ (also available in Spanish).
The thing to notice about the Davenant Institute is that they represent a very particular type of Thomism. That is, they are completely uninformed about any other type of medieval thought and very weak on modern philosophy as well. This sort of equally ignorant and dogmatic Thomism is making inroads among Baptists, particularly. People rightly want an alternative to modern philosophy or to anti-intellectual forms of presuppositionalism, but these twits have nothing to offer. The Davenant Institute seems to be a club for pseudo-intellectual posturing, though perhaps it is well funded.