Within the New Christian Right and Christian Nationalism sphere, The American Reformer functions as an intellectual outlet that excels at advancing political and social theory to a protestant audience in a way that others like The Gospel Coalition, Christian Post, and Christianity Today fail to do. Rather, those outlets are often subversive or soft peddle liberal ideas outright.
American Reformer was different. They published unique voices with interesting things to say, not trivial platitudes but well-thought-out essays. They do great work, and in fact, everyone should read Stephen Wolfe’s recent essay on “The Christian Defense of Inequality,” which confronts the egalitarian zeitgeist that occupies the American Church.
That said, they messed up and need to be held accountable. Recently, they published an article entitled, “A Year Later: Traveling America to Find Love” by an Anonymous Account named Bumbadum. The article takes on an interesting idea posited by Con Inc. figures like Matt Walsh, who had challenged young men to take a road trip across America to find love under the guise that there were single, cute girls across the provincial lands that would be discovered at diners and gas stations. As far-fetched as the idea seems, Bumbadum, a Los Angeles Anon, actually attempted it and recounts his trip in the article:
A year later, two reflections from my trip have stuck with me:
1. Rural areas may have been great for meeting a wife in a prior era, but the demographic reality has changed.
2. However, there are still other imperfect, but viable, mechanisms for young, high-agency guys.
Bumbadum focuses much on the economic factors that make this grandiose wife-finding scheme a failure, as many of these small towns are in terminal decline due to globalization, mass immigration, and the economic shift towards services, which drive the youth away from the small towns to the higher-paying urban centers. The second conclusion, he then advocates that young men utilize colleges, personal social networks, and dating apps to find love.
What is a respectable article was targeted by the likes of Eli McGowan, Wasson Watch, and other bad actors in the online discourse. Ever the effeminate, Eli cited the following:
Bum, who describes himself as a Roman Catholic and an “anti-fat nationalist,” has said or posted the following here on X:
— “Nurse = whore
Studied Abroad = whore”
— That finding your wife at church is “the worst advice in the world”
— “Tattoos are like big tits and ass. Grotesque, unnecessary, whorish.
Not classy whatsoever. I still love them on women.” He provided photographic example of a woman with “grotesque boobs.”
— Claims “women are retarded.”
— “I did a 2,500 mile long roadtrip to try and pick up a girl at gas stations and diners which lead to more career opportunities than my STEM degree.”
Many of the spicy statements are in the context of the dating sphere. He certainly is right about fake boobs, tattoos, and butt implants, even if his attraction to them is misguided. Contrary to many Christian perceptions, church girls behave just like the worldly ones and are more fixated on their careers than marriage in their 20s. The notion of women who “study abroad” and nurses being whorish professions is a stereotype that those out of touch with the youth might not comprehend. The former basically globetrot and experiment overseas, which is why women who “like to travel” are actually a red flag that coincides with a consumeristic attitude. One should not be seeing the world with student loans. Nurses increasingly have a reputation in the dating discourse.
Surprisingly, he did not bring up Bumbadum’s use of the word nigger.
American Reformer pulled the article and made the following statement:
American Reformer’s general standard is to publish excellent content written by known and trusted Protestant voices on issues of pressing concern in American life. We occasionally make exceptions to this policy – publishing, for example, non-Protestants or anonymous authors – on a case-by-case basis for important articles that advance our mission.
Our editorial standards include a baseline record of Christian decorum from our authors — and most of our named authors have standing where this can be assumed. We will publish, on occasion, anonymous authors who have a compelling reason for anonymity, but we apply the same standards for decorum.
We recently published an article by an X pseud known as bumbadum, a professing Roman Catholic, that provided an interesting account of the difficulties of dating in contemporary America. The subject of bumbadum’s article is an important one. Our society has uniquely failed young people by sundering them from the wisdom of traditional ways of life and placing on them the burden to create for themselves healthy courting and matching rituals. Marriage rates and family formation are in cataclysmic decline, and the church is far from immune. We intend to continue that important conversation, and young voices need to be a part of it.
However, notwithstanding any merits to the article itself, certain vulgar social media posts by the author have come to light in the last week that have made us decide to remove his article. Had we been aware of this content, we would not have published it. We failed to communicate and apply our authorial standards for social media history by pseudonymous authors in this case.
The overall problem with their statement is that they cancelled one of their own after the fact due to backlash from their enemies. Had they barred Bumbadum’s article due to his spicy online reputation or his Catholicism, that would have been their prerogative that would have garnered no objection, but instead they published his content and caved to the pressure to remove it. They should have stood by their work. Bumbadum has since taken the high road in his response.
Vice President JD Vance set the standard when he defended Big Balls, who famously said, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity.” Vance, who is married to an Indian woman, defended Big Balls when he had every incentive not to. Defending Anons like Big Balls is how one wins the culture war. Cancel Culture is defeated when the Right refuses to cancel their own.
By retracting the article, American Reformer went back on their word and betrayed their base all to satisfy parties that hate them. If a man wants to reform America, then he cannot cede the moral ground to his enemies. Otherwise, he deserves to lose.
One Response
I have to say I find this type of article extremely hard to read, because I don’t know the people and institutions being mentioned, but I guess that just means I’m not the target audience.
I really think we can chalk a lot of this up to allowing women to drink, by the way. One sip of alcohol, and they’re used goods. Instead of blanket prohibition which has been tried, just restrict women from being able to drink. You see, in the past women did not drink, and then women protested for prohibition to prevent men from drinking. And then somehow after prohibition was rescinded, women became drunken whores as an entire gender. So if we could only return to men being allowed to drink and women NOT, maybe that’s the solution. But that would also require getting women out of the workplace so they can’t afford their own beers, AND publicly tarring-and-feathering (possibly even literally) any man who allows a woman to have alcohol.