[Vision2020] Fw: Town Sermon: What to expect?

[Douglas]

Visionaries,

The agenda of the meeting tonight will be determined by those who attend 
and ask the questions. The questions will be asked aloud, not written, and 
the people who ask the questions will have reasonable opportunity for 
follow-up. The jury on whether this has happened or not will be those who 
attend, and not those who have no need to attend because of their 
telepathic gifts.

At the same time, we intend to give the floor to a wide range of 
questioners, and this means that we will regularly move from one questioner 
to another. Again, the judge of whether we are doing this fairly and 
honestly will be the people in attendance. We want to give priority to 
those who are not in our church, and we want to prioritize how we address 
the questions as well. This means that we will want to sort questions and 
answers as they have related to the controversy. "What is our actual 
position on slavery? Is this consistent with the booklet? Why did the 
Christ Church elders respond with the display ads in the newspaper the way 
they did?" When those are covered, we can move on to other questions if we 
have time.

We are trying to answer the questions that the community has. This is not 
the same thing as answering the questions that could be asked by a hostile 
few, those who have gotten a strange mix of bitterness, slanders, 
hostility, and lies wound tight around their axle. I do not believe that 
such people will be satisfied (if they come), but I do believe that the 
average, interested resident of Moscow who comes will be able to hear what 
we have been saying. Many will leave differing with us, but what they 
differ with will be an honest representation of our views.

I know that Wayne Fox will take my reference above to "telepathic gifts" 
and "wound tight around their axle" as acts of rudeness, unbecoming to a 
Christian minister. But the apostle Peter tells us not to return evil for 
evil, and I have diligently sought to avoid every form of railing or 
invective in my responses during this controversy. That is not the same as 
avoiding a (biblical) approach to polemics and humor, which I have tried 
hard to practice. I do employ such expressions as those above, because I 
want to avoid the besetting sin of cultural conservatives in public debate, 
which is the sin of being Shrill. I have been on the receiving end of a 
torrent of abuse from Wayne Fox for a goodish bit of time now, and do not 
ever want to be guilty of the kind of irrational crudeness which he 
routinely displays. That is my goal, and I have good friends who would take 
me aside to talk about it if I wavered from it.

That said, men like Wayne Fox and Nick Gier need to understand that we are 
not taking their questions seriously precisely because we take the 
questions of the responsible community of Moscow seriously. There are many 
in Moscow who are not associated with us in any way, who have honest 
questions about us, and who are ill-served by those questions are the 
Platonic form of Shrill. "Doug Wilson, have you closed down your child 
abuse factory and the meth lab behind it? Yes or no?"

Cordially,


Douglas Wilson



At 09:51 AM 12/11/2003 -0800, you wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Wayne A. Fox" <waf@moscow.com>
>To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
>Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 9:45 AM
>Subject: Town Sermon: What to expect?
>
>
> > Seekers,
> >
> > Has anyone noticed the change of language concerning the purpose of the
>town
> > sermon scheduled for tonight by cult leader Douglas Wilson?
> >
> > In letters and Vision 2020 messages written before Nick Gier's Vision 2020
> > questions cult leader Wilson says:
> >
> > "Every effort will be made to get to all the questions."
> >
> >
> > However, in a front page article in last evening's Daily News, Wilson
>says
> > he:
> >
> > "Hopes to answer reasonable concerns from reasonable people."
> >
> >
> > Who decides what is a reasonable question and who is a reasonable person?
> >
> > Obviously Wilson (self-appointed, self-anointed agent of some alleged god)
> > is going to decide since he is completely controlling the format,
> > discussion(?), and responses.
> >
> > Will questions by Bill London or Steve Wells, who by quoting Wilson's
>exact
> > words have exposed Wilson as an arrogant liar in the past, be allowed and
> > answered directly and interactively?  Or will such questions be treated in
> > the same flippant, flimflam, arrogant manner that Nick Gier's carefully
> > researched questions were?  Will those who ask embarrassing questions be
>the
> > target of abusive emails from Wilson son-in-law Ben Merkle as was Nick
>Gier?
> >
> > Will questions about other subjects than Wilson's views on slavery be
> > allowed?  Questions about sexism, homophobia, alleged abuse of apostate
>cult
> > members, alleged suppression of alleged spousal and child abuse by cult
> > members, alleged child abuse at Logos School, etc.?
> >
> > Is the so-called town meeting going to follow the traditional town meeting
> > format where extended free-flowing debate between those in the audience
>and
> > those on the podium takes place?   Or will questioners be prevented or
> > discouraged by rudeness or sarcasm from responding to the answers given by
> > the cult leaders?
> >
> >
> > Will people who have not only questions but important information about
> > anti-social or criminal practices of the cult to share be allowed to speak
> > or will they be silenced?
> >
> >
> > Or will written questions be solicited beforehand so that the audience is
> > not allowed to see or hear all the questions or if the question read is
> > really the question asked?  Will the audience know who really asked the
> > question?  Will questions be planted by beforehand by the organizers of
>this
> > farce?  Exactly what interaction between the audience will be allowed?
>Will
> > the media be allowed to interactively pursue Wilson's responses?
> >
> >
> > It is also interesting to note that Wilson's previous Vision 2020
>invitation
> > promised "honest answers" (as if he were capable of such).  The "honest
> > answers" content is missing from both the Daily News letter and news
> > article.
> >
> > Based on his past performance, I expect Wilson's  answers (though perhaps
> > charming) to certain questions to dishonest, evasive, not on point,
>designed
> > to disguise the more abhorrent parts of his views, and perhaps abusive and
> > accusatory.
> >
> > Wayne
> >
> >
>
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