[Vision2020] what next?

[Douglas]

Visionaries,

Amy says:
>It sure is chilly out there,

Actually, it really is chilly. There are people out there who use "racism" 
as the all-purpose category to describe anything they don't like or 
disagree with. Then they have trouble making distinctions between 
worldviews that are utterly and entirely different. In this view, there are 
two basic worldviews: "stuff I hear on NPR and stuff I don't hear on NPR." 
With this very provincial and naive grid firmly in place, they then proceed 
to conflate radical Islam, European neo-fascism, resurgent 
Christianity,  and NASCAR stock racing. "I never heard about any of this 
stuff. It must be all the same."

A facile transition from a discussion of David Irving (a gentleman I had 
never heard of) to the local contrived hysteria over slavery -- as though a 
professional Holocaust denier is the in the same category as a Christian 
minister believing 1 Timothy 6:1-5 -- is nothing more than a thinly 
disguised smear, whether intended or not. Holocaust deniers would be easier 
to fight, so let's hint that this is part of our general Concern about 
Christ Church. The only problem with this is that it is what theologians of 
another era used to call lying.

We would have been easier to fight if we actually were racists. But we are 
not, and that tactic has now been generally abandoned. Oops.

We would have been easier to fight if we actually were holding a conference 
on slavery. But we are not, and that tactic has now been generally 
abandoned, even by the Daily News. Darn.

Now, we would be easier to fight if only ("please, let it be true!") we had 
been the ones to invite Irving to speak. But alas for you guys, I never 
heard of him. Maybe he is coming here because the word has gotten out that 
the good folks of Moscow will believe virtually anything. The last two 
months has given us a great deal of evidence to this effect. If someone 
came to you and said, "Wilson does this or that," what *wouldn't* you 
believe? Would you draw the line at me kicking puppies? Cannibalism? 
Teaching business ethics at the UI? People who are shopping lies about us 
are certainly operating in a seller's market. "Oooo! Can I have one?"

And this brings us to the basic point, yet again. Christ calls us to repent 
of our sins, and this includes the sin of believing lies. One of the ten 
commandments prohibits bearing false witness against your neighbor. And 
like it or not ("Not in our town!") we are your neighbors. If we differ, 
then let us discuss it. Let's debate it. But breaches of the ninth 
commandment are always a fundamental corrosive in the community. Let us 
stop lying about our differences even if it makes a position you reject 
easier to defeat. All such victories are illusory, and the effect on public 
discourse is devastating. Jesus died on the cross in order to forgive sin, 
including this particular sin of slandering those who represent His Word.

Cordially,

Douglas Wilson