[Vision2020] Letter from North Carolina

[Nick Gier]

Greetings:

I've received permission to post this letter from Henry Gerrits, whose wife 
was dismissed by the principal of Cary Christian School where she was an 
elementary school teacher.  I'm still unsure of the principal's connection 
to Wilson, so perhaps someone in that camp could enlighten us.

12/13/2004
Friends of Cary Christian School:

Doug Wilson's letter to the editor 1/11/04 in response to the N&O [News & 
Observer} article about his booklet certainly was not a very robust 
response in defense of his booklet or the use of it at Cary Christian 
School. Perhaps as I suspect he is not able to defend it. He obviously 
tries to sidestep the issue entirely and throw in some humor about not 
being a Neo Confederate. Perhaps he is not officially a Neo Confederate, 
but he certainly assists in promoting their agenda. His co-author Steve 
Wilkens by the way is acknowledged as a senior advisor to the board of 
directors of the League of the South, a well known Neo Confederate 
organization designated as a hate group. Does Doug Wilson not know this or 
just not want you to know this.

The press release from Cary Christian School that reports the booklet was 
withdrawn from use on December 9 in response to learning about footnote 
errors from the N&O is completely ridiculous. Claims of historical 
inaccuracies regarding Doug Wilson's booklet on slavery were documented and 
made known to Doug Wilson in 2002 by an expert in Civil War history. Over 
60 professors signed a plagiarism complaint regarding this book earlier 
this year. Doug Wilson was well aware of these issues and has done nothing 
to correct it so far.

As CCS must follow a Moscow approved curriculum to be accredited, the 
statement that they just learned of these issues from the N&O this past 
week and therefore decided to stop its use is intended only to deceive the 
public as well as the staff and parents of Cary Christian School. If Larry 
Stephenson wants to issue an apology on behalf of the CCS administration 
and authors of this book, he should address more than just missing 
footnotes. He should request forgiveness for misrepresentations and 
inappropriate use of the intellectual property of others, or lying and 
stealing, to use Biblical terms.

To argue as the authors of this booklet do that slaves were treated better 
than we may be led to believe by other historical records is really of no 
consequence considering the negative aspects of slavery on slaves and the 
effect on our nation as a whole. Misrepresenting that the only purpose of 
this book is to present an alternative view of history and denying any 
knowledge of the plagiarism issue shows again that those who lecture others 
the most on issues of the Christian life and proper behavior are themselves 
often the most flagrant violators of the values we respect such as honesty 
and integrity.

If the focus of argument is that the conflict of that period is more about 
constitutional freedoms and states rights as implied in other writings of 
Doug Wilson, then people should read the article by Thomas Alderman, an 
attorney, who has researched historical records of that period. He 
demonstrates with a review of original documents how Confederate states 
clearly intended to continue the defense of treating slaves as property in 
the new confederacy by further institutionalizing slavery and legal 
protections for the practice of slavery in the declaration of secession and 
new constitution.

To tell our community that this book is used only to tell the other side 
and to encourage debate is also ridiculous. Ask your teachers at CCS if 
they have freedom of expression and may raise alternate views regarding 
curriculum matters for example. If you truly want to consider opposing 
views then you need to open and discuss other books besides those by Doug 
Wilson unless CCS is just another outlet for funding and enlarging Doug 
Wilson's empire and enriching Cannon Press which had revenues of over 1 
million dollars last year on sales of Doug Wilson books. Over 100 affiliate 
schools is quite a captive and lucrative market for the Wilson empire.
Perhaps the importance of the Christ Church and its book business has 
already overtaken the importance of the Christian doctrines they were 
founded to promote. Already numerous local pastors whose members have 
children at CCS are expressing concerns that CCS is being changed from a 
non denominational school to one that promotes Christ Church doctrines. 
Open your eyes and take back your school. These folks from the Moscow are 
well on their way to hijacking the school and your faith in order to create 
a Christian version of the Taliban in North Carolina.

We do pray for the school and that it will be restored to what it was 
intended to be, a non denominational school which serves our mainstream 
evangelical Christian community in Cary.

Henry Gerrits


"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be 
discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part 
by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the 
interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual 
life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and 
art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." 
--Max Planck

Nicholas F. Gier
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
http://users.moscow.com/ngier/home/index.htm
208-883-3360/882-9212/FAX 885-8950
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/ift/index.htm

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