[Vision2020] North of Riggins (but close to LaLa Land)

Carl Westberg carlwestberg846@hotmail.com
Thu, 13 May 2004 14:34:53 -0700


This inspires me to offer a business deal to Sister Joan.  Rather than our 
two churches battling for the collective heart and mind of Moscow, I propose 
a merger of the two, Joan.  Last time I heard, you were boasting of a 
membership boom which brought your total flock to 8.  My membership stopped 
eroding, and I'm proud to say it's stayed quite stable of late.  1 member.  
8 plus 1 equals, what, 9?  Is that right?  Strength in numbers, Joan.  We 
can call it the Church of Carl and Joan.  I like the sound of it.  After a 
while, if we want, we can start a college.  Carl and Joan's College.   I'll 
teach math, since I just demonstrated my acumen.  I'll also take on physics, 
microbiology, brain surgery, Swedish, and how to properly prepare lutefisk.  
You can take the rest of the classes.  Get back to me soon, before I offer 
this opportunity to someone else.                                            
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
        Carl Westberg Jr.


>From: DonaldH675@aol.com
>To: vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] North of Riggins (but close to LaLa Land)
>Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 16:58:22 EDT
>
>Visionaries:
>
>I don't regularly follow Doug Wilson's blog, so my thanks to Nick Gier for
>forwarding DW's blog response to Nick's letter to TRACS.  (As an aside, I 
>have
>emailed Dr. Fitzgerald, executive director of TRACS, to ask if it is 
>routine to
>share confidential mail with his paying clients.  If so, it seems to me 
>that
>one might justifiably question the integrity of the process.)  But I 
>digress.
>
>Humor is widely recognized as a way to defuse and dismiss a legitimate
>argument.  The king of rhetoric (at least in his own mind) Doug Wilson is 
>certainly
>aware of this technique.  So, while we are all having a good chuckle with
>Doug, I suppose Doug can have a belly laugh with us when (and if) he is 
>willing to
>address these questions and remarks.
>
>1.  Among the 12 faculty members of NSA (including Doug himself) five are
>related by blood or marriage to Doug.  Hummmm!  Doug is a permanent member 
>of the
>five member NSA Board of Trustees: Doug Jones, (Chair, permanent [board]
>member, and Christ Church elder); David Hatcher; Stan Miller, (also a 
>Christ
>Church elder); Matt Whitling (also a Christ Church elder) and of course, 
>Douglas
>Wilson (permanent member, pastor) The extra special elite "Executive 
>Council" of
>NSA, a three member group, finds our old friend and D.W.'s alter ego, Doug
>Jones, the ubiquitous Doug Wilson, and Roy A. Atwood, Dean of NSA. Frankly, 
>this
>governing body calls for a Double Hummmmm   Have to say this is not exactly
>what I would call a fair and balanced faculty or governing body.  But then,
>IMO, it's not about fair and balanced and it is a whole lot about Doug's 
>need to
>control staff, church elders, and family. And, I have to hand it to him, 
>he's
>well positioned for those time consuming tasks.
>
>2.  Is Canon Press a vanity press for the NSA faculty?  Well, it certainly
>isn't an academic press, nor, in fairness, do I think it even pretends to 
>be.
>Mostly it seems to be an outlet for the seemingly endless stream of
>consciousness flowing from Wilson Inc. psyche's.  Once again, there is the 
>requisite
>number of Wilson's, and Christ Church elders in positions of authority.
>  Doug Jones, Editor, and Manager, DW's aide-de-camp at ruling NSA ; and 
>Patch
>Blakey, Business Manager, and Exec. Director of Wilson Inc. school
>accrediting business, the Association of Classical Christian Schools;
>Credenda Agenda: Doug Wilson, Editor; Doug Jones, Sr. Editor; Nathan 
>Wilson,
>Managing Editor.
>
>  3.   "It was the UI that spent (some sixteen) thousands of dollars to
>generate opposition to Credenda's history conference,"  (Triple Hummmm)
>  Perhaps Doug will share the evidence he has amassed that documents this
>assertion.  I know UI didn't pay me a thin dime for my time and by golly I 
>was as
>invested as anyone I know in exposing this pretentious little caricature of 
>a “
>history” conference.  So, Doug, do you have any suggestions to whom I 
>might
>direct my invoice - "they" seemed to have overlooked sending me my paycheck
>
>Lastly, probably very few folks give a fig if Doug wants to run a Mom and 
>Pop
>version of a British college in Moscow. Many of us object when he tries to
>pass NSA off as a replica of the early days of Oxford with a straight face. 
>If I
>were on the NSA faculty (well, probably not so likely) and I cared about 
>the
>well being of NSA over the long term, believed in its mission statement, 
>and
>wanted to build a credible institution (which, speaking only for myself), I
>believe the larger community would welcome, I would surely ask Doug to 
>confine
>himself to the pulpit and stop masquerading to gullible youth and church 
>members
>as Moscow's replica of a Renaissance man.  And, I'd beg him to stop the
>braying attempts at patronizing humor featured on his blog. (That, as they 
>know, is
>an old problem that the larger Reformed community has been objecting to for
>years.) Otherwise, assuming NSA students are as well educated and sharp as 
>they
>claim to be, they'll see right through him too.  Actually, now that I think
>about it, when did the elders and congregation insert into Doug's job
>description "Be in charge of everything"?  As a gesture of good will 
>perhaps Doug could
>pass along the manipulations that led to such an all encompassing charge. I
>suspect most of us would like to have that written into our job 
>descriptions as
>well.
>
>Rose Huskey
>
>Once you lose integrity everything else is easy.

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