[Vision2020] Historical Revisionism and the Trinity Festival

[Joan Opyr]

Nick writes:

"This column has appeared in the on-line magazine New West and will 
appear in the Sandpoint Reader very soon.  My interaction with Pastor 
Lillback has been a model of civil interchange.  Perhaps the good 
pastor can teach Pastor Wilson a few manners during his stay in 
Moscow.  Since the eloquent dressing down that he received from an 
anonymous Christian, I've noticed that Wilson has reduced his name 
calling dramatically. (I'm now just an enemy rather than a banshee.)  
But he has a long way to go to meet the challenge of his kind Christian 
critic."

I'm pleased to report that Nick has become a regular contributor to New 
West's Northern Idaho node.  He's written a review and analysis of 
Michael Hayes' documentary "My Town," and his latest piece is a model 
of truly appropriate (and constructive) theological discourse.  As New 
West's Northern Idaho Editor, I am delighted to have him on board.  He 
has greatly enriched the site with his knowledge and carefully reasoned 
arguments.

About models of civil exchange -- on my drive to Portland yesterday, I 
happened to catch a Pastor Rogers preaching on the lower end of the FM 
dial.  His sermon was taken from Paul, 11 Corinthians and Galations.  A 
few things he had to say interested me greatly -- and, being a closet 
fan of Baptist preaching style, I really couldn't help listening.  
Pastor Rogers is a master of the form.  Every sentence ends with an 
exclamatory "ah," as in "Jesus-ah!"  Rogers preached about the "real 
Jesus" and a "false Jesus," declaring that Paul in II Corinthians 
warned us of a false Jesus to be found in false gospels and false 
ministers.

(For some reason, Rogers specifically castigated the Jehovah's 
Witnesses and the Mormons as worshipping a false Jesus.  I can see why 
a Baptist (or proto-Baptist) preacher might disapprove of the Mormons 
-- Southern Baptists, at least, consider the Mormons polytheists.  This 
has to do with that telestial versus celestial kingdom business.  Also, 
The Book of Mormon, "another testament of Jesus Christ," is an 
insurmountable problem for the Baptists.  It freaks them out like 
nothing else short of Wicca, Catholicism, and lesbians wearing jeans, 
flannel, and Danner steel-toed workboots.  Gay men, on the other hand, 
are A-okay with most Southern Baptist women: someone has to decorate 
their homes and tease their hair.

I must admit that I am puzzled as to why would Rogers slam the 
Jehovah's Witnesses.  My understanding is that the JWs are a sort of 
primitive Primitive Baptists -- very strict, very literalist, not a lot 
of fun at surprise birthday parties.  If anyone can enlighten me about 
this, please do so offlist.  Keely?  Scott?)

Okay, where was I?  Ah yes, Pastor Rogers and II Corinthians.  He 
quoted Verse 4: Am I therefore the enemy because I tell you the truth?  
There has been a lot of talk coming from Christ Church and the Christ 
Church-affliated blogs lately about Doug Wilson's "enemies" and the 
"battle to come."  Doug launched an astonishing attack on the members 
of his own congregation (http://dougwils.com) last week that beat all I 
have ever seen.  He accused members of the church of being traitors and 
turn-coats, weaklings and cowards.  He castigated them for not 
supporting him in his battles; for daring to have opinions and ideas of 
their own; and for not being what Rose would call "lock-step toadies" 
to his particular (and frequently peculiar) interpretation of the 
Bible.  He talked about enemies existing both within and without the 
church, but his focus was on those within.

"Am I therefore your enemy because I tell you the truth?"

I recently re-read "Labour of Love" (which is available on Tom Hansen's 
website, http://www.tomandrodna.com/notonthepalouse) and was struck by 
the difference in tone between its gentle but firm Christian 
remonstrance and Doug's flailing about, his girding up his loins for 
battle, his turning up rocks, searching behind trees, and looking under 
the bed for heathen enemy boogeymen.  I doubt Pastor Rogers and I would 
enjoy one another's company.  He's anti-choice; he's anti-gay; and he 
probably has hair taller than the Empire State Building, with Fay Wray 
and King Kong shellacked to the side, but yesterday he said, "When 
looking for the devil, fail not to look in the pulpit."

Doug is welcome to attack me.  So, too, are his minions -- my dear 
blogstalkers, who give Brother Carl and I a good fifteen minutes of 
free radio material every Sunday -- but when a shepherd begins to 
assault his flock, I begin to worry.  I begin to worry a lot.  I fear 
for those who cannot escape the onslaught for whatever reason, social, 
spiritual, or financial.  Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts 
absolutely.  Doug recently announced that his son, Nathan, was his best 
and wisest advisor.  Nathan is a foolish and sheltered 26 year-old.  He 
edits Doug's magazine, Credenda Agenda, a nightmare publication of 
hateful bigotry, willful ignorance, and distasteful, snotty, immature 
arrogance.  He acquired a few years of nearly-real life experience at 
the margins of the wider world by attending a couple of small, 
sheltered liberal arts colleges, but he came home and entered his 
father's employ.  On the whole, he knows about as much of the world as 
a novice in a nunnery.  Nate's father is his be-all, end-all, his boss 
and his minister, his teacher and his guide, and yet Nate is now the 
man to whom Doug turns for his best and wisest advice?  Nate is a 
filial echo chamber.  This is a sad case of the snake biting its own 
tail . . . when it's not biting its own flock.

"Am I therefore your enemy because I tell you the truth?"

The answer, clearly, is yes.  I don't expect Doug to listen to me.  
Doug doesn't believe I have access to the truth.  I'm not saved.  I 
don't believe in Jesus Christ, and if I did, I wouldn't be a Calvinist. 
  I wouldn't buy into the notion that God created some of us to be saved 
and the rest to be damned.  That's not a god worthy of worship; that's 
a capricious god worthy only of fear and contempt.  But Doug believes 
in this god, and so too, I must assume, do his followers.  When Doug 
attacks those followers -- when he calls them enemies and traitors -- 
they must fear for their salvation.  How extraordinarily cruel their 
minister is -- how cruel, and how contemptuous of his flock.   I am 
sick and sad and sorry for them, and I pray for their deliverance.

(Jerry Falwell says that God doesn't answer the prayers of Jews.  Jerry 
Falwell is a jackass.  God answers the prayers of all of us, just as 
surely as the staff at the Wendy's Drive-Thru answers Jerry's 
late-night Frosty orders.)

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com

PS: Though I will continue with the blogstalker update on The Auntie 
Establishment & Brother Carl Show (when and if any of their bloggy 
nonsense amuses Brother Carl and me), I am hereby unilaterally 
declaring a Sunday night blackout on Doug Wilson and Christ Church.  No 
news, no jokes, no nothing about the BM (Big Man) of New St. Andrews, 
Anselm House, Logos School, Credenda Agenda or Christ Church.  If you 
tune in expecting to hear it, you will be disappointed.  For the time 
being, I am done.  Finished.  Finito.  The sign is up: Do Not Feed the 
Bear of Moscow.  He doesn't want our secular berries -- he's got 
parishioners to eat.

PPS: Another reminder that Brother Carl's and my show is now on KRFP, 
92.5 FM from 3 to 5 PM on Sundays, rather than 5 to 7 PM.  This is 
because Carl is an old man.  Don't let his youthful, sexy voice fool 
you; he's actually 107 years old, and not only does he want 1.7 more 
beers before dinner, he wants to be in bed and asleep by 7:30.  This is 
so he can get up at 4 AM and wake all the area roosters.  Without a 
nudge from Brother Carl, they might forget to crow.

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