[Vision2020] Correction (plus a fresh, if pointless, rant)

[Joan Opyr]

Just noticed that I misspelled Galatians in the post below.  Before 
Heirloom or Studly hop on me for my glaring ignorance, that was a typo, 
son.  A typo.  Keep your eye on the ball, son.  Eye on the ball.  Eye. 
Ball.  Eyeball.  That's a joke, son.  A funny.  A ha-ha.  Get it?

Sorry.   I've been possessed again by the spirit of Foghorn Leghorn.  
It happens all the time.

Posting to you from Portland, Oregon, I am,

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

PS: I'm enjoying Portland, though I have to admit that, in my opinion, 
there are far too many men here wearing brightly-colored Ikea rubber 
clogs.  I have a thing against men in clogs.  It's not rational; it's 
not reasonable; it's none of my business.  I just think they look 
dorky.  Shoes with laces, boys, shoes with laces!  Get 'em on, damn it! 
  Get 'em on!

On Aug 4, 2005, at 2:09 PM, Joan Opyr wrote:

> 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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