[Vision2020] Re: Doug's Response to the Open Letter
J Ford
privatejf32 at hotmail.com
Fri Jun 10 16:37:56 PDT 2005
Please note how he focuses on who the writer is and not on the content of
the letter?
Hmmmm...priorities being what they are, I guess this should be expected.
J :)
The Ultimate High Ground
Topic: Moscow Diversity Cleansing
This morning I received a copy of a six-page open letter to me, as well as
to the members of Christ Church. It was entitled "A Labor of Love for Pastor
Douglas Wilson and Church Church." The letter was, of course, anonymous.
The central point of the letter was that the Word of God demands a life of
love from the followers of Christ, which is, of course, true. This is the
ultimate rhetorical high ground, and when it is faithfully applied it ought
to be the ultimate high ground. But the central application of the letter
was that I and the members of Christ Church have rejected this central
biblical duty, and are living out lives that are characterized by the
opposite of love. In the course of the letter I was accused of multiple
sins: "Douglas Wilson is impatient and unkind; Douglas Wilson is boastful;
He is arrogant and rude. His life is lived on the principle of insisting on
his own way; all the while, when people cross him, acting irritable or
resentful, he has "not been nice," he has "persisted in self-conceit and
impudence,"Pastor Wilson, you are not qualified to be an elder, bishop, or
presbyter," and much more along those lines.
How is the anonymous nature of this attack justified? "The anonymous nature
of this piece is intended to keep the focus on the Scriptures, and not on
the weak points of their collector. I don't want the Scriptures to be set
aside by my identity, so whether I am a concerned evangelical, an embrassed
member from your own church or the CREC, or a Presbyterian who just wants to
edify the Reformed world, it should not matter . . ."
Keep the focus on the Scriptures? I am reminded of St. Paul's initial
response in front of the Sanhedrin, before he knew the identity of the high
priest. "Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall:
for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten
contrary to the law?" (Acts 23:3). How can we keep the focus on the
Scriptures through anonymous accusations, when the Scriptures do not permit
anonymous accusations? Scripture does not permit an accusation against an
elder except on the testimony of two or three witnesses (1 Tim. 5: 19),
witnesses who are willing to be accountable and on the record for their
words. In addition to the requirement of independent verification,
Deuteronomy 19 also establishes the foundational principle of justice that
holds the accuser accountable for false accusations. This is because we live
in a world where false witnesses exist. The ninth commandment is dedicated
to the problem of dealing with false witnesses. "And the judges shall make
diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and
hath testified falsely against his brother; then shall ye do unto him, as he
had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away
from among you" (vv. 18-19).
My anonymous accuser is quite right that we do not know who he is. But
notice that among all the options he listed for his possible identity, there
were none that would disqualify him as a false witness. Why did he not
suggest those possible options? He is right that we don't know who he is.
But he limited the options far too drastically, and we need to expand them a
little. We don't know if he is a concerned evangelical or in the paid employ
of the Southern Poverty Law Center. We don't know if he is a Presbyterian
bent on edifying the Reformed world or a lesbian upset over my stand on
homosexual marriage. We don't know if he is a disgruntled member of our
church or a card-carrying member of the secularist Intoleristas. Thirty
seconds of mature reflection should identify all the salient reasons why all
anonymous accusations should be immediately round filed.
The accuser wants to remain anonymous to avoid discussion of the "weak
points of the collector." This is a person who reserves the right to discuss
at length the "weak points" of others, but his weak points must be off the
table. They would only be a distraction from the real point at issue, which
apparently consists of ignoring the beams in his own eyes. But let us
consider for a minute. Is it possible that his weak points might be such as
to disqualify him as a witness entirely? Might his weak point be that he has
never met me, and only knows what he has read in what he thought was a
reliable internet forum? Might his weak point be that he was disciplined by
our church for chronic unfaithfulness to his wife, and he is still bitter
about it? Might his weak point be that in the controversies of the last
several years, he has been the chief offender against the law of charity,
and for people to know that he wrote these soaring words about love would
produce nothing but gales of laughter? Well, we don't know, because the
anonymous accuser is the one who insists that everyone else be accountable
to Scripture as he understands it, but who absolutely refuses to be
accountable himself.
Those who understand Scripture know what to do with anonymous accusations.
But people still make anonymous accusations because, at some level, it still
works with some people. There are too many Christians in the middle who do
not yet understand what the Bible teaches about handling anonymous charges.
And so I write for the sake of those Christians who are open to what the
Bible says about this, but who have not had to work through it before.
So I am not responding to this open letter because I am "touchy" about the
charges in it. Many charges are brought against me in this letter, but I am
not ashamed on that account. Jesus said to rejoice and be glad when this
kind of thing happens. And in line with some of the passages cited in this
letter, I have asked for God's blessing, God's way, on the one who wrote all
this against me. In the midst of a number of scurrilous charges, I am
mentioned by name about 21 times. The accuser's name, however, is entirely
hidden in the shadows. I am not ashamed of any of these words brought
against me. The one who wrote them, however, is ashamed to be identified
with any of them. So I have asked for God's blessing on this person, and one
of the greatest blessings I can imagine for him is to be brought to the
place where he no longer needs to be embarrassed about signing his name to
what he writes.
J ;)
>From: "Art Deco" <deco at moscow.com>
>To: "Vision 2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] An Open Letter
>Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:32:13 -0700
>
> Rose, et al,
>
>
>
> I do not read Christ Church Cult Master Douglas Wilson's web-blot.
>I leave it to more diligent scholars to post items of interest from that
>excrementitious blot on Christianity on Vision 2020. Therefore, I do not
>know what his response to the ostensible Christian who wrote Labor of Love
>is.
>
>
>
> If anyone has time and feel it is worth it, perhaps they can post
>Wilson's response.
>
>
>
> However, I note the third paragraph from the end of Labor of Love is
>the following exhortation to the apparently spiritually vacuous Wilson:
>
>
>
> "God may perhaps grant that you, Pastor Wilson, would find peace in
>repentance, that you would seek out all those that you have treated in a
>way unbecoming to a Christian and ask their forgiveness."
>
>
>
> As you know I am a neither a Christian nor a believer, so I play by
>different rules that the author(ess) of Labor of Love ostensibly does.
>Hence, I doubt the author(ess) will approve of the following direct-to-the
>point response to your post which included a copy of Labor of Love:
>
>
>
>
>
> For those of you with short memories, the following very singular
>correction appeared a few months ago at the behest of Wilson in the Daily
>News:
>
> __________________________________________
>
>
>
> ACCURACY MATTERS
>
>
>
> Christ Church pastor Doug Wilson was incorrectly quoted in the
>weekend paper due to a Daily News error.
>
>
>
> In the front page article headlined, "Both sides point fingers; can
>there be
>
> a middle ground?" Wilson was quoted as saying:
>
>
>
> "I've never been in anything like this, and I've never changed my
>views on anything."
>
>
>
> What he actually said was:
>
>
>
> "I've never been in anything like this, and I've never changed.
>I've never changed what I do, [sic] I've not changed anything."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> When anyone says:
>
>
>
> "I've never changed. I've never changed what I do, [sic] I've not
>changed anything."
>
>
>
> Most would take the ordinary meaning of this most curious and
>revealing utterance as:
>
>
>
> "I have never made a mistake!!!"
>
>
>
> For those Christians who believe that in some unfathomable,
>non-linguistically-intelligible/expressible way their alleged God, alleged
>Holy Ghost, and Jesus are one and the same, the only being who could assert
>that she/he/it has never made a mistake is one of the incarnations of GOD
>HIMSELF.
>
>
>
> Hence, the above quote from Cult Master Wilson is equivalent to
>saying:
>
>
>
> "I am God!!!"
>
>
>
> [Can you say "Are we dealing with severe mental health problems
>here?"?]
>
>
>
>
>
> Hence, my guess is that Wilson will blow off the invitation of the
>author(ess) of Labor of Love to behave like a Christian but continue in his
>invariable, egomaniacal, megalomaniacal ways and with his apodictic
>rantings where he is absolutely correct and all those who disagree are
>hopeless, ignorant, disposable, lost souls forever.
>
>
>
>
>
> However, in the delusional Wilson's defense, one could say he does
>resemble in one very pivotal way a certain Greek God: Narcissus*.
>
>
>
>
> Wayne A. Fox
> 1009 Karen Lane
> PO Box 9421
> Moscow, ID 83843
>
> (208) 882-7975
> waf at moscow.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Narcissus is remembered for having fallen in love with himself.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
> From: DonaldH675 at aol.com
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 12:41 PM
> Subject: [Vision2020] An Open Letter
>
>
> Dear Visionaries:
>
> The attached email was forwarded to me this morning by an anonymous
>author. Apparently it was also sent to Douglas Wilson and members of the
>Christ Church congregation. I would describe it an exhortation to return
>to scriptural behavior when involved in contentious situations. I do not
>know if it will be a blessing to the congregation, you can draw your own
>conclusions about Doug's response. <dougwils.com>
> "The Ultimate High Ground"
> Topic: Moscow Diversity Cleansing
>
> On a personal level, I say in truth, that whoever wrote this piece is
>indeed standing in the Light. I thank him/her for their wise counsel and
>will try to act/respond to the challenging days ahead in a manner that is
>appropriate and honorable. (I also wish they would write/publish more. I
>would like to read more of his/her work.) And I reiterate, I have no idea
>who wrote this, I had no part in it.
>
> Rose Huskey
>
>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> _____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
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> mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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>_____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> http://www.fsr.net
> mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
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