[Vision2020] Moscow 'Culture Clash' Presented on Video

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (June 24, 2005) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with a "well done" to
the DN's Alexis Bacharach.

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Moscow 'culture clash' presented on video

By Alexis Bacharach
Daily News staff writer

Michael Hayes, like many community members, was offended when he read a
local pastor's short work on the history of slavery in the antebellum South.

Hayes, a social scientist at Washington State University, took it upon
himself to create a documentary in 2003 exposing what he believed was
negligent and poor scholarship. 

"Southern Slavery: As It Was," co-authored by Moscow Christ Church pastor
Doug Wilson and Louisiana pastor Steve Wilkins, suggests that pre-Civil War
slavery wasn't as bad as historians make it out to be and that, in some
cases, blacks were better off under the institution of slavery than they
ever have been. 

More than 300 community members showed up Thursday night at the Kenworthy
Performing Arts Centre in Moscow to see Hayes' documentary on Wilson,
Wilkins, the booklet and the ensuing culture clash that began two years ago.


"This is crazy," Hayes said after sponsors announced the theater reached
capacity and many people were turned away. "I'm a bit overwhelmed. I had no
idea what I would end up with when I started. ...I planned on showing this
to my students and maybe presenting it at conferences." 

The basis for the film began in October 2003 with some anonymous Wilson and
Wilkins' booklet and a history conference featuring the pastors at the
University of Idaho. 

The community atmosphere grew tense in the months that followed. Protests
were organized and petitions were signed to tell Wilson and his associates
their views on various issues including public education and homosexuality
were not welcome in Moscow. 

"I started out wanting to do an exposé on the booklet, but then I started
thinking about the culture-war aspect of the controversy," Hayes said during
a question-answer segment after the film. "If you read the booklet it's not
about slavery. It's about patriarchy and maintaining power." 

Hayes' film examines what has gone on in the community over the past two
years and features interviews with Wilson, New Saint Andrews College
President Roy Atwood, local human rights advocates Joann Muneta and Connie
Driver and others. 

Wilson said several times in filmed segments with Hayes that his booklet and
slavery provided liberals a long-awaited means to attack Christ Church and
conservative Christianity in general. 

Muneta and Driver, in their filmed interviews, said their attack was on
Wilson's views and political agenda to take over Moscow. 

"Mr. Wilson and the rest of those people have no problem telling us what
their agenda is," Driver said after the film. "We came together in a very
unified way to stand up for human rights." 

Audience member Yolanda Suarez thanked Hayes and others for exposing the
booklet and standing up for the rights of women, racial minorities and gay
people. 

"As a minority, I was afraid to stand up to Wilson myself," she said. "I
wanted to make a film to expose these things too, but I didn't know what
would happen if I approached them. It gives me a great sense of hope that
people came here tonight and that some actually had to be turned away. I
believe in God, but the God I believe in doesn't subscribe to color ..." 

Many audience members asked Hayes' opinion on the controversy, Wilson's
views, and other related issues. 

"I found the booklet to be pretty offensive and that's how this film
started. ...I told them I'm going to pin this booklet to the wall," he said.
"From my perspective, I just listened to what people had to say. I didn't
need to insert my view because it wasn't appropriate for the film. I think
everybody's words say what they need to say. The story told itself." 

Hayes said on one hand the community reacted to the booklet and the history
conference exactly as it should have, but there were times the protests
crossed the line. 

"There has been some bad behavior from the left throwing words around like
racism without any thoughtfulness. ...I unsubscribed from Vision 2020
because I couldn't take it anymore," he said. "I think Moscow has done the
right thing making this part of the public discussion. It will work itself
out. There have been more than one controversy in the history of this town."


* Alexis Bacharach can be reached at (208) 882-5561 ext. 234, or by e-mail
at abacharach at dnews.com.

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of
others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of
hope."

Robert F. Kennedy
(1925-1968, American Attorney General, Senator)